Privacy Policy

Overview

Last updated: November 7, 2026

Karui classifies notifications on your iPhone. The app does not use an account and sends no analytics to us. The Private Cloud Sorting feature, which setup offers turned on and you can turn off at any time, sends limited data to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute as described below. If you use Karui for Mac, the two apps exchange data through your own iCloud account, as described below. Karui Cloud Sorting, an invite-only feature that stays off unless you accept an invite, sends limited data through a server of ours to OpenAI, as described below.

Data the app handles

• Notification fields passed to Karui by the Shortcuts automations you create.
• For selected VIP contacts, an on-device snapshot of name, email addresses, and phone numbers. Manual VIPs store the name you enter.
• Upcoming calendar event title and time context, read on-device.
• Your policy settings and local notification history.
• With Karui for Mac, links, read marks, and sender hashes from the Mac, notifications only the Mac received if you send them to your iPhone, and, if you turn it on, your History and sorting settings sent to the Mac, all through your iCloud account.

On-device processing and storage

Classification uses Apple’s on-device Foundation Models when available, with a deterministic local fallback. Notification, VIP, and calendar context is processed on-device. VIP data, settings, and history are stored locally. If you turn on Private Cloud Sorting, Karui sends a notification’s text and app name, whether the app is one of your important apps, your names, and your sorting terms to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, which returns a classification. Karui asks Private Cloud Compute directly when it can, and through your Karui Shortcut while Apple Intelligence on your iPhone is busy; Karui for Mac asks through a Shortcut of your own on the Mac. By default this happens only when the on-device model could not sort the notification. With When to Ask set to Before Alerting, it happens for every notification the on-device model sorts, and when you rerun a classification in Karui. Notifications Karui decides by its own rules (from your important contacts, mentioning you, containing a one-time code, or matching your urgent terms), VIP contact details, and calendar events are never sent. Apple describes Private Cloud Compute’s privacy protections here.

Karui Cloud Sorting (invite-only)

Karui Cloud Sorting is invite-only and stays off unless you open an invite link and turn it on. With it on, Karui sends the same data Private Cloud Sorting does, for every notification Apple’s on-device model would sort: the notification’s text and app name, whether the app is one of your important apps, your names, and your sorting terms. It goes to Karui’s server (hosted on Vercel), which passes it through Vercel’s AI Gateway to OpenAI’s decision model and returns only a category and its probabilities.

Our server stores nothing and never logs notification text; its logs hold only each request’s status, the invite’s ID, and how long it took. Every request asks Vercel’s AI Gateway for zero data retention, and zero retention is also required for all of our gateway’s requests. Vercel says its gateway keeps no prompts or outputs, and lists OpenAI among the providers it has zero-retention agreements with, though OpenAI may still keep content its safety checks flag. Unlike Private Cloud Compute, these are the companies’ commitments, which your iPhone can’t verify.

Notifications Karui decides by its own rules (from your important contacts, mentioning you, containing a one-time code, matching your urgent terms, or reminding you of your own events), notifications from senders you’ve silenced, VIP contact details, and calendar events are never sent. The invite code is kept in your iPhone’s Keychain and isn’t backed up to other devices. You can turn Karui Cloud Sorting off, or remove the invite, in Settings → Karui Cloud.

No data collection, sharing, or tracking by the app

Karui does not track you across apps and websites, and sends no analytics to us. Except for Karui Cloud Sorting, described above, it does not transmit app data to us, collect it on a server, or share it with third parties; with Karui Cloud Sorting, OpenAI and Vercel process notifications only to sort them, and nothing is stored on our server. Apple and source apps may separately process data under their own terms when their features or services are used, including Private Cloud Compute when Private Cloud Sorting is on, and iCloud when you use Karui for Mac.

Connections to Apple

Apart from Karui Cloud Sorting, described above, Karui’s own code makes no network requests of its own; the connections here are Apple’s frameworks working on Karui’s behalf. With Private Cloud Sorting on, Apple’s Foundation Models framework sends Karui’s requests to Private Cloud Compute, as described above. With Karui for Mac, it reads and writes your iCloud account through Apple’s CloudKit, as described below. Apple’s App Store framework, which Karui uses to check whether it’s a TestFlight build, occasionally contacts Apple’s App Store (a domain under itunes.apple.com) and Apple’s certificate validation service (such as ocsp2.apple.com). iOS lists these under Karui in App Privacy Report. They verify Karui’s App Store download and don’t carry your notifications, contacts, calendar events, or settings. Apple chooses these domain names and may change them.

If you turn on translation, iOS may download Apple’s language packs; translation itself happens on your iPhone. Private Cloud Sorting requests Karui can’t make itself are sent by iOS on behalf of your shortcut, as described above. Technical Note KN004 shows how to check all of this yourself.

Karui for Mac and iCloud

Karui for Mac is a separate, optional app. When it runs on a Mac signed in to the same iCloud account, the two apps exchange data through the private database of your iCloud account, which only your devices can read. There is no server of ours in between, and nothing is shared with anyone else. If you don’t use Karui for Mac, the iPhone app writes nothing to iCloud.

From the Mac: a fingerprint of each notification (a hash of its app, title, and text, not the text itself), a link to the message or email it came from, and whether you’ve read it, changed its category, or deleted it on the Mac. The Mac’s name and app version, so the iPhone knows a Mac is active. While you’re using the Mac, only that you are and when, so Karui on your iPhone sends its alerts quietly; “Quiet your iPhone while you use this Mac” in Karui for Mac’s settings turns this off. If you turn on “Alert for senders you’ve written to”, hashes of the addresses, numbers, and names of people you’ve written to in Spark and Messages on the Mac, never the addresses themselves. If you turn on “Send notifications only this Mac received to your iPhone”, the title, subtitle, and text of a notification only the Mac received, when it arrived, and the Mac’s own decision about it, with the text and the decision’s reason stored with end-to-end encryption, so Karui on your iPhone can categorize it and alert you. Links are deleted after a day.

From the iPhone, only with “Show History on your Mac” turned on: Karui’s decision about each notification (its category, the model’s interest, when it was sorted, and whether it’s unread) with the app’s name, and the notification’s title, text, subtitle, sender, and recipients, so the Mac can show your History. The text, reason, subtitle, sender, and recipients are stored with end-to-end encryption, which Apple cannot read. Records are updated for a day and deleted when you delete the item from History; the Mac keeps its copy for a month. With the same setting on, the iPhone also sends its sorting settings, including your VIPs’ names, numbers, and email addresses but not their photos, your names and terms, and what Karui learned from your fixes as hashes of short pieces of text, never the text, all with end-to-end encryption, so Karui for Mac sorts notifications as your iPhone does. Turning the setting off deletes them from iCloud, and Karui for Mac then deletes its copy.

Apple processes iCloud data under its own terms. Karui for Mac’s page describes what it reads on the Mac.

Statistics from Apple

Apple gives us aggregated App Store statistics, such as how many people view Karui’s App Store page and how many download it. If you’ve turned on Share With App Developers in iOS Settings (you can turn it off in Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements), Apple also shares aggregated usage figures, such as how often Karui is opened and how many devices use it, and crash reports. These come from Apple, not from Karui, and don’t identify you. The karui.jp website doesn’t track which links you click.

Permissions

• Contacts: used when you choose VIPs.
• Calendar: used to read upcoming event title and time context on-device for classification.
• Notifications: used to rebroadcast important notifications.

You can change permissions in iOS Settings.

Retention and deletion

Data remains on your device until you remove it through available app controls, reset settings or history, or delete the app. You can remove VIPs in the app. Deleting Karui removes its local app data through the standard iOS process, subject to how iOS manages backups and system data.

Children and general use

Karui is a general-purpose utility and is not directed to children. Because the app does not collect or transmit personal data to us, we do not knowingly collect children’s personal data through the app.

Changes to this policy

November 7th, 2026: Described Karui Cloud Sorting, an invite-only feature that sends limited notification data through a server of ours to OpenAI to sort it.

November 2nd, 2026: Second Opinion is now called Private Cloud Sorting. Only the name changed.

October 19th, 2026: While you’re using Karui for Mac, the Mac tells your iPhone only that you are, so Karui there alerts quietly.

October 17th, 2026: Second Opinion is now offered turned on during setup, and Karui asks Private Cloud Compute directly when it can. Described what Karui for Mac and your iPhone send each other so the Mac can sort notifications with your iPhone’s settings.

October 15th, 2026: Described how Karui and Karui for Mac exchange data through your iCloud account: what each sends, what is end-to-end encrypted, and how long it is kept.

September 30th, 2026: Described the connections Apple’s App Store framework makes from Karui, what they’re for, and translation language downloads.

September 29th, 2026: Described the aggregated statistics Apple provides, and that this website doesn’t track link clicks.

September 28th, 2026: Described Second Opinion’s When to Ask setting, and that notifications Karui decides by its own rules are never sent.

September 26th, 2026: Described the new Second Opinion feature, which is off by default, which sends limited notification data to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute when turned on. Described what is sent and what never is.

September 21st, 2026: Minor changes and clarifications.

We may update this policy as Karui changes. We will revise the date above and describe material changes clearly on this page or through an appropriate app or release notice.

Contact

Questions may be sent to [email protected].