Privacy

Benji is a personal AI companion you text, operated by Skynet Ventures (“we”). This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. Benji is in beta, by invitation.

What we collect

• Your phone number or messaging handle, and your invitation.
• Your messages with Benji, and what Benji remembers to help you, such as your name, city, time zone and preferences.
• Your reminders, tasks and approvals, and a record of what Benji did for you.
• Information from accounts you choose to connect, such as Google.
• Usage counts and technical measurements such as timings and error codes, which do not include what you wrote.

How we use it

To run Benji for you: to answer and act on what you ask, remember what helps, deliver messages, keep the service secure and apply usage limits. We do not sell or rent your data, we show no ads, and we do not use your content to train AI models.

Who we share it with

• Companies that run parts of Benji for us: cloud hosting and storage, AI model providers, a messaging provider that carries iMessage, a hosted browser service, a calling service and a weather data service. We choose AI model providers that do not train on your content. A list of these companies is available on request at privacy@benji.bot.
• Speech services, for voice notes: when Benji listens to a voice note you send, it is turned into text, handled and kept like a message you typed, and a reply Benji speaks is turned from its text into audio, which the messaging provider delivers. We use these services only where they do not keep or train on what they process.
• Apple, Signal and your mobile carrier, to deliver your messages.
• Google, for Benji’s Google Maps features: when you ask for a place or a travel time, Google receives what is needed to answer, such as the search and the area, or the start and the destination. Google handles it under the Google Privacy Policy, and your use of those features is subject to the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service.
• Other people, businesses or another person’s Benji, when you approve it, for example to share your availability, make a booking or place a call.
• A model service of your own, if you set Benji up to use one. It receives what Benji needs to answer you, including data from Google if you connected it, and handles it under its own terms.
• Others when the law requires it.

Each person’s data is kept separate and encrypted.

Your Google account

Connecting Google is optional. If you connect it, Benji asks for this access and uses it only to do what you ask:

• Calendar: read your events, and create, change or delete events on calendars you own, with your approval.
• Gmail: read your mail. Benji does not send mail from your Gmail account.
• Contacts: read your contacts, to find the person you name.

Benji shares Google data only as described above. We do not sell it, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not use it to develop, improve or train generalized AI or machine-learning models. No person at Skynet Ventures reads it unless you ask us to for support, or security or the law requires it.

Benji’s use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

You can disconnect Google at any time by telling Benji, or from your Google account’s permissions.

How long we keep it

• Conversations: for the period you choose, three months unless you change it.
• What Benji remembers, your reminders and your connected accounts: until you remove them or delete your account.
• Records of what Benji did for you: until you delete your account.

When you delete your account, we delete your data and keep a record that the account was deleted. Your receipt lists what was deleted and anything still waiting to be removed. Copies already in your own Messages app, and copies some of the companies above keep under their own terms, such as the messaging provider’s, Apple’s or your carrier’s, are not removed.

Your choices

• Ask Benji “what do you know about me?” to see what it remembers.
• Remove a memory by sending “forget” and the code Benji shows beside it, on iMessage. The messages it came from stay in your conversation history until that conversation is deleted.
• Change how long conversations are kept.
• Delete your account. You get a receipt.

For any other request about your data, write to privacy@benji.bot.

Age, changes and contact

Benji is for adults: you must be 18 or older. When this policy changes in a way that matters, Benji tells you in your conversation before the change applies. Questions go to Skynet Ventures at privacy@benji.bot.