Privacy

What Thread reads, keeps, and sends.

Thread sits around some of the most personal writing you do. So this page says exactly what happens to it — including the parts that aren't flattering — and every statement here matches what the product actually does.

Last updated 6 October 2026.

At a glance

What does Thread read?: The AI conversations you choose to connect: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity in your browser; AI tools that keep history on your Mac (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and others); and anything you select and send yourself.
What does it store?: The full text of those conversations, the ideas, decisions and open questions found in them, and the numeric “meaning-vectors” used to connect related thinking. Plus your email (if you add one), your plan, and a sign-in for each device.
What leaves your Mac?: The text of a conversation goes to Thread's server and from there to Anthropic, which reads it to find ideas. Short idea statements may go to Voyage AI to compute meaning-vectors. API keys and similar secrets are removed on your device first.
Are raw conversations kept?: Yes — in full, for as long as your account exists, or until you delete the conversation or the account.
Are the vectors kept?: Yes, for as long as the conversation they came from. They go when it goes.
Can Thread rebuild something you deleted?: No. Deleting a conversation removes its messages and everything built from them; deleting the account removes everything. The one exception is time-limited: server backups can hold deleted data for up to 7 days, and nothing restores it into your account.
Does Thread store your logins?: Not your ChatGPT, Claude or Google logins. To bring in your history, the extension uses your signed-in session on that site; it stays in your browser, goes only to that site, and is never sent to Thread. Automated tests check this.
Is your data used to train models?: Thread does not train models on your data, and has opted out of training use at its processors where they offer it (details below). It sends text to them only to get a result back for you.
How do you delete everything?: Thread for Mac → Settings → Your data → Delete everything. It lists what will be removed, and you get a receipt.

The honest limit

Thread is not end-to-end encrypted, and we won't call it that. To turn a conversation into ideas, Thread's server has to read the text, and a model at Anthropic reads it too. That means Thread, the company, could technically read what it stores. What we do about it: we remove secrets before upload, we keep only what the product needs, we tell you exactly what that is, and we let you take it all back out — or delete it — in one step.

What Thread reads

In your browser: the extension reads the conversation you have open on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity — the messages, who said them, when, and the page address. It does not run on other sites. Right-click “Capture in Thread” on a selection works anywhere, and reads only the text you selected, only when you click.
Bringing in history: when you ask it to, the extension reads your past ChatGPT or Claude conversations through the site's own pages, using your signed-in session there. It sends only the visible messages. ChatGPT's hidden custom instructions, which you set up once and never typed into the chat, are not sent.
On your Mac: Thread for Mac can read, read-only, the history files of AI tools that keep them locally (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot Chat, Jan, Ollama, LM Studio, Cursor). Each has an on/off switch in Settings. A tool's existing history is not sent unless you choose to recover it; after that, new conversations are captured as they change. The Services menu item “Capture in Thread” sends the text you select when you choose it.

What leaves your device

Secrets are removed first. API keys, access tokens, private keys and similar credentials are replaced with a placeholder on your device, before anything is uploaded, and again on the server. This catches well-known formats; it can't catch a password written out in a sentence, so don't paste those.
Then the conversation text goes to Thread's server, which runs on Railway.
Anthropic receives the text of a conversation so a Claude model can find the ideas, decisions and open questions in it. On Pro, the “continue from here” line in a hand-off is also written by a Claude model. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, inputs and outputs sent through its API are not used to train its models by default, and Anthropic's data retention page says conversation content isn't retained by default. It lists exceptions: some models require 30-day retention, content its safety systems flag can be kept for up to two years, and data may be kept where the law requires it.
Voyage AI may receive short idea statements Thread derived — not whole conversations — so it can compute meaning-vectors that connect related thinking. Where your Mac can compute these itself, it does, and nothing is sent. Voyage's terms let it use submitted data to train its own models unless the customer opts out. Thread opted out on 6 October 2026; under Voyage's terms, data sent after an opt-out is deleted once it has been processed. Anything sent before that date falls under Voyage's earlier default terms.
Paddle handles payment. Your card details never reach Thread.

The on-device model in Thread for Mac drafts what a capture is and keeps a local copy of your ideas so search and recall work offline. It does not stop a capture from syncing to your account once you're online.

What Thread stores, and for how long

Your conversations, in full — the messages, roles, timestamps and page address — kept while your account exists, or until you delete them.
What Thread derived: ideas, the thoughts behind them, decisions, open questions, the meaning-vectors, and the corrections you've made (when you tell Thread something wasn't an idea, it remembers that so it doesn't come back).
Your account: your email if you've added one, your plan and subscription status, and a sign-in for each device (stored as a one-way hash, not the sign-in itself).
Backups: the server's disk is backed up on a rolling basis. Deleted data can remain in those backups for up to 7 days, then it is gone. Nothing restores it into your account.

You can see exactly what's stored for your account, with live counts, in Thread for Mac under Settings → Your data, and download a full copy of it.

Your Thread, and how to delete it

Delete a conversation: open it in Activity and choose the bin. Its messages go, along with every thought, vector and correction built from them. An idea that also rests on other conversations is kept and rewritten from what remains; an idea with nothing left is removed.
Delete an idea: removes the idea. The conversations it came from stay until you delete them.
Delete everything: Settings → Your data → Delete everything. It lists what will be removed, asks you to type a confirmation, removes your conversations, ideas, vectors, corrections and account from Thread's server and everything Thread kept on your Mac, and gives you a receipt. If you have a paid subscription you must cancel it too — deleting your data does not cancel billing.
Export: the same screen downloads a full copy of your data as a file.

Deletion overwrites the data in the database, it doesn't just hide it. We test this by checking that deleted text is gone from the database file itself.

What Thread does not do

Sell or share your data, your conversations or your ideas for marketing or advertising.
Train models on your conversations.
Store your ChatGPT, Claude or Google login.
Include advertising or tracking pixels, or third-party analytics, in the app or the extension. This marketing website uses Vercel Web Analytics, which is cookieless and records aggregate page views only.

Changes

If how Thread handles your data changes, this page changes with it and the date above moves. Material changes will be called out on the site.

Contact

Questions about any of this go through the contact form.