AI features and your data

How permission works

• Asher asks first. Before you use AI help, the app explains what will be sent to OpenAI and why. Related features share one clear choice, with the details below.
• You choose. Allow and ask Asher allows the reviewed choice and sends your waiting question. Not now cancels that attempt. You can finish setup, join your family, message the other adult, and use the available manual Handbook and Plans features without allowing AI.
• Each adult decides for themselves. You can allow personal AI help independently. AI use of shared Handbook, profiles and Plans needs every active adult’s agreement. AI in Family Chat has its own choice and also needs every active adult’s agreement. One adult cannot allow either choice for someone else.
• You can change your mind. Turn your choices on or off in Settings under AI permissions. Turning a choice off stops future requests in that scope. It does not recall information already sent, delete your saved records, or automatically change your other choices. Turning it back on does not send an old question.
• We ask again when things change. If we change what a feature sends or why, the app asks you again.

AI help

Your personal choice covers your private chats, their follow-up tools, help with Handbook and Plans, and understanding explicit changes you ask Asher to make when those features are available. Required safety checks are part of that choice. Saving a suggestion or making a consequential change still uses the feature’s review and confirmation steps.

Shared Handbook and Plans

This choice allows relevant saved Handbook cards, profiles and Plans to be included when either adult uses AI help, including information both adults added. A family with one adult needs that adult’s permission. If another adult joins, both must agree; sending an invitation alone does not change eligibility.

If either adult declines or turns this off, Asher stops automatically including saved shared information in new AI requests for the family. AI features that need those records pause. Manual Handbook and Plans remain available. An adult who has allowed personal AI can still ask using information they choose to provide. Earlier chats remain readable, but Asher does not automatically reuse old family context to get around the changed choice.

AI in Family Chat

Every active adult must allow AI use of the shared conversation before Asher replies, uses a follow-up tool, or handles requested changes there. Either adult can turn their own choice off. Human messages still work, and a delivered message stays delivered even if Asher cannot reply. The app shows whether shared AI is available without displaying another adult’s permission history.

Memory and connected-email choices stay separate. A group choice does not enable a feature marked Not available yet, or authorize a new provider or a materially different data use without another review.

Asher is in beta, and some features on this page may not appear for every family yet.

How OpenAI handles your information

• Asher sends each request from our servers, not from your iPhone, and includes only what that feature needs.
• OpenAI uses the information to produce the reply or suggestion and send it back to Asher.
• We use OpenAI under business terms, not a consumer chatbot service. Those terms don’t allow OpenAI to train its models on your family’s content. OpenAI may keep request data for up to 30 days to monitor for abuse, and then deletes it.
• Asher treats text that comes from emails, calendars and other outside sources as information, not as instructions.

Our Privacy Policy explains how Asher itself keeps and protects your information.

Ask and Family Chat

Replies in Private Ask

What’s sent: your message and eligible conversation context; relevant saved Handbook, profile and Plans information only when the shared-information choice allows it; and your chosen response style when applicable. Without shared-information permission, the fallback uses your current question without automatically adding saved family records or earlier family context.

Why: so Asher can write its reply. Only you see a Private Ask chat.

Asher’s replies in Family Chat

What’s sent: the message asking Asher to reply and eligible messages from that Family Chat, including the other adult’s; relevant saved Handbook, profile and Plans information only when every active adult allows shared information; and your chosen response style when applicable. Without shared-information permission, the reply uses the current question without earlier chat context.

Why: so Asher can write a reply both adults see. Every active adult must allow AI in Family Chat. Including saved Handbook, profiles or Plans also requires the separate shared-information permission. If that permission is unavailable, the fallback uses the current request without saved records or earlier family context.

Safety check before Asher replies

What’s sent: the message you just sent.

Why: an automated check sorts the message by topic, so stricter rules apply to health, legal questions and anyone’s safety. It runs only when the AI choice for that request allows it; it is not a separate switch. Asher keeps a basic label for how the message was handled, without the message itself.

Follow-up buttons in Private Ask

What’s sent: the private chat you’re in, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to write what you asked for when you tap a button such as Give me the script, Make a quick plan, Draft a message or Summarize what we decided.

Follow-up buttons in Family Chat

What’s sent: the Family Chat conversation you’re in, including the other adult’s messages.

Why: to write what you asked for when you tap a follow-up button. Both adults see the result.

Handbook

Creating a Handbook card with Asher

What’s sent: what you type while creating the card, the template you picked, if any, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to draft a card for you to review. Nothing is saved until you save it.

Safety check on a new card

What’s sent: what you type while creating the card.

Why: to check for health, legal and safety topics before Asher drafts the card, so stricter rules apply.

Handbook Builder conversations

What’s sent: the messages in your private Handbook Builder conversation, your family’s Handbook and profiles, your family’s plans, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: so Asher can reply in a conversation about building your Handbook. Only you see it.

Handbook suggestions from a conversation

What’s sent: the private conversation you’re in, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to draft a Handbook card from the conversation when you ask. You review it before anything is saved.

How Asher uses a card

What’s sent: the Handbook card and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to write or refresh the short note on a card that explains how Asher uses it.

Summaries of profile notes

What’s sent: the note you saved about a family member and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to write an optional short summary after you save the note. Your note is saved either way.

Suggesting a note’s priority

What’s sent: the note you’re writing about a family member and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to suggest how important the note is before you save it. You decide.

Offers to save a detail from chat

What’s sent: the message you just sent and related details from your family’s Handbook.

Why: to check whether your message includes a detail about a family member that you might want to save, and offer to save it. Nothing is saved unless you review and save it.

Plans

Prep checklists

What’s sent: the event, related plans, your family’s Handbook and profiles, and how you’ve asked Asher to speak to you.

Why: to suggest things to get ready for an event. You pick which items to add.

Reminder wording

What’s sent: the event and related plan details.

Why: to suggest wording for an event reminder when you tap Generate wording. Nothing changes until you tap Use wording.

The Plans digest and suggestions from forwarded email aren’t written by AI. Asher puts them together with automated rules on our own systems.

Not available yet

These features aren’t part of the app yet, so Asher doesn’t send anything to OpenAI for them. Before any of them is available, we’ll update this page and our Privacy Policy, and the app will ask for your permission first.

Conversation memory

Not available yet. Short summaries of earlier conversations, so you don’t have to repeat yourself. It will stay off until you turn it on.

Web searches

Not available yet. Searching the web to answer time-sensitive questions in Ask and Family Chat.

AI reading of forwarded email

Not available yet. During the beta, email you forward to your Plans Inbox address is read with automated rules and isn’t sent to OpenAI.

Plan with Asher outing ideas

Not available yet. Ideas for outings built from nearby places and local events.

Adapting a shared Handbook card

Not available yet. Public links to Handbook cards, and adapting a card someone shares with you, aren’t available yet.

Changes you ask for in Plans

Not available yet. When you ask Asher in Ask or Family Chat to change Plans, for example to add to a list or move an event, Asher will send the message you send to OpenAI to find the changes you asked for in Plans. What Asher changes is in Plans for your family to see, and for a day afterward the person who asked can undo most changes.

Questions

Email privacy@withasher.app. See also our Privacy Policy and AI & Safety Disclaimer.