Privacy

Who we are

Nodus is built and operated by Torus Solutions, a company in South Africa. Torus Solutions is the responsible party — the data controller — for the personal information described here. You can reach us at hello@trynodus.com.

Using Nodus without an account

You can use Nodus without an account — no email, no password, no name. If you want, we keep a backup of your items so that losing or resetting your phone doesn’t lose your work. The first time you open Nodus (or the first time after you update to the version that adds this), it tells you so and asks: tap OK to start the backup, or Turn off backup and nothing is uploaded. Nothing is sent before you answer, and you can change your mind later in Settings. (If this phone is restoring a backup from your old phone, there is nothing to ask — see “Getting your backup back” below.)

What we store, if backup is on. Your items (titles, steps, summaries, due dates and reminder settings, the conversation you’ve had with the assistant about an item, and the updates list), including the written-out text of what you said or typed — the transcript that comes with each item — and your app settings and choices (for example your theme, whether the morning summary is on and at what time, and which tips you’ve dismissed). If you leave a capture half-finished — still being processed, waiting for you to retry it, or waiting for you to review it — the text of it (what you typed, or the words that were heard when you spoke) and the plan we proposed from it are backed up as well, until you save or discard that capture. We never store your voice recordings — see “What happens to a voice recording” below — and audio is never part of the backup: a voice capture that has not been turned into text yet stays on your phone only.

Which apps you use. We also keep which Nodus apps you use (iPhone, Android or the web app), their version, and when each was last used — so we know which apps to support. This applies to a backup and to a signed-in account alike.

Who it belongs to. The backup is kept under a device account: an account with no name, no email address and no password. The app creates it for you, together with a random secret key that proves the backup is yours. We don’t link it to your phone number, your contacts or your identity. Settings shows a short Backup ID (like NDS-1A2B-3C4D) — an identifier we can use to find your backup if you ask for help; it is not a password and opens nothing. The same random anonymous device id described below is used when the app talks to us.

Getting your backup back on a new phone. Our server keeps only a one-way fingerprint (a hash) of your key, never the key itself, so we cannot unlock or recover a backup for you. The key lives in three places you control:

• On your phone, in the device’s secure storage.
• In your phone’s own encrypted backup, automatically: iCloud Keychain on iPhone, Google’s backup (Block Store) on Android. Both are end-to-end encrypted by Apple and Google — we can’t read them. On a new iPhone signed in with the same Apple ID (with iCloud Keychain on), or a new Android phone set up from your old one with Google backup on, Nodus finds the key and restores your items by itself, and tells you it did. Nothing is asked because you already agreed on the old phone.
• As a recovery code you can read in Settings → Recovery code and keep somewhere safe. It works on any phone, including from iPhone to Android. Anyone who has the code can open your backup, so keep it private; Reset recovery code makes a new one and switches the old one off, including its iCloud/Google copy and any phone using it.

Without one of those three, an anonymous backup cannot be recovered — there is no password reset, because there is no account email to send one to. If you want the safest option, sign in with your email address (see below).

Why. Only to give you the backup you’d expect from a notes-and-reminders app, and to let you sign in later without losing anything (see “What we store when you sign in”). We don’t use your items for advertising, and we don’t sell or share them.

Limits. A backup holds up to 5,000 items and 25 MB in total, and a single item can be up to 64 KB. If you reach a limit, nothing on your phone is lost — Nodus simply pauses the backup, says so in Settings, and resumes when you delete some items.

How long. Until you delete it, or until you stop using Nodus: a backup with no activity for 12 months is deleted automatically, together with everything in it. Opening the app while online counts as activity.

Delete it any time. Open Nodus → Settings → Delete my data from Nodus servers. That erases the backup immediately (and the copy of its key in iCloud Keychain / Google backup); your items stay on your phone and backup stays off until you switch it back on. Deleting the app does not delete the backup by itself, so use that button first if you want it gone. If you can’t use it, email hello@trynodus.com with your Backup ID and we’ll delete the backup it identifies.

Backups of our database. Our database provider keeps short-term, point-in-time copies for recovery. Data you delete can remain in those copies for up to 30 days and is then gone.

What happens to a voice recording

When you hold the button and speak, the recording is sent to our server, which passes it to two processors and then throws it away:

• Deepgram converts the speech to text. We use their pre-recorded transcription service.
• Anthropic (Claude) turns that text into the structured item you are shown — a title, steps, a due date, a reminder.

We do not store the recording on our servers. It is held in memory for the length of that one request and is never written to a database, a queue or a file. The audio file itself stays on your device, and the app deletes it automatically 7 days after you save the item — unless you switch on “Keep recordings” in Settings, in which case it stays until you delete it. What is kept is the text: the transcript that Deepgram produces is stored with the item you save (and, if you leave a capture unfinished, with that capture), and it is backed up or synced with your items if you have backup on or are signed in. Only the audio is thrown away.

What we store when you sign in

Signing in is optional. It exists for one reason: using your items on more than one device — your phone, another phone and the web app. When you sign in we store your email address, and your items (with their transcripts), your settings and choices, and the text of any captures you have not finished reviewing sync to our database. That database and the server in front of it run on Cloudflare’s infrastructure.

If you were already backing up without an account, the items backed up from your phone are moved into your new account when you sign in. If the account already has items, the two are combined and, for any item that exists in both, the most recently edited version is kept. The anonymous backup is then deleted. If you sign out, Nodus clears your phone and, if backup is on, starts a fresh, empty anonymous backup — your account’s items are never copied into it.

Signing in with Apple or Google. Besides the emailed link and code, you can choose Continue with Apple or Continue with Google. We receive from them only two things: your email address (for Apple, this can be the private relay address Apple generates if you choose Hide My Email) and a user id that belongs to you at that provider, which we keep so that next time they sign you into the same account. For Apple we also keep an encrypted token whose only use is to tell Apple to revoke Nodus’s access when you delete your account. We do not receive or store your name, photo, contacts, calendar or anything else from your Apple or Google account, and we never ask them for more. Apple and Google handle that sign-in under their own privacy policies. If an account with the same verified email address already exists (for example you signed in by email link before), the two are linked and you keep all your items.

If you sign in, your email address and, if you use Apple or Google, that provider’s user id are the only personally-identifying information we hold about you. We never hold a password: you sign in with Apple or Google, or with a one-time link and code that we email you, so there is no password for us to store or for anyone to steal.

Recordings are never part of sync. Audio never reaches the database.

Anonymous usage counting

We count a small number of anonymous events — for example, that a capture was saved, or that a reminder was tapped — against the random device id described above. We use them to understand whether the product works, and nothing else. We do not sell your information, and we never share your items, your recordings or your email address with anyone for their own purposes. The same random device id is also how the app asks us for your anonymous backup; it is an identifier, not a password, and on its own it gives no one access to your items.

Advertising

The free tier of Nodus shows ads, supplied by Google AdMob. Paying for Nodus removes them: if you hold a paid plan, no ad is requested and the ad code never runs. Nothing you capture is ever used to target an ad — your items, your recordings and the text we make from them are never sent to an advertiser.

To show ads, AdMob uses your device's advertising identifier — a resettable id your phone provides for this purpose, which you can reset or limit at any time in your device settings. Depending on your choices below, that identifier may be used to personalise the ads you see, which counts as cross-app tracking.

You decide. On iOS we ask through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, and if you decline, the identifier is not used for tracking. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland we ask for consent before any personalised advertising, and you can refuse as easily as you can accept. In US states with applicable privacy laws you can tell us not to sell or share your information. In every case, saying no still leaves Nodus fully usable — you simply see ads that are not personalised.

Google's own handling of this data is described in its privacy & terms.

This website

trynodus.com sets no cookies and runs no analytics. It makes no request to any third party. It has no forms, so there is nothing on this site that sends anything anywhere.

The beta list

Before Nodus launched, this website had a form for joining the beta list. If you gave us your email address there, we use it for exactly two things: letting you know Nodus is available, and telling you about things that matter to Nodus itself. No marketing to anyone else, no list sharing. Ask us at hello@trynodus.com and we will remove you, any time, without asking why.

Deleting your data

If you have an account: delete it any time from Settings, in the app or on the web — it removes your account and everything synced with it, including the link to your Apple or Google sign-in. You can also email hello@trynodus.com and we'll do it for you.

If you signed in with Apple, deleting your account also tells Apple to revoke Nodus’s access to your Apple ID, so Nodus no longer appears under Sign in with Apple in your Apple ID settings. (You can also remove it there yourself at any time.) Deleting your account never deletes your Apple or Google account — that is yours.

If you don’t have an account: open Nodus → Settings → Delete my data from Nodus servers. That deletes your anonymous backup straight away. Anonymous backups that go unused for 12 months are deleted automatically.

Data that only ever lived on your device goes away when you delete the app. Deleted data can remain in our database provider’s recovery copies for up to 30 days.

Your rights

We handle personal information under South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and, where it applies to you, the GDPR. You can ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, delete it, or object to how we use it. Write to hello@trynodus.com and a person will answer.

If you use Nodus without an account we hold nothing that identifies you, so we can’t match a request to your backup from your name or email. The in-app delete control above is the way to exercise deletion; if you can’t use it, send us your Backup ID (Settings → Account) and we’ll act on the backup it identifies. For anything else, write to us and we will work out the quickest way to help.

Where we need a legal basis: we process your email address (and Apple or Google user id), your synced items and your anonymous backup (which starts only after you tap OK) to provide the service you asked for, we process anonymous usage counters under our legitimate interest in knowing whether Nodus works, and where personalised advertising applies to you we rely on your consent — which you give or refuse in the prompt described under Advertising, and can change at any time.

Children

Nodus is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Changes to this policy

If this changes, the new version is posted on this page with a new effective date. The product is still moving, so this page is expected to move with it.

Questions?

hello@trynodus.com