What happens with my private data?

A set of common questions revolve around the handling of your personal data in Memex:

  1. Where is it stored?
  2. Who has access to it?
  3. Can I get my data out again?
  4. What happens if Memex is discontinued?
  5. What type of analytics does Memex record and send to the Memex team?

Good news! You are using a product built by people who value your privacy & data ownership. We have built Memex around these principles (which made developing it hard at times) :slight_smile:

  1. Your personal data is stored only on your personal computer by default
    It is only ever leaving your computer if you decide to share things with others or sync it between your devices (a feature soon launching). For syncing your data is routed via our servers, but will be encrypted on your device so we, or anyone else, will not have the ability to see what is in that data.
  2. Only you :slight_smile:
  3. You can export all your data via the local backup application.
    Here you find instructions.
  4. Memex is open source
    So the code will always live on, even if the current Stewards (worldbrain.io) stop operating.
  5. Memex only tracks interactions with the software, not personal data
    To improve user flows, features and bugs the software anonymously tracks interactions like which buttons you click or how many (but not which) searches you’ve done. Those will later also be used to give you personal analytics on your browsing behaviour. You can always opt-out of this via the settings and become a ghost.

Hi BlackForestBoi,

I see you’re very helpful on the forum but also avoid this particular answer like a plague. I guess it’s because of assumed user’s technical idiocy. Don’t worry, I can handle it.

Where is ma data stored? Paths and filenames (I use firefox). “On your machine” is not precise.

Hey @baboh!

Thanks for your request to make it more clear. Was not avoiding it intentionally. :slight_smile:

If you want to get to your data here is how:

  1. Firefox
  2. Chrome/Brave

These threads explain how to generally find the data of an extension for Chrome and Firefox.
Other ways to inspect your data is via the background console of the extension.
You get there via chrome://extensions or about:addons (Firefox)

Let me know if you still have troubles finding them and I am more than happy to help!

1 Like

Thanks @BlackForestBoi i’ll add this to the FAQ page