Privacy & your data
Harness is built local-first. The parts that touch your screen and your memory run on your own device by default, and the design goal is simple: your screen and your memory are yours.
Your screen stays on your device
The models that understand your screen run in your browser, on your machine. Reading your screen, recognizing text, and finding things in your screen history all happen locally. Harness does not send your screen anywhere to work.
When you ask a question that needs a language model, Harness sends the model the context needed to answer, which can include the current screen. You choose how that inference runs: a local model (nothing leaves your machine), your own key, or managed inference.
Your memory is on-device
What Harness remembers about you lives in a private database inside your browser. It is used to personalize your answers and never leaves your device unless you turn on a feature that requires it, like encrypted backup.
You can view, edit, and delete anything Harness has remembered, and you can export it at any time. Data portability is a right, not a paid feature.
Encrypted backup (Resident)
Because on-device storage lives in your browser, it can be lost if the browser clears the origin under storage pressure. Resident adds encrypted cloud backup so your memory survives that, with a key only you hold, and lets you sync across devices. It is the durability layer on top of local-first, not a different place your data lives.
Browser storage persistence
Browsers keep on-device data across reloads by default. Separately, they can grant “persistent” storage that is exempt from automatic eviction under disk pressure. Harness requests this grant, but browsers only give it once you have engaged with the site or installed it, so it may show as not granted at first. Your memory still persists across reloads either way. For guaranteed durability, Resident’s encrypted backup is the real answer.
Control
- Stop screen sharing at any time; when you are not sharing, Harness cannot see your screen.
- View, edit, delete, and export your memory from settings.
- Choose local inference to keep everything on your machine end to end.