YEN

Privacy & Cookie Policy

YEN is built on a simple principle: your data is yours. The desktop app collects zero telemetry, zero analytics, and zero personal data. No account is required for local terminal usage, and there is no cloud sync for your terminal state. Your terminal history, configuration, and files never leave your machine.

Last updated: April 24, 2026

Desktop Application

What we collect

YEN does not collect terminal content, shell history, files, settings, or desktop usage analytics. The desktop app only contacts external services for explicit product functions:

  • Update checks — when you manually check for updates or enable automatic Sparkle checks, YEN requests update metadata from yen.chat. Standard update requests can include app version and macOS version.

Speech-to-text

Voice dictation uses Apple's macOS Speech frameworks. YEN does not receive audio or transcripts, does not use third-party transcription services, and does not run a YEN speech cloud. After the required language assets are installed, transcription works offline on supported macOS versions.

Configuration

Your settings are stored locally at ~/Library/Application Support/com.yenchat.yen/config.yen. This file never leaves your machine.

Built-in Weather

YEN includes a weather command (type weather in integrated shells, or yen weather anywhere). When you use weather:

  • Weather uses Open-Meteo for forecast data with city, manual coordinate, or IP-based location lookup.
  • Auto-location uses IP-based lookup via ipinfo.io. You can avoid this by passing explicit city or coordinates.
  • Weather requests are sent directly to weather/location providers. YEN does not relay weather queries through YEN servers.

Website (yen.chat)

The YEN website uses:

  • Vercel Analytics — anonymized website analytics that do not use cookies.
  • Vercel Speed Insights — anonymous performance metrics such as route, web vitals, browser, device type, device OS, network class, and country.

We do not use advertising trackers, remarketing pixels, or any third-party analytics beyond the above.

Cookies

What we don't use

  • No Google Analytics
  • No Facebook Pixel or Meta tracking
  • No advertising cookies or retargeting
  • No cross-site tracking scripts
  • No cookie consent banners (because we don't need one)

Desktop app

The YEN desktop application does not use cookies, local storage, or any web-based tracking mechanism. It is a native macOS application that does not embed a web view for analytics.

Managing cookies

You can clear or block cookies through your browser settings. Since we don't rely on cookies for functionality, this won't affect your experience on yen.chat.

Third Parties

YEN does not sell personal data, run ads, operate affiliate programs, or use your data to train AI models. Limited request data is shared only with the service providers needed to host the website, serve downloads and updates, measure anonymous website performance, and run user-initiated weather lookups.

Service Providers and External Services

YEN uses the following services for limited product functions:

  • Apple macOS Speech — local speech recognition and language-asset management by macOS.
  • Sparkle — embedded macOS update framework that checks YEN appcast metadata.
  • Vercel — Next.js app hosting, edge delivery, Web Analytics, and Speed Insights for yen.chat.
  • Supabase Storage — hosted YEN release downloads and sound-pack artifacts.
  • Cloudflare — DNS and mail-forwarding routing.
  • Open-Meteo andipinfo.io for weather and location lookup.

Children's Privacy

YEN does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The desktop app collects no personal data from anyone.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as YEN evolves. Changes will be reflected on this page with an updated date. For significant changes, we'll note them in our blog.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Reach out on @yenFTW.