NDEVR OWL
Your data. Choose exactly how it’s used.
This page is our written commitment on how your data is handled. It is signed by our founder, versioned like our code, and enforced by the encryption design rather than by policy.
Four pledges, in writing
The OWL Promise
Strictest by default.
OWL applies its strictest protection from the first file you upload: client-side encryption with keys that only you hold, and defaults that keep that content private from everyone. That includes us. Content you decrypt on your own device (CSD) with client-held keys is end-to-end encrypted. User-held recovery keeps that protection. Public publishing, server-side decryption and QUAIL let the selected service read the content you deliberately provide; our privacy policy lists each one.
Strict defaults have costs. When one applies, we explain it in plain language at the moment it matters, and the decision is yours.
What the strict defaults cost you
- Our servers cannot search or index inside your encrypted files, because they cannot read them.
- Lose your password, saved recovery key and all usable signed-in access, and we cannot restore your encrypted data. The same math that keeps everyone else out keeps us out too.
- When a feature needs more access to work, it asks first in plain language and waits for your explicit, typed yes.
Ownership in Work and Life.
Ownership in Work and Life.
That is what OWL stands for. Your client contracts and your family photos should not need two providers, two passwords and two privacy policies. OWL keeps them on one platform with a clear line between them. Switch to Work and your personal folders are hidden. Switch to Live and the office folders are hidden.
Anything that belongs in both, such as taxes or travel, stays visible in both modes. The toggle below is the real control.
Secure doesn’t mean slow.
Privacy software has a reputation for being slow, limited and a step behind. We do not accept that tradeoff.
Owning your data only matters if you can use it the way you need. So we work on speed, and we build and bundle apps that are meant to compete with the best in each category on performance and flexibility. If protecting your data made it harder to use, you would eventually stop protecting it. We would rather you never have to choose.
Never for profit. Period.
We will never use your data for profit. We do not mine it, model it, sell it, or share it with partners. The small amount of metadata we keep, such as sizes and timestamps, exists for one purpose: delivering your data to you.
Your data is yours for life. For content encrypted on your device with keys only you hold, we cannot access it unless you explicitly grant us special privileges*. That is a property of the encryption, and it does not depend on a policy.
* Special privileges are capabilities you grant on purpose: public publishing, server-side decryption, QUAIL and other opt-in processors. User-held recovery does not grant decryption access. Choose these features only when you want the selected processor to receive that content. If you decline them, nothing on our side can read your client-side-encrypted content. You can check the design yourself: read how end-to-end encryption, public-key cryptography and ECIES work.
Why it matters
Why this needed writing down.
The same pattern keeps repeating across the industry. A service earns your files, then the terms change, the defaults change, or the company changes hands, and your data ends up somewhere you never agreed to. Each case below links to its source, and each is paired with the OWL design decision that prevents it.
| OWL | The typical cloud drive | |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds the keys | You do | The provider does |
| Can staff read your files | No, by design* | Policy says they won’t. Capability says they can. |
| AI training on your content | Never | Depends on this quarter’s terms |
| Your data’s role in the business | You pay for a service. That’s the whole model. | Raw material for ads, models, and analytics |
| If the company is sold or goes bankrupt | A buyer gets ciphertext | Your data is an asset on the block |
| Breach blast radius | Encrypted blobs | Plaintext records of millions of people |
| Metadata kept | Delivery hints: sizes, timestamps | A behavioral profile of you |
“We built OWL because we wanted it to exist: one place for our work and our lives that nobody could quietly repurpose. This page is the deal we run the company by. Hold us to it.”
Receipts
Sources for the cases above
- Zoom’s 2023 terms-of-service controversy over AI training on customer content — Termly
- Adobe responds to uproar over new terms-of-service language, 2024 — VentureBeat
- WeTransfer modifies terms of service after backlash over AI rights, July 2025 — PPC Land
- LinkedIn backtracks on opt-out AI training after user and regulator backlash, 2024 — ITPro
- FTC order bans Avast from selling browsing data; $16.5M for selling data collected while promising to block tracking, February 2024 — Federal Trade Commission
- Google agrees to delete billions of “Incognito” browsing records in settlement, April 2024 — TIME
- Privacy, consent, and national security after the 23andMe bankruptcy, 2025 — Lawfare
- The UK is still trying to backdoor encryption for Apple users, 2025 — Electronic Frontier Foundation