Why midden exists

Empower people with their own information, and with what can be derived from it, without sharing it with the world.

midden keeps what you save, and works out what it means: what connects, what you keep coming back to, what a picture shows, what a question is asking. All of that happens for you, on your devices, from things that stay yours.

What that means in practice

• midden isn't a service. There's no midden server holding your things, no account database, nothing of ours your data passes through.
  • What you save lives on your devices.
  • Sync and delivery use storage you own (your Google Drive), and everything is encrypted on your device first.
  • When midden signs you in to Google, that's a door to your own Drive, not a copy kept somewhere else.
• You own it, and everything derived from it. The text read from your pictures, the connections, the suggestions, the answers: all of it is yours, and stays where your data is. The aim is to get as much insight out of your heap as possible, inside those walls.
• We don't harvest it, and we don't sell it. No analytics on what you save, no training on it, no advertising. Nothing leaves your device unless you chose it, for something you can see and take back:
  • your own Drive, for sync;
  • the people you add, for delivery;- It keeps working without us. midden runs on your devices and keeps your data in your storage, so it doesn't depend on its maker still being around. Export (a .midden file) always works.
• You pay with money, and keep the rest. One payment buys a year of updates, and nothing renews by itself. Stop whenever you like and everything you have keeps working. After a free trial, saving new things needs a key; what you've saved stays yours to read, search and export.

How it's built to keep these

• Work it out here first. What midden can do on your device (rules, search, small models made for one job) comes before large models, and it's measured on real use, not guessed. When a larger model is worth it, it runs on your device. If one ever runs elsewhere, it's your choice and your account, never ours.
• A guess is shown as a guess. Suggestions, matches and connections say why they were made, and how sure midden is. Nothing inferred is presented as fact.
• Secrets go somewhere else. Passwords and other secrets live in the hoard, a separate extension with its own storage and its own keys (The hoard).

What this doesn't promise

Keeping your data on your own devices protects it from us, and from anyone who'd like to collect it. It doesn't protect it from someone with your unlocked device, and it doesn't replace your own backups. For what each part does protect, and what it doesn't, see Google Drive sync, Delivery between people and The hoard.