Who we are and the short version
Kaizen keeps your library on your computer, and we never receive the articles, highlights or notes you save. Kaizen is a desktop reading app made and maintained by two independent developers, Steve George and Sanjay Jaimy (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the Kaizen desktop app, the Kaizen browser extension and the Kaizen mcp server that ships inside the app.
Kaizen has no Kaizen account, no analytics, no advertising and no crash reporting. We do not run servers that store your reading data. The only data we receive comes through our payment and licensing provider when you buy or activate a license.
Data that stays on your computer
Everything you create in Kaizen is stored in an encrypted library file on your computer, and it is never sent to us. This includes:
- Profiles: the name and optional photo you enter for each profile, and whether you have finished onboarding.
- Your library: saved articles (URL, title, author, description, text, images and favicon links), tags, reading progress and items in the trash.
- Highlights and notes: the passages you highlight, their colours and any notes you add.
- Feeds: the feeds you follow and the items downloaded from them.
- Settings: your appearance and app preferences.
- Trial and license state: when your trial began, and your license key and its activation details.
The library is encrypted with SQLCipher using a random 256-bit key. That key, your license key and your trial dates are kept in your operating system’s keychain: Keychain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows, or the Secret Service on Linux. Kaizen also keeps small, scaled-down copies of article and feed images on disk for thumbnails.
You control this data. Deleting an article moves it to the trash, which Kaizen empties after 30 days. You can export articles as Markdown or PDF, or share them through your system’s share sheet; those files and shares go only where you send them. Uninstalling Kaizen and deleting its app data folder and keychain entries removes everything.
Network requests Kaizen makes
Kaizen connects to the internet only to fetch content you ask for, to check your license and to check for updates. Each connection goes directly from your computer to the service below. None of these requests passes through us.
| Request | Goes to | What is sent | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saving an article | The website you save from | A standard web request for the page, with the user agent Kaizen | When you save a URL in the app |
| Feeds | Each feed’s website | A request for the feed, with caching headers so unchanged feeds aren’t downloaded again | When you follow or refresh a feed |
| Images and thumbnails | The site hosting each image | A standard request for the image | When an article, feed item or list shows an image |
| License activation and checks | Polar, our licensing provider | Your license key, our Polar organization ID, the activation ID Polar gave this computer, a label such as “Kaizen on macOS”, your operating system and the app version | When you enter a key, when the app starts, about once a day while it runs, and when you remove a key |
| Updates | GitHub, where releases are published | A standard request for the latest release information | When the app starts, every six hours while it runs, and when you choose to check for updates |
The websites, Polar and GitHub receive your IP address and the details above as part of any internet connection. Their own privacy policies govern what they do with it. Polar sends back your license’s status, expiry date and the email address it was bought with, which Kaizen shows in Settings → License.
The free 14-day trial needs no account, card or network connection. Kaizen records its start date on your computer only.
Browser extension and AI assistants
Browser extension. The extension reads a page only when you click Save to Kaizen, and it sends that page only to the Kaizen app on the same computer. Opening the popup shows the tab’s title, domain and icon, and saves nothing. When you choose Save, the extension reads the page as your browser rendered it, including its URL and HTML. It passes them to the Kaizen app through your browser’s native messaging, which runs locally and doesn’t use the internet. The extension keeps no browsing history and sends nothing to us or anyone else. It uses the activeTab, scripting, nativeMessaging and storage permissions only for this.
AI assistants (MCP). Kaizen includes an optional Model Context Protocol server that lets an assistant you connect, such as Claude or ChatGPT, read and change your library. It is off until you connect an assistant in Settings. When it is on, the assistant can read your articles, highlights and notes, save and organise articles, and edit highlights. Whatever the assistant reads is sent to that assistant’s provider under the provider’s own terms and privacy policy, not ours. Connecting writes an entry to the assistant’s own configuration on your computer, and you can remove it at any time.
Purchases, your rights and contact
Purchases. Kaizen licenses are sold through Polar, which acts as the merchant of record. Polar collects your name, email address, billing address and payment details to process the purchase, under Polar’s privacy policy. We can see the orders and license keys for Kaizen in Polar’s dashboard, including your name, email address and country. We use them only to provide your license, answer support requests and meet tax and accounting duties. We never see your full card details.
Sharing. We do not sell or rent personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers. We disclose it only if the law requires us to.
Retention. Purchase records are kept by Polar, and by us for as long as tax and accounting law requires. Data on your computer stays until you delete it.
Your rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export the personal data we hold, or to object to how we use it. Everything in your library is already in your hands. For purchase records, contact us and we will respond within 30 days.
Children. Kaizen is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.
Changes. If we change this policy, we will update the effective date above and describe significant changes in the release notes.
Contact. Steve George and Sanjay Jaimy maintain Kaizen. Email us at support@kaizenhq.net with any privacy question or request.