# Privacy Policy > How Baalda handles your data. Short version: the app is local-first, your notes stay on your disk, and the website measures visits with Vercel Web Analytics and Google Analytics and runs no advertising. Source: https://baalda.com/privacy Site: Baalda, https://baalda.com Last updated: September 1, 2026 Baalda is local-first. Your notes live as plain markdown files on your own disk, and we cannot read them. This page explains exactly what the app and this website do and do not collect. ## The short version Your files stay on your disk. The Baalda desktop app stores your notes as markdown files locally, and we have no server that reads or copies them. This website measures page views with Vercel Web Analytics and Google Analytics, and runs no advertising or ad pixels. We do not sell or share your data with anyone. ## The desktop app Baalda reads and writes plain markdown files in a folder you choose on your computer. Those files never leave your machine unless you deliberately move them, sync them, or share them. We do not have access to your notes, your folder, or their contents. The app stores small preferences locally, such as your light or dark theme and window layout. These stay on your device and are not sent to us. ## Real-time collaboration and sync If you opt into team collaboration or a managed sync backend, the note content you choose to share is transmitted so it can sync between your devices and your teammates in real time. This only happens for the content you explicitly put into a shared space. If you self-host, that data flows through infrastructure you control, not ours. If you never turn on sharing, nothing leaves your machine. ## This website We keep the site as quiet as the app: - Vercel Web Analytics. It sets no cookies and stores no personal data. It records which page was viewed, the referring site, and your country, browser, and device type. - Google Analytics 4. It sets first-party cookies (named `_ga` and `_ga_*`) so it can tell a returning visitor from a new one, and sends Google which pages you viewed, the referring site, your approximate location, and your browser and device type. We use it only to see which pages people find useful. We have not linked it to Google Ads or turned on advertising features. You can block it with any content blocker or with Google's [opt-out add-on](https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). - No advertising and no ad pixels. - Apart from the Google Analytics cookies, the only thing stored in your browser is your theme preference, kept in local storage so the page does not flash the wrong color on load. - The contact form does not send anything to a server. It composes a normal email in your own mail client addressed to us, and nothing is submitted or stored until you press send yourself. ## When you email us If you email [naveedharri@gmail.com](mailto:naveedharri@gmail.com) or open an issue on [GitHub](https://github.com/naveedharri/baalda), we receive whatever you write and your email address, and we use it only to reply and to help you. GitHub issues are public by design. We do not add you to any marketing list. ## Third parties The website is hosted on Vercel, which processes the basic request logs that any web server sees and provides the Vercel visit counts described above. Google processes the Google Analytics data described above under its own [privacy policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy). Downloads and release notes are served from GitHub, which has its own privacy terms. We do not run our own advertising or profiling on top of any of this. ## Open source Baalda is open source under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/naveedharri/baalda/blob/main/LICENSE). You can read the code to confirm what it does with your data instead of taking our word for it. ## Your choices Because your notes live on your own disk, you stay in control of them: you can move, back up, or delete them at any time. If you have shared data through a managed backend and want it removed, email us and we will take care of it. ## Changes to this policy If we change how any of this works, we will update this page and the date at the top. For anything material, we will make the change easy to notice rather than burying it. ## Contact Questions about privacy? Email [naveedharri@gmail.com](mailto:naveedharri@gmail.com) or reach us through the [contact page](/contact).