Avlok works two ways, and you choose between them. By default, everything you search stays on your computer. When you want your photos inside an AI assistant on the web, you turn on Cloud AI Access and pick what to share. This page explains both, and exactly what leaves your device in each.
By default, Avlok keeps your library on your device. The only image that ever leaves is a small thumbnail, sent once when a photo is first processed, used, and discarded. Our servers keep no photos and no search index. If you turn on a feature that writes short descriptions of your photos, a text copy of each description is kept so the same photo never needs describing twice.
When you turn on Cloud AI Access, that changes by your choice: for the folders you select, small thumbnails, short descriptions, photo details such as dates and places, and the search index are stored on our servers, so assistants on the web can search them. If you use them, the names you give people, the words spoken in your videos and the words read in your photos sync too. You can turn it off, and that data is deleted.
Local: everything you search stays on your computer
This is how Avlok works out of the box, and, apart from the one-time 7-day Cloud AI Access trial, it is the only way the free tier works.
What stays on your device
Your original photos, always. The search index. The people you have named, the places and trips Avlok works out, and the words spoken in your videos. Without Cloud AI Access, all of it lives on your machine. (If you turn on Cloud AI Access, the search index, the names you have given people and the places and trips sync for the folders you share, as described below. The text of the transcripts for the videos you share syncs too, so assistants and your other devices can search what was said; the audio itself never leaves your device. The same applies to the words Avlok reads inside the photos you share, such as receipts and screenshots: the recognized text syncs, the photo does not, and anything that looks like a password or a one-time code is held back.)
What leaves, once
To make a photo searchable, Avlok sends a small thumbnail (224 pixels square, with location and camera details stripped) to be processed. It is read in memory, turned into something searchable, and discarded immediately. It is never stored.
When you connect Claude Desktop, the assistant reads this local index directly. Nothing about that search goes to the cloud. The local server is read-only and makes no network calls of its own.
If you want your photos available inside Claude on the web, ChatGPT, or another assistant, and across your devices, you turn on Cloud AI Access. This is opt-in, and it is included with Pro and Family.
What gets stored
For the folders you choose, small thumbnails and short text descriptions are stored on our servers. If you also use people grouping, the names you assign (and which shared photos each named person appears in) sync too, so an assistant can find photos of a person, and, if you agree to it, up to ten of your shared photos of each named person are kept at a small size so your other devices can learn to recognize them; the measurements Avlok uses to tell faces apart never leave your device. Turning people grouping off on any device, or withdrawing that agreement, deletes the names, groups and reference photos from our servers. A name changed on two devices keeps the change made most recently. Your recent assistant searches are kept briefly (up to twenty, deleted after seven days) so you can reopen them in the app.
What never gets stored
Your full-resolution photos. Those never leave your device, in either mode. The only images the cloud holds are small copies: the thumbnails of the folders you share and, if you use people grouping, the reference photos described here.
You choose the folders
Cloud AI Access is folder by folder. Folders you do not include stay on your device and never sync. Folders you mark private are excluded entirely.
You can turn it off
Disable Cloud AI Access whenever you like. Your cloud data is kept for 14 days in case you change your mind, then permanently deleted.
In either mode, you can mark a folder as private. Private folders are hidden from every assistant, local and cloud alike, and require a separate app password to view. They never sync to the cloud under any setting.
