Security & Privacy

API Key Storage

Keys are stored with your operating system's native secure storage: the macOS Keychain or Windows Credential Manager. They are never written in plain text to a settings file.

A cloud provider authenticates every request with your key, so Aether sends it to that provider over HTTPS. It is never sent to Umbral Audio, and it is never shared between providers.

Encrypted Helper Connection

When generation routes through the helper app in plugin mode, the authorization header is AES-encrypted in transit over the local connection between the plugin and the helper.

Fully Private Local Generation

Run a model in Ollama or LM Studio and no prompt or key ever leaves your machine: full privacy and zero per-request cost. This is the most private way to use Aether.

Where Aether Can Connect

Aether will not talk to an arbitrary address. Outbound requests are checked against a fixed allowlist compiled into the plugin, and anything not on it is refused before a connection is opened. Internet hosts must use HTTPS, and this is the complete set:

• ●api.anthropic.com, api.openai.com, api.x.ai, api.deepseek.com, generativelanguage.googleapis.com, openrouter.ai and router.huggingface.co, for the cloud providers you choose
• ●umbralaudio.com, for license validation, update checks, and crash reports if you have opted in
• ●Your own machine, for the helper app, and your machine or local network for Ollama and LM Studio: localhost, a private address such as 192.168.1.20, or a name ending in .local. None of these reach the internet.

A provider you never select is never contacted. If you work entirely with a local model, the only hosts Aether reaches are your own machine, or the computer on your network that runs the model, plus the license and update checks below.

What Aether Sends

• ●Generation requests: only to the provider you select, using your key.
• ●License validation: a periodic, throttled check (at most once per day) with the activation server. A settled license (a purchase over 16 days old that has checked in since) never locks for being offline. Before that, after 30 days without a successful check, Aether locks and checks about every 20 seconds until one gets through.
• ●Update check: about once a day, and again an hour later if a check fails; you're notified of a new version until you update, but nothing is downloaded automatically. To also hear by email, turn on release emails on your account page.
• ●Crash reports: opt-in only, controlled by a settings toggle. Off means nothing is sent.