Where it lives
On your device, in a real database, first. It syncs to our servers as the copy that reaches your other devices and survives a lost laptop.
That order matters. A local-first app that loses its server keeps working; a cloud app that loses its server is a blank screen.
Getting it out
Notes export as markdown, one note or all of them, with the folder structure and with wikilinks intact. Boards export as CSV. Whiteboards export as PNG.
Export is on every tier, including free, including after a trial ends. There is no version of this product where paying is what stands between you and your own writing.
The Google Sheets integration is the other exit: a board synced to a spreadsheet is a board that already lives somewhere you control.
The Vault
The Vault is content that is locked behind a code and withheld from the assistant while locked. Not filtered out of an answer at the end: never retrieved, never embedded, and not available to be paraphrased into an answer about something adjacent.
Unlock it and it behaves like anything else; lock it again and it goes back behind the wall.
Be clear about what this is and is not. It is a strong boundary against the assistant and against someone reading over your shoulder. It is not end-to-end encryption, and we do not claim it is. Content in the Vault is stored the same way the rest of your content is stored.
Hide from memory
The lighter control: a note stays in your notes, searchable by you, and is never indexed into the Mind or retrieved by the assistant. Use it for the things that are not secret but are nobody's business, including the machine's.
Deleting
Deleting a note or card removes it locally and everywhere it has synced. A deleted note also drops out of the Mind, so memories derived from it stop being retrieved.
Deleting a workspace removes its contents. Export first if any of it matters; there is no undo at that level.
Privacy stance, plainly
Your content is not training data. It is not sold. It is not read by us except where you ask for support and explicitly share something.
When you use Margin AI, the relevant content is sent to a model provider to answer the request, which is what makes an answer possible. The Vault and Hide from memory exist so you can decide what is never in that category. Full detail is on the privacy page.