The Middleman Attack: Why Your AI Wrapper is Logging Your Code

If you aren't using your own API key, you are trusting a middleman. That free "AI Wrapper" app you downloaded? It sits right between you and the provider. It can read your messages. It can log your code snippets. It can see your API keys.

There is a massive privacy firewall between consumer apps (ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini) and their enterprise/developer API equivalents. Most people don't realize that they are agreeing to two completely different Terms of Service depending on how they access the models.

Here is the breakdown of how the big three handle it:

1. OpenAI (ChatGPT vs. OpenAI API)

• ChatGPT (Consumer): By default, OpenAI does use your conversations, code snippets, and uploaded files to train future models. You can manually opt out in the settings, but the default is that they are learning from you.
• OpenAI API (Developer/BYOK): OpenAI states explicitly that data submitted through their API is not used to train OpenAI models. They only retain API data for 30 days for abuse monitoring (and zero-day retention is available for sensitive use cases).

2. Anthropic (Claude vs. Anthropic API)

• Claude App (Consumer): Historically, Anthropic tried to avoid training on consumer data, but their policy was updated (effective late 2024/2025) to state that consumer chats can be used to improve future models unless you manually opt out. If you leave it on, they retain the data for up to 5 years for training.
• Anthropic API (Commercial): Anthropic does not train their models on data submitted via their commercial API. Your data belongs to you.

3. Google (Gemini App vs. Gemini API)

• Gemini App (Consumer): Google states that user chats might be reviewed by human reviewers and used to enhance their AI models to improve Google products.
• Gemini API (Paid): Google commits that prompts, responses, and private data sent through their paid API services are not used to train their foundational models. Data is only logged temporarily for policy violation checks.

Why AICoven's Architecture Matters Here

When you use a standard "AI Wrapper" app where they provide the AI, they are often using the consumer terms, or worse, they are logging your data on their own servers before sending it to the API.

Because AICoven is a Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) client, you are hitting the API endpoints directly from your machine.

This means:

• You get Developer-Grade Privacy: By using your API key, you automatically inherit the strict non-training, non-retention policies of the API (which are designed for enterprises handling sensitive data).
• No Middleman Logging: Because your machine talks straight to OpenAI/Anthropic, there is no intermediary server that can scrape your code, steal your API key, or train a custom model on your workflows.

We built AICoven with a fundamentally different approach: the Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) model.

Your local device uses secure native storage (like Apple's Keychain) to hold your API keys. When you send a prompt, your machine talks directly to OpenAI or Anthropic's APIs.

The cloud version uses your key to encrypt your messages. We can’t see them even if we want to. They are only decrypted in RAM for the seconds we need them to send to your AI provider.

In the local version, there is no proxy server in the middle. We don't log your prompts, we can't capture your context, and we don't want your data. By combining a 100% local-first application architecture with direct provider connections, you get the full power of advanced LLMs without surrendering your privacy to a middleman.