AI Assistant Instinct Draws Privacy Complaints Over Data Access
Instinct, a private-access AI personal agent built by Spear Street Technology, is facing scrutiny from early testers over terms of service that grant the company a perpetual, irrevocable licence to access, store, and train on user data including emails, screen captures, and keyboard inputs.
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Instinct, a new AI personal assistant developed by San Francisco-based Spear Street Technology, is generating significant controversy among its early users due to privacy concerns surrounding its terms of service. The product, currently operating in stealth mode with limited access, was created by a small team led by Noah Shinn, a former research scientist at Sierra. While the AI agent has impressed testers with its capabilities, the broad data access permissions it requires have raised alarm bells about user privacy and control.
- Instinct's terms grant a "perpetual and irrevocable" licence to access, use, reproduce, and modify user materials including for AI training
- The agent connects to email, messaging apps, calendars, device audio, location, and screen - and can enter binding agreements on users' behalf
- Early tester Peter Yang found Instinct would not delete his Gmail records when asked; the team later added a deletion tool in settings
What Data Access Does Instinct Request From Users
The terms of service for Instinct grant the company extraordinarily broad permissions over user data. According to the agreement, Instinct receives a “perpetual and irrevocable” license to “access, use, host, cache, store, reproduce, transmit, display, publish, distribute, and modify” any materials users provide or generate while using the service. This means the company can keep and use your data indefinitely, even after you stop using the product. Critically, these terms explicitly state that user data may be used for training the company’s AI models, which means your personal information, communications, and activities could become part of the system that powers Instinct for all users.
Beyond static data, Instinct’s agent can capture detailed information about how you interact with your computer, including screen activity, cursor movements, and keyboard inputs. This level of monitoring allows the AI to understand context and learn from your behavior, but it also means the system has visibility into virtually everything you do while it’s active. The terms also grant Instinct permission to enter into “agreements, commitments, or transactions” on behalf of users that would be legally binding, giving the AI agent significant autonomy to act in your name.
Privacy Complaints and Company Response
The privacy concerns moved from theoretical to practical when early tester Peter Yang publicly complained that Instinct refused to delete his indexed Gmail records when he requested it. This incident highlighted a significant gap between user expectations about data control and the reality of what the terms of service allowed. In response to the backlash, Spear Street Technology subsequently added an external-data deletion tool in the product’s settings, giving users a way to remove data the system had collected from external sources like email accounts.
This reactive approach to privacy controls has done little to calm concerns among privacy advocates and potential users. The fact that deletion capabilities were not built into the initial product suggests that comprehensive data retention was the default design choice, rather than user control and privacy.
What Instinct Can Do As An AI Personal Agent
Despite the privacy controversy, early testers have been impressed by Instinct’s capabilities as a personal AI agent. The assistant can perform a wide range of tasks that typically require human attention and decision-making, including booking appointments, scheduling rides, managing email inboxes, and handling shopping tasks. Users have described the experience as feeling “like magic” and have called it among the “most exciting launches” since OpenClaw, indicating that the underlying technology represents a significant step forward in AI assistant capabilities.
The product is currently in private access mode and operating in stealth, meaning it’s only available to a limited group of testers and the company has not widely publicized its features or availability. This limited release strategy is common for AI products that are still being refined, but it also means that the full scope of Instinct’s capabilities and limitations is not yet publicly known.
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Who created Instinct and what company operates it?
Instinct was built by a small team led by Noah Shinn, a former research scientist at Sierra, and is operated by San Francisco-based Spear Street Technology. The product is currently operating in stealth mode with limited private access according to PitchBook.
Can users delete their data from Instinct?
Initially, Instinct did not allow users to delete indexed data, as demonstrated when early tester Peter Yang publicly complained that the service refused to delete his Gmail records. Following this complaint and subsequent criticism, the company added an external-data deletion tool in the product’s settings to give users more control over their information.
What can Instinct do as an AI assistant?
Instinct can perform various personal assistant tasks including booking appointments, scheduling rides, managing email inboxes, and handling shopping. Early testers have described the agent as feeling “like magic” and among the “most exciting launches” since OpenClaw, suggesting it offers advanced capabilities compared to existing AI assistants.
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