What is sent to Genie, and what never is
The exact list that leaves your PC when you send a prompt, who processes it (Genie9 and OpenAI), what is kept, and the one setting that changes it.
On this page
Ask Genie is the only part of GBM AI that sends anything about your setup to a server. It sends only when you press Ask (the first question) or Send (in a conversation), and only while you are signed in. Backups, restores, schedules and Find never send anything to Genie9.
Where it goes#
Your prompt goes from GBM AI to Genie9's server. The server sends it to OpenAI, the model provider, which writes the draft or the answer. The server returns it to the app.
Sent with each prompt#
- Your prompt, and the conversation so far, including the current draft.
- Your edition and trial state, Windows and the processor type (x64 or ARM64), and the app's language.
- Each drive: its letter, label, kind (internal, USB, network or cloud), role, size and free space.
- The names of the top-level folders on internal drives, such as
D:\UsersorD:\Projects, each with how many items it holds, when it last changed and a hint of what it contains (photos, code, documents). Nothing below the top level, and nothing from USB, network or cloud drives. This one can be switched off; see below. - Your jobs: each job's name, source folders, destination, type, schedule, whether it is on and encrypted, retention, health, how many sets it has and their size on the destination, its next run, how many runs it has completed and when the first was, and its recent results: counts, error codes and messages, and skip reasons. No file names.
- The list of filter presets the app knows, so a draft can use them.
A path inside your user folder goes as {UserProfile}: D:\Users\Alex\Projects is sent as {UserProfile}\Projects, in the jobs, the folder names, your prompt and the conversation alike. The draft comes back with the real paths.
The side panel on the Ask Genie page, This conversation, lists the same under Context sent and Not sent.
Ask Genie why#
Ask Genie why on a run report opens Ask Genie with a question already typed. For skipped files it names the job, how many were skipped and the first skipped file's path; for a failed run, the error code and message. Nothing is sent until you press Ask, and you can change or delete the question first. If you send it, that one file's path goes too, with your user folder as {UserProfile}.
Never sent#
- Your Windows user name, and the PC's name.
- The names of files inside your folders, except that one path.
- The contents of any file.
- Passwords, keys and credentials.
What is kept#
Genie9 records that you asked: your account email, the device, the month, how many tokens the answer took and how long the prompt was. That is how the monthly allowance is counted. Genie9 does not keep the text of your prompt.
OpenAI processes the request under its API terms: data sent through its API is not used to train models, and may be kept for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring. The GBM AI privacy notice has the details.
The one setting#
Settings ▸ General ▸ Ask Genie ▸ Let Genie see the names of top-level folders on internal drives is on by default. Turn it off and Genie sees your drives and jobs, but no folder names. It can then only guess which folder you mean, so name it in full in your prompt: D:\Users\Alex\Projects.
Why a sign-in#
Genie is a service with a monthly allowance per account, so the server needs to know whose allowance to count. See Signing in, and what it is for and Genie prompt allowances by edition.