Privacy-focused AI assistant Ollie is closing: what to do with your data

What happened

Ollie, a startup that set out to build an AI assistant that respected its users' privacy, is closing. According to TechCrunch, co-founder and chief executive Bill Lennon announced on X on Friday that the app will officially shut down on 6 November.

The assistant was subscription-based and aimed at helping families stay connected and organised. It connected to a user's email and calendar, and had built-in functions for appointment bookings, meal planning and bill payments. TechCrunch reports that the company had discussed a $7.5 million seed round, led by Khosla Ventures, in September.

Ollie was also one of the first mainstream apps to achieve SOC 2, a privacy compliance standard that companies can attain through an independent audit. Even so, Lennon said the pressures of the fast-growing AI industry took their toll. "We got close, but ultimately couldn't keep up," he said, adding that with rivals such as Muse and Instinct entering the space, it became harder to stand out, grow and raise the capital needed.

What it means for you

If you used Ollie, customers will receive instructions on how to export their data and receive refunds in the coming days, according to Lennon. Watch for that message, and it is sensible to do the export before the app shuts on 6 November.

The wider lesson is a quiet one. A service can have good privacy credentials and still disappear. When an app sits between you and your email, calendar and bills, closing it means you have to gather your own records and work out where everything lives next. TechCrunch's own view is that user privacy has never been a hugely profitable part of the tech industry.

None of that means you should avoid every online tool. It is a useful prompt to ask, for any service you rely on for paperwork: where does my data sit, and what happens to it if the company stops? If the honest answer is "on their servers, and I'm not sure", it is worth keeping your own copies of anything important, such as signed forms, scanned receipts and identity documents.

Where Sheaf fits

Sheaf approaches the problem from the other end. With Sheaf, your scans and signatures never leave your phone, so there is nothing of yours sitting on someone else's servers to export if a company shuts down.

A sensible habit, whatever tools you use: scan or sign the document, save the finished PDF somewhere you control, and treat that copy as the one that matters. Then it doesn't depend on any company's future, including ours.

If you are tidying up your paperwork after news like Ollie's, scanning the few documents you can't afford to lose is a good place to start.