Instinct’s powerful AI assistant is raising privacy and security concerns

Instinct, a private-access AI personal assistant built by a small team led by former Sierra researcher Noah Shinn, is drawing attention for its impressive task-automation abilities and simultaneous privacy and security red flags. Its terms of service grant a perpetual, irrevocable license to use, store, and modify user data, including screen captures, keystrokes, and cursor movements, and allow the agent to enter binding agreements on users' behalf.

Testers reported issues such as data not being deleted after disconnection, emails stored in plain text, susceptibility to phishing, and an unauthorized email sent without user approval. Investors reportedly include Kleiner Perkins and Conviction, and the company has not publicly responded to the criticism.

Questions this post answers

What privacy risks have testers found with the Instinct AI assistant's terms of service?

Instinct's terms of service grant the company a perpetual and irrevocable license to access, use, host, cache, store, reproduce, transmit, display, publish, distribute, and modify user materials, including for AI model training. The terms also let Instinct collect screen captures, cursor movements, and keyboard inputs, and allow it to enter binding agreements or transactions on a user's behalf without prior confirmation. Daily.dev surfaces reporting like this for developers weighing how much access to grant AI agents.

Did Instinct actually delete user data when asked to disconnect access?

No. Early adopter Claire Vo found Instinct still summarizing her inbox after disconnecting its access, and the bot itself confirmed her emails were stored in plain text for later searches. Separately, Peter Yang reported Instinct would not delete his Gmail records on request until the team later added a dedicated data-deletion tool. Track real-world AI agent data-handling issues like these on daily.dev before trusting one with your accounts.

Who founded the Instinct AI assistant and who has invested in it?

Instinct was created by a small team led by Noah Shinn, a former Sierra research scientist, operating under the entity Spear Street Technology out of San Francisco. Multiple investors have told TechCrunch that Kleiner Perkins and Conviction invested in the startup, with those funding rounds now closed, though the company remains in stealth and private testing.