The short version: matter content stays on this computer by default. Off-device AI is controlled per matter. Lexware Companion access is app-wide and off until you turn it on. Update and licence checks contain no matter content.
We do not receive your matter content
Each matter is stored in files and a local database under your operating-system account on the computer. Lexware Companion can reach it only through the paired connection described below. There is no Lexware account for your matters and no Lexware-hosted copy. We cannot see your brief, extracted text, chronology, pleadings, notes or other matter work.
The app does not collect telemetry or usage analytics. It does not report which matters you open or how you use them.
Lexware checks a release feed for updates. An activated subscription is also checked using an opaque subscription identifier. Neither connection carries matter content. Stripe and Lexware's billing service hold the customer details needed to administer a subscription, not matter content. See the Privacy policy for how we handle personal information about visitors, testers and customers.
Your originals are never altered
When you import a brief folder, Lexware copies its documents into the matter's own storage and remembers the source folder for later checks. Importing an eBrief ZIP or a compiled court book also creates working copies in that storage. Lexware never moves, renames or rewrites your delivered files.
Older matters may still read documents indexed in their original folders. Those documents remain outside Lexware's managed storage unless you bring them into Lexware through Brief folders….
Lexware Companion on a paired iPad
Lexware Companion is the iPad app. Companion access is off by default. If you turn it on, a paired iPad can read matter material directly from this computer over the same local network or the computer's hotspot, and can write supported marks and selected-passage Scratchpad excerpts back to the matter. There is no cloud relay, and we do not receive that traffic.
The connection uses TLS and a separate credential for each paired device. Turning iPad access off stops the connection. Removing a device prevents future access.
The iPad temporarily caches documents needed for reading and keeps protected local copies of marks, Apple Pencil drawings and changes waiting to reach the computer. Forgetting the computer in the iPad app deletes its document cache, mark copies, unsent changes and Pencil drawings. Removing the iPad in desktop Settings prevents future access but cannot remotely erase an offline device.
Off-device AI — off by default, per matter
Lexware's built-in rule-based date extraction runs on this computer. A local Ollama model also runs without sending matter content elsewhere.
Claude and ChatGPT are off-device services. A remote Ollama endpoint or Ollama Cloud model is also off-device. Those runs require the same per-matter cloud AI consent.
Claude and ChatGPT run through their command-line tools under your own subscription. Matter content goes to the provider you choose, not to us. Before a run starts, Lexware identifies the destination and asks you to confirm what will be sent or what the provider may retrieve.
Turning consent off prevents later transmissions. It cannot recall material already sent. The provider's terms, retention settings and security arrangements apply to that material.
How AI Assist obtains its sources
AI Assist can receive selected source material with the request. Alternatively, Claude or ChatGPT can retrieve passages through Lexware's separately enabled, read-only Matter tools. A search over individually selected documents, Pleadings or Hearing bundle uses the documents resolved for that run. Whole brief is a live grant over visible matter documents, including pending Intray uploads, email-only attachments and documents indexed while the run is in progress. Other unmasked tasks given Matter tools can have that same broader access. Lexware identifies the applicable scope before you confirm. Tasks that send masked source text do not receive Matter tools.
For a Matter-tools run, Lexware shows the instruction and the applicable search scope. It cannot show in advance the exact passages the provider will later choose to retrieve. Those passages are sent as written and are not covered by Identity masking.
Optional AI reading of a pleading
Ordinary pleading import and the Pleadings Matrix run locally. If Lexware cannot reliably read a pleading, you may choose Extract with AI. That sends the complete document, unmasked, to Claude through your Claude Code installation and subscription.
Lexware first requires cloud AI consent for the matter, then asks you to confirm that document. The option is intended for a filed, public pleading — not a draft or material under seal or suppression. The result is imported as an editable draft for you to review.
Identity masking reduces risk; it is not anonymisation
For a request that includes selected source text, Identity masking can replace party names, matter and file numbers, and other detected identifiers with neutral tags before transmission. It covers the source text, its titles and the instruction, and restores the identifiers locally in the reply.
Automated detection can miss an identifier. Identity masking does not apply to prompt-only sends, Matter-tools instructions or retrieved passages, or AI extraction of a complete pleading. Lexware identifies those unmasked paths before the run starts.
With off-device AI disabled and Lexware Companion access off, Lexware does not transmit matter content from the computer.
Why local-first matters for privileged work
For most software, keeping data on the device is a performance choice. For privileged legal work it is a professional one. Sending any part of a brief to a third-party service raises questions about confidentiality and privilege, and makes that provider's terms, retention settings and security relevant. Lexware avoids those questions by default because matter content is not sent.
Australian bar associations and courts have published guidance on the use of generative AI in legal practice. The themes are consistent — preserve client confidentiality, guard against the loss or waiver of legal professional privilege when material is exposed to a third party, and remember that the practitioner remains responsible for their own work. That guidance is not limited to public AI chatbots; it extends to any software that sends matter content to a cloud service, including legal software with built-in AI features.
The primary matter remains stored on the computer; the iPad may keep the limited local copies described above. The desktop workspace handles document processing, rule-based date extraction, chronology work, pleadings analysis, drafting and matter administration. When connected, Lexware Companion can read, search and mark the matter, and add selected passages to the Scratchpad. Off-device AI is a separate choice.
Review is the default
By default, extracted dates wait in Review for you to accept, merge or reject. You can opt in to adding confidently dated results during an AI extraction run, or run AI auto-review on a Review lane. Uncertain dates remain in Review, and every automatic decision is recorded.
Logs never contain document content
Lexware keeps a small local diagnostic log to help when something breaks. It records paths and event names only — never the content of your documents. Those paths can include file and folder names (which might carry a matter or party name), so if you ever send a log with a problem report, you can glance over it and redact first. Problem reports are never sent automatically: the in-app report opens a pre-filled email containing only the app version and your operating system version, which you send yourself.
Where your data lives
Your matters live in the Lexware data folder on this computer: on macOS, ~/Library/Application Support/Lexware/; on Windows, %APPDATA%\Lexware\data\.
Lexware has a built-in Back up, in Settings. It creates a verified snapshot of one matter or all matters in a folder you choose, including each selected matter's database and managed files such as imported document copies. Encryption is on by default and can be turned off; when encrypted, the snapshot is protected by a passphrase you set. Restore brings it back as a copy rather than overwriting an existing matter. Lexware warns if the chosen folder appears to be cloud-synchronised.
Lexware verifies each backup when it is made and shows its scope, size, encryption and verification status in Settings. You can verify it again later, and the backup reminder identifies the matter that has gone longest without a verified copy.
You can also copy the Lexware data folder yourself. For older matters that still index documents in their original folders, back up those external files separately: neither a built-in backup nor a copy of the Lexware data folder includes them. Either way, you control where the matter data is, who can reach it, and how it is retained or destroyed.
For the architecture behind all of this — how the app is put together, signed builds and updates, and exactly what can and cannot leave your machine — see Security & architecture.
This page describes how the software treats your matter content. The formal Privacy Act 1988 / Australian Privacy Principles policy — covering website-visitor data, beta-tester contact details, and billing / licence records held by Stripe and our billing Worker — is the Privacy policy. If you're a beta tester, the personal information we hold about you as a participant is also covered by the beta program privacy policy.