The one-sentence version: matter content stays on your machine by default. The two precise carve-outs are (a) per-matter cloud AI you switch on yourself, which sends only the consented content for that request to the provider you choose, and (b) the licence check, which sends only an opaque subscription id — while the billing Worker separately holds the subscriber contact details Stripe needs for billing. What enforces that is the shape of the software, not a paragraph in a policy.
Architecture, not policy
Most legal software holds your data on the vendor's servers and protects it with policies — retention terms, access controls, contractual promises. Those can be well run, but they all share one property: your confidentiality depends on someone else keeping their promise, and a breach at their end is a breach of your briefs.
Lexware takes the other path. There is no Lexware server that holds matter content, no account to sign into, and no Lexware-side copy of your matters — they live on your own disk and nowhere we can reach. We could not read your matters if we wanted to, because they are never sent to us. That is not an absolute "nothing ever leaves the machine" claim: the two carve-outs are exact and are both stated below. (1) Per-matter cloud AI, when you switch it on, sends only the consented matter content for that request to the provider you choose — never to Lexware. (2) The licence check sends only an opaque subscription id, and the billing Worker separately and necessarily holds the subscriber's Stripe contact details for billing. A promise can be broken; an architecture that never receives matter content cannot leak what it never holds.
How Lexware is put together
For the technically minded — your IT consultant can verify each of these from the running app:
- One matter, one database. Each matter is its own SQLite database file, alongside ordinary files (your documents, derived PDFs, notes), in a folder on your disk under your user account. There is no shared store and no remote store.
- Documents are read locally. PDF rendering and text extraction run on a bundled engine (PDFium — the same renderer Chrome uses), inside the app. OCR of scanned documents and the default date-extraction model also run on your machine. Nothing is uploaded to be read, converted or searched.
- The app's internals never touch your network. The interface talks to a small local engine over the loopback interface (127.0.0.1) — a connection that by definition never leaves your computer. That engine listens on a random port chosen at each launch and rejects any request that does not carry a secret token minted fresh for that launch, so another program or a stray web page on the same machine cannot quietly drive it. It is never exposed to your local network, let alone the internet.
- No sign-in to your matters. There is no account to create and no sign-in to reach your work, so there is no password to phish and no cloud store of your matters to breach. A paid subscription, if you activate one once the beta ends, registers a licence that unlocks the software — never an account that holds your data.
Exactly what can leave your machine
An honest security page has to be precise here, so: two optional features can transmit matter content to a third party, and a couple of housekeeping functions touch the internet without carrying any matter content at all.
Cloud AI — off for every matter until you switch it on
Lexware's optional cloud AI covers two features: higher-accuracy date extraction and review, and the drafting assistant. Both can run on Claude or OpenAI's ChatGPT (your pick), each through that provider's own command-line tool on your own subscription. Lexware never holds an API key, so there is no Lexware-side credential through which your text could flow or be logged. The drafting assistant can also run on a local model through Ollama on your own device; pointed at a local endpoint it sends nothing off the machine at all.
Both features are gated per matter: each is off for every matter until you enable it for a matter you choose, and a matter you have not enabled sends nothing. Before text goes to a cloud provider, pseudonymisation is available — a per-matter setting that, when on, replaces identifying details with placeholder tags before anything leaves your machine and restores them locally from the reply. With it on, the matter's recorded identifiers (its name and number and the parties you've entered) and pattern-matched ones (emails, phone numbers, addresses, ABNs/ACNs, court file numbers) are always swapped, and on-device name detection widens this to names found in the document text. It is an automated aid, not guaranteed anonymisation — a name nobody recorded may not be caught, and with masking off the full text is sent — so review what is being sent, and leave a matter local where complete anonymisation is required. The privacy page walks through both features in detail.
The update check
Lexware checks our release feed over HTTPS to learn whether a newer version exists. That request carries no matter content — and no update installs without your say-so (more below).
The licence check — only once you activate a subscription
Lexware is free while it's in beta, and in that state it makes no licence check at all. If a paid subscription is activated, the app confirms it is current by checking in with our licence service when it starts and about once a day while you're online. That check carries only an opaque subscription identifier, over an encrypted connection — its request includes none of your matters, their content, or anything about what you opened or how you worked — and there is no such check unless and until you activate a subscription.
Billing is separate from that check. Subscriptions are processed by Stripe (Lexware Pty Ltd is the merchant of record). Our small billing / licence Worker necessarily holds the subscriber contact details Stripe provides for billing and licence administration — typically name and email, with subscription status and period dates — so we can issue and maintain the licence. That is billing data about you as a customer, not matter content. Card numbers are handled by Stripe under its own terms; Lexware does not store full card details.
Problem reports — never automatic
Nothing is reported home when something goes wrong. The in-app "report a problem" simply opens a pre-filled email containing the app version and your operating system version; you read it and you send it, or you don't.
That is the whole list for the running app. With cloud AI off — the state every matter starts in — the only internet connections Lexware makes are the update check and, if you activate a subscription, the periodic licence check (opaque id only). Matter content leaves the machine only when you switch on a cloud feature for that matter and send a request. Separately, Stripe and the billing Worker hold subscriber contact details for billing — never your briefs.
What we deliberately don't build
Some of the strongest security decisions are the features that don't exist:
- No telemetry and no analytics. The app does not phone home to tell us what you opened, how long you worked or which features you used. We have no dashboard of your behaviour, because nothing feeds one.
- No accounts and no cloud storage. There is no Lexware login, no sync service and no server-side copy of any matter.
- No third-party SDKs watching the app. No crash reporters, ad tech or usage trackers are embedded in the software — and this website runs no JavaScript and no analytics either.
- No cloud backups behind your back. The built-in backup writes only to a local folder you choose, and Lexware warns you if you point it at a cloud-synced folder like Dropbox.
Diagnostic logs — paths and events, not content
Lexware keeps a small local log to help diagnose problems. It records file paths and event names, never the content of your documents. Because a path can include a file or folder name — which might carry a matter or party name — glance over a log and redact before you choose to send one with a problem report. Logs, like everything else, are never transmitted automatically.
Signed builds, verified updates
Every macOS build is code-signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarised by Apple — the operating system verifies both before the app runs. Updates are delivered over HTTPS and each one is checked against a signing key pinned inside the app you already have: an update that is not signed with our key will not install. And updates only ever install when you choose — Lexware tells you a new version exists and waits for you.
Your data is yours — files on your disk
Your matters live in one folder — on macOS, ~/Library/Application Support/Lexware/ — as plain files and SQLite databases you can inspect with standard tools. Copying that folder captures everything Lexware manages, with one deliberate exception: a brief you imported by pointing Lexware at an existing folder is indexed in place, read-only, and stays exactly where it was — include those original folders in any archive too. There is no export ritual and no lock-in. The built-in backup writes an encrypted snapshot — one matter or all of them — to a local folder you choose, protected by a passphrase you set. Each snapshot is verified as it's written: Lexware reopens the archive with your passphrase and runs the same end-to-end check a restore would, so a backup that couldn't be restored fails at the moment you make it rather than the moment you need it. Settings lists every backup with its scope, size, encryption and verification status and a re-check on each row, and the reminder tracks the matter longest without a verified copy.
Two things worth knowing for the at-rest picture. First, Lexware relies on your Mac's full-disk encryption (FileVault) rather than adding its own encryption layer — check that FileVault is on for any machine holding privileged material. Second, keep the Lexware data folder out of cloud-sync tools: syncing it would move matter content off your machine by a route Lexware cannot see.
You control where your matter data lives, who can reach it, and how it is retained or destroyed — the same way you control a paper brief in chambers.
What about SOC 2 and the like?
Certifications such as SOC 2 exist to audit a vendor's controls over customer data the vendor hosts on its own servers. Lexware hosts none of your matter content, so the thing those certificates are designed to police — a vendor's server full of client data — does not exist here. We would rather you weigh the architecture on this page than a badge: no server holding your briefs beats a certificate about how carefully a server is run. We don't hold a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification, and for this architecture we don't believe one would tell you anything this page doesn't.
Reporting a security concern
If you find, or suspect, a security problem in Lexware or this website, write to support@lexware.ai — it reaches the developer directly, and security reports are read first. Please don't include privileged or client material in a report.
For how the product treats matter content in plain language, see How Lexware handles your data. For the formal Privacy Act 1988 / Australian Privacy Principles policy covering website visitors, beta testers, and billing data, see the Privacy policy.
Request beta access How Lexware handles your data Privacy policy