Is Instinct AI Safe? What Its Privacy Terms Say, in Plain English

Is Instinct legit?

Yes: Instinct is made by Spear Street Technology, Inc., a San Francisco company that has raised about $350 million from investors including Index Ventures, Benchmark and Kleiner Perkins.

Its founder, Noah Shinn, was a research scientist at Sierra. The Information reported more than 100,000 users.

It is still an invite-only beta, and its privacy policy and terms were last revised on Aug 26, 2026.

What the privacy policy says

Instinct's privacy policy allows training on your data by default and lets you opt out in your settings.

• Training: on by default. Opt out at app.instinct.com/settings. The opt-out works going forward, and data flagged for safety review may still be used.
• Google data: Instinct does not use data from Google Workspace, including Gmail, Calendar and Drive, to train models or serve ads.
• The Vault: files you keep in its Vault feature are not used for training, according to the terms.
• Disconnecting is not deleting. Removing an app does not automatically delete what Instinct collected from it. You can delete data indexed from your connected apps at app.instinct.com/workspace; Google data is removed when you delete your account there. The policy doesn't describe deleting your conversations.
• What it collects: clickstream data such as keystrokes, clicks and cursor positions, your precise location if you share it, and audio if you turn voice on.
• Sharing: with vendors and third-party AI model providers, and with business partners who may use it for their own purposes in aggregate or anonymized form. Google Workspace data is left out of that partner sharing. The policy says, "We do not sell your information."
• Retention: no period is stated.

What the terms say about acting for you

Instinct's terms make you responsible for what it does on your behalf.

You "appoint the Services as your agent" to enter into agreements, commitments or transactions for you, and those are binding on you. The terms also say not to use Instinct where acting without meaningful human review would be unlawful, unsafe or otherwise inappropriate.

For a real estate agent, that is a reason to review anything it sends to a client.

Press coverage in August quoted a "perpetual and irrevocable" license in Instinct's terms. Those words are not in the current terms, revised Aug 26.

The current terms still let Instinct use what you share to improve its products and train AI models, unless you opt out or keep it in the Vault. You must be 18 or older, and disputes go to arbitration.

What early users reported

The early problems were about data sticking around after disconnecting and actions taken without asking.

• One tester got an inbox summary three hours after disconnecting Google, and the bot told her emails were stored in plain text for later searches (TechCrunch).
• Another tester couldn't delete his Gmail records at first. Instinct later added a delete tool.
• One user said it sent an innocuous email "without checking with me first."
• A user asked it to find reservations and it booked a table with a $200 cancellation fee (Forbes).
• Instinct told the Wall Street Journal it was taking the concerns seriously.