The Truth About Legal AI Privacy

About Us

Not all legal AI solutions are built the same. Understanding the differences helps you make informed decisions about your data security.

Key Considerations Our Privacy Architecture
Understanding AI Architecture

Questions Worth Asking

When evaluating legal AI solutions, it's important to understand the technical realities behind privacy claims.

On-Premise AI: What's Possible?

Some solutions claim to run AI models entirely on your servers. This raises important questions about feasibility and performance.

Training and hosting AI models comparable to GPT-4 or Claude requires significant resources - infrastructure that most organizations don't have access to. It's worth investigating how exactly documents are processed and where AI inference actually occurs.

The Critical Privacy Question

Many legal AI solutions are built on top of commercial AI APIs - which is a practical and effective approach. However, this means documents may need to be transmitted to third-party AI providers.

Here's what matters: where are the API keys stored, and who can access them? If the application provider controls the keys, they act as the middleman for all your data. When keys are stored locally on your device with encryption, your documents go directly to the AI provider — the application provider is never in the loop.

Model Choice and Cost Control

With many legal AI providers, you don't get to choose which AI model powers your work. The provider decides whether to use GPT-4, Claude, or a cheaper alternative - and you're locked into their choice regardless of your needs.

More importantly, when providers use cheaper models for routine tasks, those cost savings rarely get passed on to you. You pay the same price whether they're using a premium model or a budget one, while the provider keeps the difference.

The Cost Difference: For 500 typical requests, GPT-4o mini costs around $10 and works perfectly for routine tasks. The same 500 requests on Claude 3 Opus (the most advanced model) costs $190.

That's a 19x price difference. When your encrypted keys are stored locally on your device, you see exactly which model processes each request and keep the cost savings. With other providers who control the keys, you pay a flat rate regardless of which model they use - and they keep the difference.

Complete cost transparency with our real-time cost estimator →

Technical Challenges

  • Training competitive LLMs requires significant capital investment and specialized infrastructure
  • Hosting frontier models requires specialized GPU infrastructure typically beyond standard enterprise setups
  • AI capabilities evolve rapidly - keeping on-premise models current requires continuous updates
  • Model performance degrades without regular updates as language patterns and legal standards evolve
  • Legal reasoning benefits from frontier models with advanced reasoning capabilities

Questions to Ask Vendors

  • Where does AI inference actually occur - on-premise or via API calls to third parties?
  • If documents leave your infrastructure, what data retention policies apply?
  • Where are API keys stored - on the provider's servers or locally encrypted on your device?
  • Can you choose which AI model to use, and do cost savings from cheaper models get passed to you?
  • What audit trails and visibility do you have into data handling practices?
Honest Technology

The inchambers Difference

We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're building an intelligent interface with true privacy.

True Privacy Through Local, Encrypted Keys

Your API keys to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or any provider are stored locally on your device with encryption. Your documents connect directly to the AI provider — they never pass through our servers. DeepSeek AI is available by default as a fallback until you configure your own keys.

  • API keys encrypted and stored locally on your device
  • We cannot act as a middleman for your data
  • You control data retention through your AI provider agreement
  • Switch providers anytime - no vendor lock-in

Guaranteed Privacy By Design

Your documents are processed client-side in your browser using your locally-stored, encrypted API keys. They go directly to your chosen AI provider. We never see them - our architecture makes it technically impossible.

  • Documents never touch our servers
  • Client-side encryption using your local keys
  • Direct browser-to-AI provider communication
  • Your documents stay on your device and go directly to the AI provider

Intelligent Interface, Not Reinventing AI

We don't claim to build better AI models than OpenAI or Anthropic. We build better legal workflows on top of their models.

  • Legal-specific prompt engineering
  • Template library for common legal tasks
  • Workflow automation for legal professionals
  • Always using the latest frontier models

Always Current, Always Powerful

When OpenAI releases GPT-5 or Anthropic releases Claude 4, you get access immediately. No waiting for "on-premise updates."

  • Instant access to new models as they launch
  • No obsolescence risk from frozen versions
  • Test multiple models for quality comparison
  • Choose quality vs. cost for each task

A different approach to legal AI

Transparent architecture. User-controlled privacy. Honest about what's technically possible.

Our Design Philosophy

We focus on building exceptional legal workflows rather than competing with AI research labs.

01

Leverage Frontier Research

Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic invest billions in AI research. By building on top of their models, we can offer cutting-edge capabilities without the overhead of maintaining research labs.

02

Focus on Legal Workflows

Our expertise is in understanding legal processes, not training language models. We invest in features that directly benefit legal professionals - template libraries, smart workflows, and privacy architecture.

03

Stay Current

New AI models are released frequently. With locally-stored keys connecting you directly to AI providers, you get instant access to the latest capabilities without waiting for version updates or migrations.

04

Preserve Quality

Legal work demands sophisticated reasoning. Rather than compromise with smaller models, we give you direct access to frontier AI - you choose the model that best fits each task's requirements.

Our role is to build the best possible interface between legal professionals and AI capabilities - with privacy and control built in from the ground up.

Learn More About Our Approach

Explore our privacy architecture and see how BYOK gives you control over your data and costs.

See Our Privacy Architecture Calculate Your Costs