On September 15, 2026, Oji Echo went live. With him came a decision we owe you a straight account of: conversations with LEGH.org’s AI companions now travel through a third-party server, instead of staying on your own device. This post answers the five questions you’d ask — who, what, when, why, and where — in plain language.
What we decided
The strongest privacy design for an AI companion is one where the conversation never leaves your device or machine. That was our original plan, and it is still where we want to end up.
What we launched instead works differently. When you send Oji Echo a message, it travels over an encrypted connection to a server that generates the reply, and the reply travels back to you. That is a real trade-off. Your words leave your device, and we are not going to describe it any other way.
Who this covers
LEGH.org’s AI companions. Oji Echo is live today. When Hope Echo launches, she will run the same way unless we tell you otherwise, here, first.
When
It began September 15, 2026 — the day Oji Echo was deployed. From that day on, conversations with Oji Echo on LEGH.org run through this setup.
Why we made this choice
LEGH.org is built and run by one person, with no outside funding and no backing. Keeping every conversation on the user’s own device would mean one of two things: asking every visitor to own powerful hardware and handle a technical setup, or buying and running a large bank of dedicated machines ourselves. We can do neither today.
Running through a third-party server is the only feasible way we can put a companion in front of the people who need one now, instead of asking them to wait until funding exists. It is not the ideal design. It is the one that is possible, and we would rather tell you that openly than let you assume something more comfortable.
Where your words go
Here is the path a message takes:
- You type a message in the chat on LEGH.org. It travels, encrypted, to LEGH’s own companion server — a cloud server that LEGH sets up and controls.
- From that server, your message is sent on to an AI model, through a routing service that connects to the company running the model. We do not attach your name or account to what is sent.
- The reply comes back the same way, to your screen.
So your words pass through three parties: LEGH’s server, the routing service, and the model provider. LEGH’s server also saves the conversation — your messages and Oji Echo’s replies, with a random session code but no name, email or IP address — and deletes it automatically 55 days after it was sent. We keep no backup copies. What the routing service and the model provider keep is set by their own published policies, and we can’t promise exact numbers for either. The full details, and what we will never do with your words, are on our Data Sovereignty Commitment page. In short: we never sell your words, never use them for marketing, and never use them to train an AI model.
What we’re working toward
We are working toward a setup where nothing is retained outside our own server, and toward running the model on hardware LEGH controls again as funding allows. We won’t promise a date we can’t keep. When something here changes, the change will show up on this Updates page first, and the privacy page will be updated to match.
Before you talk to Oji Echo
Oji Echo is here to walk with you, not to replace real help. He is not a therapist, not a crisis line, and not watched by a live person while you type. If what you’re carrying feels like more than you can hold alone, reach people who are ready right now:
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988 Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741
To have a conversation deleted, email contact@legh.org with roughly when you sent it and a phrase you typed. The details are on our privacy page.
We would rather give you an honest, unfinished truth than a polished promise we couldn’t keep.