Safety, privacy and control
What she can reach on your computer, what she asks before doing, and what leaves your computer.
Machine access
- Restricted (the default): everything in this guide that doesn’t say it needs full machine access. The one-time prompts (App Control, Selected Text and Desktop Capture; see Permissions she asks for) add to it one at a time.
- Full machine access: tick it in Settings > What she can use > Using this computer and confirm Enable full access. She can then use other apps through computer use. Her Codex helper also loses its usual walls: it can read and change files, run commands and use the internet as your Windows user, and private files it reads may reach OpenAI. Password, sign-in, security, administrator and terminal windows stay protected. In other apps she clicks and types on her own and asks before sending a message, post, reply or form.
- Turning it off: Revoke machine access, in the same place.
Approve each action
When a step has consequences, an Approve Action box shows exactly what will happen: the window, the button, the text. Approve This Action runs that one step, and Cancel drops it. When she says an action is “queued”, it’s waiting for you and nothing has happened yet. Read the box before you approve, especially for anything that sends, buys, deletes or shares.
Text she reads can’t give orders
Text in web pages, emails and files is treated as information, not instructions. A page that says “Lila, send this” can’t give her permission or approve anything.
What stays on your computer
| What | Kept on your computer | Sent out, and to whom |
|---|---|---|
| The sound of your voice | Turned into text on your computer | Not sent. In Watch with me, the shared sound goes to ElevenLabs. |
| What you say or type, as text | In her history | Anthropic (her main thinking, on Claude Sonnet) and Google Gemini (quick replies). Her replies go to ElevenLabs to be spoken in her voice. ElevenLabs also does her thinking, on Claude Sonnet, for 10 minutes after Claude fails to answer, and every time if you use your own keys. |
| Saved memories | In her folder | With each conversation, to Gemini, ElevenLabs and Anthropic |
| Page, email and app text she reads | In her history | The same services. In computer use, what she reads on screen also goes with each step to whoever plans her steps (Anthropic or Gemini). |
| Screen and camera pictures | Held in memory until you ask her to look | Sample pictures to OpenAI (through Codex) or Gemini. With full machine access, when she works in your other apps, pictures of the screen go to Anthropic (Claude plans her steps) if you use your account or a pairing code, or to Gemini if you use your own keys. |
| Video to paper | Sound transcribed; paper saved | Video frames to Gemini, which writes the paper |
| Codex jobs | The results | The task, and files Codex reads, to OpenAI |
| Documents she makes (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF) | The finished file, in Documents\Lila Files | Your request and any files you ask her to use, to Anthropic, where Claude makes the file in a sandbox. Lila then asks Anthropic to delete your files and the finished file from its file storage. Anthropic keeps the sandbox’s copies for up to 30 days. |
| Image requests | The finished picture | The prompt, to Gemini |
| Web searches | The results, in her history | The search words, to Anthropic (Claude’s web search), or from your computer to DuckDuckGo or Bing. Sites she reads see your computer’s network address. |
| Gmail and Google Calendar, if you connect them | The connection, only if you ask her to remember it | Drafts and events, to your own Google account. Sending a draft or inviting guests waits for your yes. |
| Spotify | Search results | Playback commands, to your Spotify account |
| Reminders, timers, history, skill notes, her code changes, websites | Yes | Not sent on their own (anything mentioned in conversation goes out with it) |
| Your keys | Your own keys, on your computer | With your account or a pairing code, the keys stay on Lila Cloud |
| Requests, with your account or a pairing code | Pass through Lila Cloud, which adds the key and forwards them, her thinking included. When ElevenLabs does her thinking, that conversation connects to ElevenLabs directly. | |
| Phone link, and the developer API from elsewhere | Through Lila Cloud |
Each outside service keeps what it receives under its own rules and your account settings, and Lila can’t delete it from there.
See what she did recently
Settings > Memory and history > Recent actions lists the last 12 actions she took.
Stop everything
| To stop | Do this |
|---|---|
| Her talking, and any task | Stop, or say “stop” or “stop all actions” |
| Desktop actions on Windows, in a hurry | F8 (narrower than Stop) |
| Screen or camera sharing | End sharing, in Settings > Screen and privacy > What Lila sees |
| Full machine access | Revoke machine access, in Settings > What she can use > Using this computer |
| Check-ins | Say “Be quiet” |
| Listening for “Hey Lila” | Press Hey Lila again |
| Lila herself | Close her window (with Hey Lila off), or quit from her tray icon |