---
title: "Privacy shouldn't be a setting. It should be the foundation."
description: "Why Cognos exists, what we hold ourselves to, and the small Swiss team building AI that's private by architecture, not by policy."
source: "https://cognos.io/about"
locale: "en-GB"
---

# Privacy shouldn't be a setting. It should be the foundation.

We build AI that's private by architecture, not by policy - because a promise can be broken and a subpoena can be answered, but maths can't be argued with.

## The most private thing you own shouldn't live on someone else's server, readable.

Every AI assistant sees your unfinished thoughts before anyone else does - your health questions, your finances, the message you're drafting to your boss. Most of that gets kept, readable, indefinitely, on infrastructure you don't control and can't audit.

We didn't think that trade-off was necessary. The idea of keeping no readable copy isn't new - it's how private messaging has worked for over a decade. We built Cognos to bring it to AI: your chats are saved locked, opened only by a key you hold, so the assistant works exactly the same - but there's nothing left for us to leak, sell, or be forced to hand over.

We're based in Switzerland, deliberately - one of the strongest privacy and data-protection regimes anywhere, and a useful forcing function to build things right the first time.

> We built it so the only copy we keep is one we can't read. That's not a promise - it's something you can verify.
>
> Cognos engineering principles

## Four principles, no exceptions

- **Privacy by architecture**: If a feature would require us to read your data, we don't ship it. No exceptions for growth or convenience.
- **Swiss sovereignty**: Run out of one of the world's strongest privacy regimes, by choice.
- **Open by default**: The parts that touch your data are open for inspection. Trust us less - verify us instead.
- **No dark patterns**: Privacy isn't a buried toggle. It's on by default, and it stays that way.

## Built deliberately, not quickly

Good encryption doesn't reward moving fast. Each step was reviewed before it shipped.

- **2024 · Luzern** - **Cognos created**: Started with a single question: why does using AI mean giving up your privacy?
- **2025** - **Public launch for individuals**: Individuals can sign up: private chat, self-deleting messages, and a key only you hold.
- **2025** - **Expansion**: Feature expansion to image generation, security and better models.

## Small, and deliberately so

A focused group spanning cryptography, product, and Swiss-grade infrastructure - small enough that nobody ships a shortcut unnoticed.

- **Cryptography**: Protocol design & reviews
- **Infrastructure**: Swiss & European hosting
- **Product & design**: Making privacy legible
- **Support**: Humans, not bots