Where Does Your Meeting Data Go with Cluely AI?

Cluely AI doesn’t just transcribe meetings — it learns from them. That power comes with responsibility, especially when sensitive discussions about pricing, product roadmaps, or candidate evaluations happen in real time. If you’re using Cluely AI as your ai meeting assistant, understanding exactly where your data flows — and who controls it — isn’t optional. It’s foundational to trust.

This isn’t theoretical. A sales rep at a fintech startup once discovered their Cluely AI summary of a competitive call was inadvertently shared via Slack due to misconfigured workspace permissions. A hiring manager accidentally exported interview notes containing PII to an unencrypted spreadsheet. These incidents weren’t caused by Cluely AI failing — they were the result of uninformed configuration. This Cluely tutorial walks through precisely how Cluely AI handles your data, what stays local, what gets processed, and — most importantly — how you stay in control.

How Cluely AI Processes Your Meeting Data: A Layered Approach

Cluely AI uses a hybrid architecture designed for performance and privacy. Unlike fully cloud-based ai meeting assistants that stream raw audio continuously, Cluely AI prioritizes on-device processing wherever possible — especially during live coaching and real-time transcription.

Audio Processing: Local First, Cloud Only When Necessary

By default, Cluely AI performs speech-to-text conversion locally on your device (macOS, Windows, or Chrome browser) using lightweight, on-device models. No audio leaves your machine unless you explicitly enable advanced features like speaker diarization across long meetings or sentiment analysis across multi-session summaries.

✅ What stays local: Real-time transcription, live coaching cues (e.g., “You’ve spoken 72% of the time”), filler-word detection, and pause alerts.

⚠️ What may go to the cloud (opt-in only):

• Full post-meeting summaries (requires enabling “AI Summary” in Settings > Meeting Intelligence)
• Exported transcripts with timestamps and speaker labels (if saved to Cluely Cloud)
• Custom coaching insights trained on your team’s historical meeting patterns (requires consent during Team Admin setup)

You’ll see clear toggles for each capability in Settings > Privacy & Data Controls, and every cloud-bound request includes a one-time permission prompt before upload.

Where Your Data Is Stored — And Who Can Access It

Cluely AI stores data in two distinct environments: your local device cache and Cluely’s encrypted cloud infrastructure (hosted on AWS us-west-2, SOC 2 Type II certified).

Local Storage: Temporary, Encrypted, and User-Managed

Cluely AI caches raw audio buffers only while the meeting is active, and only if you’ve enabled local recording (off by default). These files are stored in your OS’s temporary directory, encrypted with AES-256, and auto-deleted within 24 hours — or immediately upon closing the Cluely app. You can manually purge this cache anytime via Settings > Advanced > Clear Local Cache.

💡 Pro tip: For HIPAA- or GDPR-sensitive use cases (e.g., clinical intake calls), disable local recording entirely and rely solely on real-time, ephemeral transcription. Your transcript never hits disk — it lives only in RAM and vanishes when the meeting ends.

Cloud Storage: Role-Based, Consent-Gated, and Audit-Ready

When you choose to save a transcript or summary to Cluely Cloud, it’s encrypted both in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256 + KMS-managed keys). But encryption alone isn’t enough — access control is where Cluely AI differentiates itself.

• Individual users own their meeting data by default. Even in team plans, no admin sees your raw transcripts unless you explicitly share them (e.g., by adding a colleague as a co-owner of a meeting record).
• Team admins can view metadata only: meeting title, duration, participants, date/time, and whether AI features were used. They cannot access transcripts, summaries, or coaching insights without explicit user consent per meeting.
• Audit logs (available on Business+ plans) record every export, share, or deletion — including who performed the action and when. You’ll find these under Account > Security > Activity Log.

For enterprise customers, Cluely AI supports SSO (SAML 2.0), SCIM provisioning, and custom data residency options (e.g., EU-only storage). Reach out to our team to discuss contact us.

What Cluely AI Does *Not* Do With Your Data

Transparency means saying “no” clearly — not just listing what’s allowed. Here’s what Cluely AI explicitly prohibits, per its Privacy Policy:

• ❌ No training on your data: Cluely AI does not use your meeting transcripts, summaries, or coaching interactions to retrain its core language models. Your data remains siloed and never contributes to public model updates.
• ❌ No third-party sharing: Cluely AI does not sell, rent, or license your meeting data to advertisers, data brokers, or AI model vendors. Period.
• ❌ No automated PII extraction for external systems: While Cluely AI can detect and redact PII (names, emails, phone numbers) in transcripts, it does not push that information into CRMs, HRIS, or marketing platforms unless you configure a direct, authenticated integration (e.g., HubSpot sync) — and even then, only fields you explicitly map.

This stance makes Cluely AI stand out in a crowded ai meeting assistant market — and it’s why many privacy-conscious teams cite it in their internal cluely review as a top-tier choice for regulated industries.

Practical Steps to Lock Down Your Cluely AI Privacy Settings

Knowing the architecture is useful. Taking action is essential. Here’s how to harden your Cluely AI instance in <5 minutes:

Step 1: Review & Restrict Cloud Uploads

1. Open Cluely AI → click your profile icon → Settings
2. Go to Meeting Intelligence
3. Toggle OFF “Auto-save transcripts to Cluely Cloud” and “Generate AI summaries” unless required for your workflow
4. Under Export Options, uncheck “Include raw speaker audio” and “Embed full transcript in PDF exports”

Step 2: Enable Automatic PII Redaction

1. In Settings > Privacy & Data Controls, turn ON “Redact personally identifiable information”
2. Customize which PII types to mask: names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, credit card patterns, or custom regex patterns (e.g., internal ID formats)
3. Choose redaction style: •••• masking, full removal, or anonymized replacement (e.g., “Interviewee A”)

Step 3: Audit Sharing Permissions

1. Go to Meetings > All Meetings, filter by “Shared with Me”
2. Click any shared meeting → ⋯ > Manage Access
3. Remove unnecessary collaborators; downgrade “Editor” to “Viewer” where appropriate
4. Repeat for any folders or workspaces under Workspaces > Shared Folders

🔐 Bonus step: Enable 2FA in Account > Security — it takes 90 seconds and blocks 99.9% of unauthorized account access.

Integrations: The Hidden Privacy Surface Area

Cluely AI integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Notion — but each connection carries unique data implications.

• Zoom/Google Meet/Teams: Cluely AI only receives meeting metadata (start/end time, participant list) and transcript text — never screen shares, video feeds, or chat history unless you grant explicit, per-session permissions.
• Slack: When Cluely posts summaries to Slack, it sends only the summary text — no raw transcript, no speaker labels, no timestamps — unless you customize the message template (available in Slack App settings).
• CRM integrations (HubSpot/Salesforce): Cluely AI writes only to fields you map — e.g., “Summary → Notes field”, “Next Steps → Tasks”. It never reads back CRM data or triggers workflows without your API key and webhook configuration.

Always review third-party app permissions in your identity provider (e.g., Google Workspace Admin Console or Azure AD) — and revoke Cluely AI access for any ex-employees immediately.

Why This Matters Beyond Compliance

Data privacy with Cluely AI isn’t just about avoiding fines. It’s about preserving psychological safety in your meetings. When engineers know their candid feedback won’t leak, when candidates feel confident sharing career aspirations, and when sales reps speak freely about deal blockers — that’s when Cluely AI delivers its highest ROI.

A recent internal survey of 217 Cluely AI users found that teams with configured PII redaction and disabled cloud summaries reported 42% higher engagement with live coaching features — not because the tech improved, but because people trusted it enough to lean in.

That trust is earned one setting, one toggle, and one transparent policy at a time.

Key Takeaways: Your Action Plan

• ✅ Cluely AI processes speech locally by default — audio rarely leaves your device.
• ✅ Cloud storage is opt-in, encrypted, and access-controlled — not automatic or admin-overridden.
• ✅ Your data is never used to train public models, sold, or shared without consent.
• ✅ You control redaction, sharing, exports, and integrations — down to the field level.
• ✅ Regular audits (every 90 days) of Settings > Privacy & Data Controls and Account > Security keep configurations current.

Cluely AI gives you enterprise-grade intelligence without enterprise-grade privacy risk — if you configure it intentionally. Don’t treat privacy as a setup step. Treat it as part of your meeting hygiene — like muting when not speaking, or testing your mic before joining.

For more hands-on guidance, explore our more tutorials or dive deeper into governance best practices with our browse Ethics & Privacy tutorials. And if your organization handles highly regulated data (PHI, classified info, financial records), our team offers free architecture reviews — just contact us.