{"slug": "confer", "name": "Confer", "category": "ai", "category_name": "AI tools and apps", "description": "", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 12, "warners": 3, "score": 2.858, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-12-30", "latest": "2026-10-31", "why": "If you want privacy the only option that reasonably delivers is Moxie's https://confer.to", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 4, "compare": 0, "warn": 4}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "If you want privacy the only option that reasonably delivers is Moxie's https://confer.to", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "confer.to", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://confer.to", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Confer"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 805020721, "item_id": 50313795, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50313795", "by": "DavideNL", "date": "2026-10-31", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there's also AI services with better privacy than the mainstream ones, for example: https://confer.to/", "excerpt": "Well, alternatively there's also AI services with better privacy than the mainstream ones, for example: https://confer.to/", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton goes all in on using AI"}, {"id": 757188720, "item_id": 47324295, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47324295", "by": "boramalper", "date": "2026-03-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "see Confer [0] by Moxie Marlinspike", "excerpt": "If you're interested in \"private AI\", see Confer [0] by Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Signal private messaging app. They go into more detail in their blog. [1] [0] https://confer.to/ [1] https://confer.to/blog/2025/12/confessions-to-a-data-lake/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Intel Demos Chip to Compute with Encrypted Data"}, {"id": 755169792, "item_id": 47198112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47198112", "by": "xvector", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you want privacy the only option that reasonably delivers is Moxie's https://confer.to", "excerpt": "If you want privacy the only option that reasonably delivers is Moxie's https://confer.to But tbh I just switched to Anthropic, they need all the support they can get. Claude is great for question/answer.", "context": "", "use_case": "private AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI Executes Agreement with Dept of War for Classified Environment Deployment"}, {"id": 747318162, "item_id": 46707385, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46707385", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My eyes are on proton lumo & confer.to", "excerpt": "Edit from my previous comment: Actually tried Kagi assistant through orion/signed up and its really good (GLM 4.7) but still there is some amount of tracking/logs still kept https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/llms-privacy.html I also didn't find in kagi what provider its using for glm 4.7 (I am assuming the same as glm 4.6) which is Cerebras,DeepInfra,Fireworks.ai and some of these use large companies like aws etc. so you", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI is rolling out age prediction"}, {"id": 747158192, "item_id": 46697387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46697387", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-01-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am kinda more optimistic about it too", "excerpt": "If we are talking about complete privacy. I am trying out https://confer.to (created by signal team) too and I am unable to run it on my mac (passkey support)(I tried it both in zen & orion) but I tried it on an android chrome (tablet) and I am kinda more optimistic about it too I have heard good things about Kagi in fact, that's the reason why I tried orion and still have it in the first place but I haven't bought K", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI is rolling out age prediction"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 755099552, "item_id": 47193722, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47193722", "by": "DavideNL", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "So i now have an account, but can only use it on my Desktop.", "excerpt": "Somewhat related, i recently ran into the issue, after i created an account on Confer.to [1] on my Desktop, i couldn't login on my iPad / iOS with Proton Pass and/or Bitwarden. The error message was: \"Error: \"Authenticator did not return a PRF result \u2014 this passkey probably isn\u2019t PRF-capable.\" So i now have an account, but can only use it on my Desktop. (can't change to a password login either, it's Passkeys only...)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't use passkeys for encrypting user data"}, {"id": 746338512, "item_id": 46646157, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46646157", "by": "colesantiago", "date": "2026-01-16", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Make of that what you will.", "excerpt": "The website is: https://confer.to/ \"Confer - Truly private AI. Your space to think.\" \"Your Data Remains Yours, Never trained on. Never sold. Never shared. Nobody can access it but you.\" \"Continue With Google\" Make of that what you will.", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging"}, {"id": 745698848, "item_id": 46606178, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46606178", "by": "crtasm", "date": "2026-01-13", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "That is funny it won't even show us the homepage.", "excerpt": "That is funny it won't even show us the homepage. We are allowed into the blog though! https://confer.to/blog/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["private ai chat", "encrypted ai chat", "account login", "private ai inference"], "compared": [{"slug": "bitwarden", "name": "Bitwarden", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "proton-pass", "name": "Proton Pass", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "kagi-assistant", "name": "Kagi Assistant", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "proton-lumo", "name": "Proton Lumo", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46600401", "title": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47189749", "title": "Don't use passkeys for encrypting user data", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46696699", "title": "OpenAI is rolling out age prediction", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296602", "title": "Proton goes all in on using AI", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689048", "title": "Registration without a phone number on Signal will use zero-knowledge proofs", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47870901", "title": "OpenAI model for masking personally identifiable information (PII) in text", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 2, "warn": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 805020721, "item_id": 50313795, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50313795", "by": "DavideNL", "date": "2026-10-31", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "there's also AI services with better privacy than the mainstream ones, for example: https://confer.to/", "excerpt": "Well, alternatively there's also AI services with better privacy than the mainstream ones, for example: https://confer.to/", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Proton goes all in on using AI"}, {"id": 795121328, "item_id": 49695083, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49695083", "by": "blfr", "date": "2026-09-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "he does have an AI chat/inference based on enclaves!", "excerpt": "The fondness for TEEs is mostly Moxie's and I think he's not involved with Signal anymore. But he does have an AI chat/inference based on enclaves! https://confer.to/blog/2026/09/confidential-workers-for-private-ai/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Registration without a phone number on Signal will use zero-knowledge proofs"}, {"id": 766547680, "item_id": 47909230, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909230", "by": "blfr", "date": "2026-04-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "This is very cool because it allows you to use any model. Obviously, it still lets the model and its operator see the entire context of the conversation. I quite like Moxie's Confer[1] approach to just encrypt the whole thing in such a way that no one except the end-user sees the plaintext. [1] https://confer.to/", "context": "", "use_case": "Encrypted AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI model for masking personally identifiable information (PII) in text"}, {"id": 760453856, "item_id": 47528366, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47528366", "by": "yellowpug", "date": "2026-03-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "https://confer.to/", "context": "", "use_case": "private AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Personal Encyclopedias"}, {"id": 757188720, "item_id": 47324295, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47324295", "by": "boramalper", "date": "2026-03-10", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "see Confer [0] by Moxie Marlinspike", "excerpt": "If you're interested in \"private AI\", see Confer [0] by Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Signal private messaging app. They go into more detail in their blog. [1] [0] https://confer.to/ [1] https://confer.to/blog/2025/12/confessions-to-a-data-lake/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Intel Demos Chip to Compute with Encrypted Data"}, {"id": 755263314, "item_id": 47203957, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47203957", "by": "peterspath", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Some password managers do not support the PRF extension yet. ProtonPass is one of them that does not: https://www.passkeyprf.com", "context": "", "use_case": "Account login", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't use passkeys for encrypting user data"}, {"id": 755169792, "item_id": 47198112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47198112", "by": "xvector", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you want privacy the only option that reasonably delivers is Moxie's https://confer.to", "excerpt": "If you want privacy the only option that reasonably delivers is Moxie's https://confer.to But tbh I just switched to Anthropic, they need all the support they can get. Claude is great for question/answer.", "context": "", "use_case": "private AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI Executes Agreement with Dept of War for Classified Environment Deployment"}, {"id": 755099552, "item_id": 47193722, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47193722", "by": "DavideNL", "date": "2026-02-28", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "So i now have an account, but can only use it on my Desktop.", "excerpt": "Somewhat related, i recently ran into the issue, after i created an account on Confer.to [1] on my Desktop, i couldn't login on my iPad / iOS with Proton Pass and/or Bitwarden. The error message was: \"Error: \"Authenticator did not return a PRF result \u2014 this passkey probably isn\u2019t PRF-capable.\" So i now have an account, but can only use it on my Desktop. (can't change to a password login either, it's Passkeys only...)", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Don't use passkeys for encrypting user data"}, {"id": 747318162, "item_id": 46707385, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46707385", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-01-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My eyes are on proton lumo & confer.to", "excerpt": "Edit from my previous comment: Actually tried Kagi assistant through orion/signed up and its really good (GLM 4.7) but still there is some amount of tracking/logs still kept https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/llms-privacy.html I also didn't find in kagi what provider its using for glm 4.7 (I am assuming the same as glm 4.6) which is Cerebras,DeepInfra,Fireworks.ai and some of these use large companies like aws etc. so you", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI is rolling out age prediction"}, {"id": 747158192, "item_id": 46697387, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46697387", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-01-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am kinda more optimistic about it too", "excerpt": "If we are talking about complete privacy. I am trying out https://confer.to (created by signal team) too and I am unable to run it on my mac (passkey support)(I tried it both in zen & orion) but I tried it on an android chrome (tablet) and I am kinda more optimistic about it too I have heard good things about Kagi in fact, that's the reason why I tried orion and still have it in the first place but I haven't bought K", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI is rolling out age prediction"}, {"id": 746338512, "item_id": 46646157, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46646157", "by": "colesantiago", "date": "2026-01-16", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Make of that what you will.", "excerpt": "The website is: https://confer.to/ \"Confer - Truly private AI. Your space to think.\" \"Your Data Remains Yours, Never trained on. Never sold. Never shared. Nobody can access it but you.\" \"Continue With Google\" Make of that what you will.", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging"}, {"id": 745791136, "item_id": 46611946, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46611946", "by": "roughly", "date": "2026-01-13", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "That\u2019s true, but it\u2019s still a distinct threat model from \u201cwe use the API of a company run by one of the least trustworthy humans on the planet.\u201d We can talk through side channel attacks and whatnot, but we\u2019re discussing issues with Confer\u2019s implementation, not trusting a different third party.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging"}, {"id": 745722688, "item_id": 46607668, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46607668", "by": "internet_points", "date": "2026-01-13", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "claim that your client can confirm (attest) that the code they run doesn't leak your data", "excerpt": "> you're still exposing your data to Confer They use a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_execution_environment and iiuc claim that your client can confirm (attest) that the code they run doesn't leak your data, see https://confer.to/blog/2026/01/private-inference/ So you should be able to run https://github.com/conferlabs/confer-image yourself and get a hash of that and then confer.to will send you that same hash", "context": "", "use_case": "Private AI inference", "switched_from": "", "story": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging"}, {"id": 745698848, "item_id": 46606178, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46606178", "by": "crtasm", "date": "2026-01-13", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "That is funny it won't even show us the homepage.", "excerpt": "That is funny it won't even show us the homepage. We are allowed into the blog though! https://confer.to/blog/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging"}, {"id": 745661696, "item_id": 46603856, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46603856", "by": "roughly", "date": "2026-01-13", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Looks like Confer is hosting its own inference", "excerpt": "Looks like Confer is hosting its own inference: https://confer.to/blog/2026/01/private-inference/ > LLMs are fundamentally stateless\u2014input in, output out\u2014which makes them ideal for this environment. For Confer, we run inference inside a confidential VM. Your prompts are encrypted from your device directly into the TEE using Noise Pipes, processed there, and responses are encrypted back. The host never sees plaintext.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike wants to do for AI what he did for messaging"}, {"id": 743007680, "item_id": 46437980, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437980", "by": "3s", "date": "2025-12-30", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "While Confer hasn\u2019t released the technical details yet", "excerpt": "It uses confidential computing primitives like Intel TDX and NVIDIA CC, available on the latest generations of GPUs. Secure hardware like this is a building block to enable verifiably private computation without having to trust the operator. While Confer hasn\u2019t released the technical details yet, you can see in the web inspector that they use TDX in the backend by examining the attestation logs. This is a similar arc", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Confessions to a Data Lake"}]}