Equs Inc., a startup developing a trust layer for artificial intelligence data, today announced the launch of Equs X, a personal AI that lets customers retain control of their information.

Equs X pairs a personal AI with private data storage the user manages. The company said the AI model reads nothing unless the user allows it, file by file, and access is controlled by a toggle. The AI keeps what it learns in private storage rather than on the model provider’s servers.

“Most AIs now on the market require you to trade data ownership for speed and usability,” said Chief Executive Sandy Carter. “To Equs, that trade is unwarranted and most likely, short-lived.”

Carter added that customers want personal AI assistants, but they want assistants that help them without breaching their privacy. Too often, AI models are trained on user data; they are used to display advertisements, inform the company that runs the model about the customer or can leak sensitive information.

Because Equs X reads from the customer’s own storage, rather than copying it into a separate profile, revoking access ends access immediately. When access is denied, it’s not a deletion request to a provider that has already taken the data.

Headlines about users whose AI chats were exposed to the world are not hard to find. In August 2025, Google indexed nearly 300,000 Grok conversations, with Forbes counting more than 370,000 – users who pressed “share” created a link that also made chat searchable. Obsidian Security revealed in the same month that a researcher discovered over 143,000 Claude, Copilot and ChatGPT conversations publicly accessible on archive.org – the nonprofit digital archive of websites.

“Private data store means you are entrusting your data to an organization without relinquishing ownership and control of the data to them,” said Carter. “Trust stems from that company not being in the business of using your data.”

Equs X provides a Personal Data Store that delivers a unified data layer owned entirely by the customer, including a granular data switch that allows per-data-point access. This means that a user can choose exactly which documents or details the platform can access and when and retain the ability to revoke that permission.

Users also receive a daily brief, which assembles scheduled tasks and relevant updates sourced strictly from the user’s personal data store.

“What stood out in the Equs X beta was how much control I had over my own AI context: what information I bring in, what the AI can see, and when it gets access,” said Brian Silverman, founder of The Business of AI Roadmap. “As personal AI becomes more useful, that kind of control matters more, not less.”

Although the company’s platform is a consumer product, Equs also built what it calls the Equs Developer Toolkit. It includes a stack for issuing, holding and verifying digital credentials. People, organizations and the AI agents working on their behalf can interact with it. It supports industry-standard protocols and credentials.

Users can join a waitlist for the Equs X platform, opening later this month, which will be free for the first 90 days, but the developer toolkit is invite-only in private beta mode and is currently accepting applications.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Microsoft Designer