Privacy policy

TideDesk collects as little as it can. The app has no analytics, advertising or automatic upload service. This page says what does leave your computer, and what we keep when you buy a licence.

The controller for the personal data described here is Gîrlea Cristian-Valeriu PFA, Str. Dimitrie Hârlescu, Sector 2, București, Romania. Contact: support@tidedesk.app.

The app

Between your computers

TideDesk sends screen, system audio, input, optional text clipboard data, chat messages, files and the viewer’s microphone only between the two computers you connect, never through a server. The microphone is off at both ends until the viewer turns it on and the host allows it; the Microsoft Store version asks Windows for microphone access once. Files land in Downloads\TideDesk on the computer that receives them, and either side can refuse them in its settings. Settings and saved computers are stored on your computer. Clipboard sharing is off by default; clipboard contents are not saved to settings or logs.

Finding an internet address (STUN)

While running, the host asks public STUN servers (by default stun.l.google.com and stun.cloudflare.com) for its internet address about every 25 seconds. Each request is 20 bytes with no content; those servers learn the computer's public IP address and port. The viewer asks once when it connects over the internet. This can be turned off or pointed at other servers in Settings.

Introductions by device ID

By default, the host registers its device ID, public certificate and public IP address and port with TideDesk's connection service, rendezvous.tidedesk.app, refreshed about every 25 seconds, so that the service can introduce viewers who ask for that ID. A viewer connecting by device ID tells the service its own public address and which ID it asked for; a viewer that never connects by ID never contacts it. The service keeps this in memory only, logs counts rather than IDs or addresses, and never carries sessions, access codes or any screen, audio, input or clipboard content. Registration can be turned off, or another service named, in Settings.

Anyone who knows a device ID can look it up the same way, and so learn whether that computer is online and its public IP address and port; the host then sends a few small packets toward them to open a path. Knowing the ID is not enough to connect, which still needs the access code, a password or trust. Share a device ID only with people you mean to let connect.

Opening a direct path

Small "punch" packets (42 bytes, no content) go only to the address you typed or the one the service returned. The session then runs directly between your computers; TideDesk never relays it through a server.

Your local network

A viewer connecting by device ID also broadcasts a 24-byte query for that ID on its local network (UDP port 47800), so other computers there can see which ID it looks for. A host answers only queries for its own ID, from its own local network. Nothing of this leaves the local network. Answering can be turned off in Settings.

Problem reports

The app can send a problem report to TideDesk's report service, report.tidedesk.app, only when you press "Send to TideDesk" after seeing the whole report. The service keeps the report's text, the app version and the time. It never stores the sender's IP address: it holds it in memory only, to allow at most 5 reports an hour from one address. An organisation can send its computers' reports to its own service instead, or turn sending off, with administrator settings.

This website

This website adds no analytics scripts or cookies. When you open the home page it reads a small file from tidedesk.app itself, which names the portable ZIP offered there. Our hosting provider may also process technical request data to deliver and protect the site; see Cloudflare's privacy policy.

The home page, Pricing and Your licences are also in Romanian, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Polish. If you choose a language there, or close the line that suggests one, your browser's storage keeps that choice so the line is not offered again. It is never sent anywhere.

When you buy a licence

Paddle.com processes your payment and billing details as merchant of record; see Paddle's privacy notice. Paddle sends us your name, email address, country, the edition bought and the order number, so that we can issue your licence, answer support requests and keep the records the law requires. Romanian accounting law requires 10 years for invoices and supporting records; we keep the rest for as long as the licence is active plus 2 years.

When you activate a licence

A paid licence is activated on each computer you connect from. When you activate or deactivate it, switch your plan, and about once a week after that, TideDesk sends TideDesk's licence service (licence.tidedesk.app):

• the licence ID (for example AL-…);
• the computer's own public key, made on first use and sealed for its Windows account;
• the computer's name, the time and a one-time number, signed with the computer's key.

Nothing else: no app version, no system details, nothing about your sessions or how you use TideDesk.

The service keeps, for each licence: its holder and email (from Paddle), edition, plan and end date; for each activated computer, its public key, name, when it was first activated and when it last checked in, until its place is freed; and a history of purchases, renewals, activations, moves, plan switches and refunds, with Paddle's order numbers. It runs on Cloudflare, with the data kept in Western Europe where available. Our processors are Cloudflare (hosting) and Paddle (payment).

When you write to us

When you email support@tidedesk.app, we use what you send only to answer you and to fix what you report. Bug reports you post on GitHub are public; never post licence or payment details there.

Emails about your licence

After you buy, we email the address you paid with a confirmation of what you bought. When you ask on the licences page, we email it a link that signs you in there. Neither email contains your licence key: you read it on this website only. These emails go out through Resend, which receives your email address and the email's text to deliver them; see Resend's privacy policy. Asking for a link with an address that bought nothing sends nothing and keeps nothing.

Paddle sends its own emails about a purchase: the receipt and the subscription confirmation, and, if you open the checkout and leave without paying, one email offering to continue. Those come from Paddle under its privacy notice, linked above, not from us.

So that the emailed link opens only for the person who asked, the licences page keeps a random value in your browser's storage and sends it, with a 6-digit code it shows you, when you ask. The licence service keeps a fingerprint of that value and the code with the link for 30 minutes. The value identifies nothing else and is not used to follow you. To keep robots out, the form can also ask Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person is asking; Turnstile then receives technical data such as your IP address (see Cloudflare's privacy policy).

Signed in there, you can set a password, turn on two-factor and have a browser remembered for 30 days. For that the licence service keeps, with your address: a hash of the password (Argon2id, mixed with a key held only by the service, so a copy of the database alone can't be guessed against), never the password itself; the two-factor secret, encrypted under that key, and your recovery codes as hashes; each sign-in as a hash, with the fingerprint of the browser's value above (a session for an hour, a sign-in waiting for its code for five minutes, a remembered browser for 30 days or until you forget it); and a line in the licence's history when a password is set, two-factor turned on or off, or a recovery code used. For any address typed into the password form, whether or not it has an account, the service counts wrong tries under a keyed hash of the address, for the 15-minute lock; the daily clean-up deletes the count once that time has passed. A wrong password or code gets the same answer for every address, so the page never says whether an address has an account. The page keeps the 30-day token and your "remember" choice in your browser's storage, next to the value above. All of it is deleted with the licence's other data, two years after the licence ends.

Your rights

You may ask to see, correct or delete the personal data we hold about you, to restrict or object to its use, or to receive a copy, by writing to support@tidedesk.app. Records the law requires us to keep are kept for that time. You can also complain to the Romanian data protection authority (ANSPDCP, dataprotection.ro) or the one where you live.

Changes

We say on this page when it changes. A change that affects what we keep about customers is also sent by email.

Last updated 2026-10-20.