Your privacy, by design.

1. Who this covers

PC Tether lets you see and control your own PC from your own phone. This policy covers the PC Tether apps for Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone, and the pctether.com website. It's made and run by 1000711712 Ontario Inc., a company based in Ontario, Canada. In this policy, "PC Tether", "we", "us", and "our" mean that company. "You" means anyone who uses the app or visits pctether.com.

PC Tether is free while it is in early access, both on your own network and away from home. Nothing is for sale right now, so we take no payment and hold no payment details of yours at all.

Who is responsible for your data

PC Tether is operated by 1000711712 Ontario Inc., a company registered in Ontario, Canada, and that company is the data controller responsible for the personal information described here. You can reach us:

• By email: support@pctether.com. This address is monitored.
• By post: our postal address is available on request by email, and will be provided to any individual exercising their privacy rights, or to a regulator, without charge.

The person accountable for privacy (our Privacy Officer, as required by Canada's PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25) can be reached at the support address above. Mail sent there is read by the individual personally accountable for these decisions.

2. The big idea: your screen is yours

When you use PC Tether, your PC and your phone talk to each other directly. The picture of your screen, your taps and clicks, and any files you send are wrapped in end-to-end encryption: locked on the device that sends them, and only unlocked on the device that receives them.

That means no server sees your screen. Not ours, not anyone's. There is no cloud copy of your desktop in a data centre, and no support agent who could watch your session. None of that rests on a promise. It is how the app is put together.

3. The one relay (and what it can't see)

Whenever possible, your two devices connect straight to each other. Sometimes a home or office network won't allow a direct connection. In that case, PC Tether uses a single relay to pass the data along, like a sealed pipe between your devices.

The relay only forwards the already-encrypted data. It cannot read your screen, your keystrokes, or your files, because the encryption keys never leave your two devices. To route traffic, the relay necessarily handles the network addresses (IP addresses) of the devices connecting. We don't use that to build a profile of you.

Setting a connection up also goes through our pairing server, which is how your two devices find each other in the first place. If one of them arrives before the other, that server holds the first device's connection-setup messages until the second one collects them. They go three ways: deleted the moment they are collected, deleted if the waiting device disconnects, and deleted in any case within five minutes of both devices being gone. Those messages say how to reach your devices, so they contain network addresses. They never contain your screen, your keystrokes or your files.

On app versions that offer it, your phone can also ask one of your PCs to wake another of your computers on the same network. That request goes through the same pairing server, in the same way. It carries your phone's identifier, a count of how many times your pairing key has moved forward, the hardware address of the network card of the computer to be woken, the broadcast addresses of the networks it is on, short codes your PCs gave your phone for those networks, a version number, and one-time values that prove the request comes from your phone. The PC's short answer comes back the same way. Our server passes all of it on and does not read it for anything else.

On those versions, each time your phone and one of your PCs meet at our server, the server also tells that PC one word about your phone: on the same network as that PC, on a different one, or that it could not tell. It works that word out from the scrambled network fingerprints described in section 5, and does not write it down. The PC uses the word only for wake requests: to decide whether to pass one on, and to note it in the troubleshooting log kept on that PC itself when it does.

Our relay runs on Cloudflare's network. Cloudflare acts as our service provider and may process the connection data needed to move traffic and keep the service secure, under Cloudflare's own privacy terms.

4. What we don't collect

It's easier to list what we don't gather, because it's most of it:

• No accounts. No sign-up, no username, no password.
• No analytics or telemetry. The app doesn't send us data about how you use it.
• No screen recordings. Your screen is never captured to any server.
• No activity logs. We don't record what you view, type, or do during a session. (We do keep a note of when a code first connects, a note of what our own code check answered, and while you are connecting we count devices using a scrambled fingerprint of your network address; see what the app sends.)
• No advertising trackers, no third-party ad networks, no data sales.
• No location tracking.

5. The little we do handle

A few small pieces of information reach us. Some arrive automatically when you connect; the rest, only when you choose to give them:

Automatically, each time you connect

To set up and protect the connection, the app makes a few small calls to our server whenever you connect:

• It shows your invite or licence code, once to check that it is valid and once to claim your PC's place in the connection, so we can let you in.
• It asks for the relay servers to use if your two devices can't reach each other directly.

Separately, and not only when you connect, the app asks whether a newer version is available, so we can prompt you to update. On your PC that happens when the app starts, once a day after that, and each time the machine wakes up. On your phone it happens each time you come back to the app. It happens whether or not you connect to anything.

There is one more call, and it does not go to us at all. If the Windows or Mac app cannot reach our server, it checks Microsoft's standard connection-test address, the same one Windows itself uses, so it can tell your internet being down apart from our server being down. It says nothing about you and does not name PC Tether: Microsoft sees only that a computer at your network address made the same check every Windows PC makes.

We also record the first time each code connects (a timestamp, plus one word for the kind of device, such as “pc”) so we can notice a code that's been shared or abused.

And we keep a note of what our code check answered. Each time an app asks whether a code is still good, we write down the moment, one word for the answer (such as “ok” or “expired”), and whether our server answered normally. Nothing else goes with it: not your code, not your address, not your device. The line itself names nobody, and on its own it cannot be tied to a person. It is a record of our own answers rather than of you, and it is there so we can tell whether somebody was turned away by a code that did not work. We delete these after ninety days. Our hosting provider keeps its own standard request logs, the same as it would for any website, and those are described in the website section further down.

And each time your app asks for a relay with a live code, our server works out two scrambled fingerprints: one of your code, and one of the network address the request came from. That second one is what stands in for a device, so we can count how many devices are using a single code and hold it to its limit. Both are one way: they are scrambled with a secret only our server holds, so nobody who does not have that secret can work back from one to your code or your address. The address itself is never written onto your code's record. They are deleted within a few hours: see how long we keep things.

The same kind of scrambled fingerprint of your network address is attached to the connection each of your devices opens to our pairing server, so we can tell whether your phone and your PC are on the same network. That one exists only while that connection is open, and it is never written onto your code's record either.

None of this includes your screen, your keystrokes, your files, or what you do during a session.

If you join a waiting list

If you ask for an early-access code on our website, the only thing you give us is your email address. There is no other box to fill in. Along with it we store a short fixed label saying which page you asked from, so we can tell where people are finding us. That is written by the page, not by you. We use your address only to send you that code and to manage the list, and we never sell it or use it for advertising. You can take yourself off the list at any time with the remove me link beside either sign-up form: we email that address a link, and pressing the button on it deletes the address. The same link is in the email that carried your code. You can also just write to support@pctether.com.

If we ever start charging

Nothing is for sale right now, so none of this has happened to anyone. If we ever start charging, payment would happen on Stripe's checkout page (see the next section). Our server would receive Stripe's confirmation that the payment succeeded, and we would keep your licence code, the plan you bought, its start and end dates, and Stripe's transaction references, which we would need to honour a refund. We would not keep your name, your billing address, or your card details.

If you email us

If you write to support, we receive whatever you send (your email address and the contents of your message) so we can help you.

6. Payments are processed by Stripe

None of this is happening today. Tether is free while it is in early access, there is no checkout anywhere on this site, and no payment information of yours has ever reached us or anyone acting for us.

If we ever start charging, we would be the seller, and Stripe would process the payment for us. The whole payment step would happen on Stripe's own checkout page: Stripe would collect your card details and billing address there, and we would not keep them.

Stripe would process your payment information under Stripe's Privacy Policy. PC Tether never touches your card data.

7. Cookies & the website

Our website, pctether.com, is a simple site with no advertising or tracking cookies. We don't run analytics that follow you around. The site is served through Cloudflare, which, as our hosting and security provider, may process standard request information (such as IP address and basic security logs) to deliver the pages and protect against abuse. There is no checkout on this site today, so no payment cookies are set. If we ever start charging, the payment step would happen on Stripe's own page, which may set cookies necessary for payment to work; those would be governed by Stripe's policies.

8. Your privacy rights (GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, Law 25)

Wherever you live, you have rights over the small amount of personal information we hold. Depending on your region (including under the EU/UK GDPR, California's CCPA/CPRA, Canada's PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25), these can include the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you;
• Correct information that's wrong;
• Delete your information (for example, remove your email from the invite list);
• Take your data with you (portability);
• Object to or restrict certain uses, and withdraw consent at any time;
• Not be sold out: we do not sell your personal information, and never have.

To exercise any right, email support@pctether.com. We won't treat you differently for asking. For payment-related data, you can also contact Stripe directly. If you're in the EU/UK, you have the right to complain to your local data protection authority; if you're in Canada, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, and in Quebec the Commission d'accès à l'information.

Our legal bases for handling your data

Where the EU/UK GDPR or Quebec's Law 25 applies, we rely on a specific legal basis for each purpose:

• Your invite/waitlist email: your consent, which you can withdraw any time by asking us to remove you.
• Connection & security data (such as the IP addresses the relay must handle, the first-connect timestamp, the note of what our code check answered, and the scrambled fingerprints of your code and network address that let us count devices): our legitimate interest in keeping PC Tether working and free from abuse, and in knowing whether the way we hand out codes is actually working for people.
• Purchases (none today): if we ever start charging and you buy a licence, our basis would be to perform our contract with you and to meet the legal obligations that apply to sales records.
• Support emails: our legitimate interest in answering you, and your consent when you choose to write to us.

EU/UK representative

PC Tether is operated from Canada and is not currently marketed to people in the EU or UK. If and when we do offer it there, we'll appoint a representative in the EU and the UK under Article 27 of the GDPR and name them here: an EU/UK representative will be appointed before that point.

9. How long we keep things

We keep personal information only as long as we need it:

• Waiting-list emails: deleted at whichever of these comes first. The first time you use your code, which deletes the address on the spot. The day you confirm a removal, using the link we email you. The day your code runs out, which for a code nobody ever uses is within ninety days of the day we send it, and which our nightly cleaner acts on within a day. Or the end of the invite programme. The nightly cleaner only acts on a code with an end date that has passed, so if yours has no end date, or we have switched it off, ask us and we will remove your entry. Two things outlive that: the message that carried your code sits with the service that delivered it under their own retention, and our database keeps a restore point for up to thirty days, so a deleted row can still be recovered from a backup inside that window.
• Connection & security data: two different lifetimes. The scrambled fingerprints that count devices against a code live for one to two hours, and the key holding them is deleted within about half an hour of the last one lapsing, so a few hours after you stop connecting there is nothing left of them. The record of the code itself, including that first-use timestamp, lasts while the code is live and for six months after it runs out, and our nightly cleaner then deletes it. A free code has ninety days to be started, and then runs out thirty days after the first time it is used. A code with no end date, or one we have switched off, is kept until you ask us to remove it, and you can ask at any time. The network address itself has the shortest life of all: it is used to route your traffic and to slow down abusive requests while they are happening, it is held only in memory for that, and we never write it onto your code's record or into a log of our own. Connection-setup messages left waiting at the pairing server go as soon as they are collected, or within five minutes of both your devices being gone. The note of what our code check answered is kept for ninety days, and the same nightly cleaner deletes it. Cloudflare, which runs both the website and the relay, keeps its own standard security logs under its privacy terms.
• Support emails: for as long as needed to help you and keep a reasonable record of the conversation.
• Order records (none today): if we ever start charging and you buy a licence, Stripe would retain the payment records under its own policies and as financial law requires, and we would keep your licence code and Stripe's transaction references for as long as we needed them to honour the purchase and to handle refunds, disputes, and the sales records we are required to keep. A refunded or disputed licence would be switched off rather than erased, because we have to be able to tell a refunded purchase from a fresh one.

10. Children

PC Tether isn't designed for or directed at children. Please don't use it if you're under 16 (or the minimum age in your country). We don't knowingly collect information from children.

11. Where your data is handled

Your screen stays between your own two devices and doesn't cross our borders at all. The small amount of information we do handle may be processed in Canada and, through our providers (Cloudflare, Resend, Zoho, Google, and Stripe if we ever start charging), in other countries where they operate. Those providers commit to appropriate safeguards for international data transfers. Wherever it is handled, your information gets the same protection this policy describes: our agreements with those providers hold them to it, and crossing a border never lowers the standard that applies to your data.

12. Security

Your connection is end-to-end encrypted, and there's no central store of your screen to break into. Still, no system is perfectly safe, and part of staying secure is on your side: keep your phone and PC locked and your operating system updated, and don't share your invite or licence codes with people you don't trust.

If a data breach ever affected your personal information and created a real risk of significant harm, we will notify you and the relevant regulator, such as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (and, where the GDPR applies, the appropriate EU/UK authority), without undue delay, as the law requires, and tell you what happened and what to do.

13. Services we rely on

To run PC Tether, we use a small number of providers, each acting on our behalf. Every one of them is bound to protect your information to the same standard this policy sets out, and none of them may use it for anything of their own:

• Stripe (not in use today): payment processing, if we ever start charging. Nothing of yours has reached them. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Cloudflare: website hosting, security, and the connection relay. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.
• Resend: delivers the email that carries your code, so your address passes through Resend. See Resend's Privacy Policy.
• Zoho Mail (Canadian data centre) and Google: our support@pctether.com mailbox is hosted at Zoho and forwarded to a Gmail inbox, so anything you write to us is handled by both. See Zoho's Privacy Policy and Google's Privacy Policy.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle privacy, we'll update this page and move the "Effective date" at the top. If a change is significant, we'll make a reasonable effort to let users know. Continuing to use PC Tether after an update means you accept the new version.

15. Contact us

Questions about privacy, or want to exercise a right? Email support@pctether.com and a real person will get back to you.