1. Overview
This Privacy Policy applies to the AskDesk Windows application, this website, the Microsoft Store listing, optional cloud AI, and AskDesk Pro billing. It describes behavior in the AskDesk 2.5.0 codebase and may change when the product or providers change.
You can use app search, open-window switching, calculator, clipboard history, quick links, and deterministic local commands without an AskDesk account. An account is required for cloud AI and subscription billing.
2. Information processed on your device
App, file, and open-window search
When you enter an ordinary search, AskDesk processes the query locally. It searches Start Menu applications and shortcuts plus Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders. It also reads titles of visible, non-minimized top-level windows for matching.
Search reads names, paths, and limited file metadata. It does not open file contents merely to produce search results. Search text, result paths, and window titles are not intentionally sent to the cloud for ordinary local matching.
If you select the Google search fallback, your query is included in the web URL you open and is then handled under Google’s terms.
Clipboard history
While the AskDesk window is visible, the app checks the Windows clipboard for new text approximately every 1.5 seconds. It ignores empty values, non-text values, and text longer than 5,000 characters. It removes exact duplicates and keeps up to 50 recent text entries in the app’s local WebView storage.
Clipboard text can contain passwords, personal information, or confidential business information. It is not sent to PostHog or OpenRouter merely because clipboard history exists. It will be included if you paste or type that text into a cloud AI request.
You can remove stored clipboard text with Clear history in the clipboard view.
Frequent items
When you open an app, file, or folder through AskDesk, the app records the full local path, access count, last-access time, directory or extension information, and a broad time-of-day category. These records are used to rank Frequent items and are capped at 1,000 entries in local storage.
Learned words
When you open a file, folder, or app from an ordinary launcher search, AskDesk also records the words you typed to reach it, bound to that item's local path. This lets a later, shorter, or differently qualified query find the same item, so you can type tax from last month instead of reproducing an exact filename. Matching runs entirely inside the launcher, without a cloud request and without using the Free cloud quota. Storage is capped at 400 distinct words, with up to 6 items recorded per word.
Only meaningful words are stored. Common filler words such as the, open, or file are never saved, and time words such as last, today, week, or month are never stored either — a time reference narrows results at the moment you search instead of becoming part of the memory. Queries that express an intent rather than a target, such as cloud AI requests beginning with >, are never recorded here.
This memory stores fragments of your own search text and the paths they led to, so it can contain personal wording. It stays in local app storage, is not sent to the cloud, and is not included in analytics events. When a result is recalled this way, the row shows the word it matched on, so you can see why it appeared. File contents are never read to produce it.
You can erase it with Clear in Settings › Data & privacy, on the Frequent items row. Learned words are created by opening things, so that single action removes both. Clearing it does not remove learned commands, quick links, or saved workflows.
Learned commands
When a cloud AI request resolves and the previewed actions run successfully, AskDesk records the wording you used together with the validated action chain it produced. This is a local memory used to preview a repeated phrasing instantly, without a new cloud request and without using the Free cloud quota. Entries are capped at 300 phrasings in local storage, and only a bounded set of actions can be replayed this way.
Phrasings that depend on live state are never learned, including commands that name a specific window, open an absolute file path, lock the workstation, or hand off to file search. Loosely similar phrasings must be confirmed more than once before they can replay. Every replay is still previewed before it executes.
Because this memory stores the exact text you typed, it can contain personal or confidential wording. It stays in local app storage, is not sent to the cloud, and is not included in analytics events. You can erase the entire list with Forget in Settings › Learned commands. Clearing it does not remove Frequent items, quick links, or saved workflows.
Quick links and preferences
Quick links can include a keyword, URL or local path, and whether the remaining launcher text is inserted into the target. Saved workflows can include a name and an ordered list of approved window, volume, mute, and app-launch steps with optional window-title fragments. These values are stored locally.
Preferences include launch-at-login, hide-on-blur, and onboarding status. These values are stored locally.
Local storage security
AskDesk does not add a separate encryption layer to values stored in its local WebView storage. Your Windows user profile and application-data protections may still apply. Local data remains until you delete the relevant history, remove the app’s available data, or uninstall it.
3. Google sign-in and Firebase Authentication
The current app offers Google sign-in through a system-browser OAuth flow. It requests the openid, email, and profile scopes. Google and Firebase Authentication process the login and create or identify the Firebase account. AskDesk does not ask you to create or store an AskDesk password.
Depending on your Google account and Firebase configuration, information available to the service can include a Firebase user ID, email address, display name, provider information, session information, and identity or access tokens.
The app’s WebView may retain Firebase session data and an authentication token to keep you signed in. Signing out clears the active app session and resets the current PostHog identity. It does not delete your Firebase account, Firestore records, Stripe customer, analytics history, local histories, or preferences.
4. Cloud AI and window context
Deterministic commands such as snap left, mute, and set volume to 40 are recognized on-device and do not send the command to OpenRouter or use the Free cloud quota.
A fuzzy request entered with > may be sent to an AskDesk Firebase Cloud Function. Before that request, the app may collect up to 30 visible, non-minimized, titled top-level window titles. The Cloud Function accepts up to 500 characters of request text and up to 30 window titles, each limited to 120 characters.
The Cloud Function sends the request and bounded window context to OpenRouter together with the supported-action instructions. It does not intentionally add your Firebase user ID or email address to that OpenRouter JSON request. OpenRouter may route the request to the model provider selected for the configured model, which receives the text under its own terms.
AskDesk does not automatically send clipboard history, Frequent items, learned words, learned command phrasings, your quick-link list, local search results, or file contents to cloud AI. Information you type into an AI request is sent as part of that request. Window titles can themselves contain personal, document, project, or customer information.
Model output is validated against a fixed action registry. AskDesk cannot execute an arbitrary shell command from model output, but a model can still choose the wrong approved action or target. The app shows a preview and waits for confirmation.
If model output cannot be parsed, operational error logging can include up to the first 300 characters of that model response. Such content can be influenced by request or window-title context.
5. Firebase quota and account records
Firebase Authentication and Firestore support cloud features. The current implementation can store:
- Firebase account information through Firebase Authentication.
- A link between your Firebase user ID and a Stripe customer ID in Firestore.
- A daily cloud-AI usage document containing the user ID, UTC date, successful-resolution count, and update time.
- Operational Cloud Function logs needed to process requests and diagnose errors.
The current code does not intentionally write AI request text or window-title context to Firestore. A usage document can be created for each UTC day on which a successful cloud resolution occurs.
The Free plan currently allows 10 successfully resolved cloud requests per UTC day. A multi-step plan counts once. Clarifications and provider failures do not count, while a resolution that is later cancelled in the preview does not receive a refund.
6. Product analytics
AskDesk initializes PostHog analytics when the app starts, including before sign-in. Before sign-in, PostHog uses its own analytics identifier. After sign-in, the app identifies the analytics profile with your Firebase user ID and email address. PostHog uses local storage and a cookie to retain analytics state.
Custom event properties can include app version, launcher display, onboarding state, search result count, search duration, feature category, file extension, result source, AI route, action names, step counts, success or failure, workflow creation/update/deletion/preview/execution counts, sign-in lifecycle, paywall display, and checkout start. Workflow names and step contents are not included.
The custom events do not intentionally include raw search text, AI prompts, clipboard text, quick-link targets, full file paths, or the visible-window context used for cloud AI. Automatic DOM capture and automatic page-view capture are disabled. The analytics request itself can still include standard network and device metadata handled by PostHog.
The current app does not provide an analytics opt-out. Signing out resets the identified analytics profile but does not disable events. Contact hi@remoteskills.io if you need help with your analytics data.
7. Stripe subscription billing
AskDesk Pro checkout and the customer portal open in your system browser through Stripe. The current Pro flow uses Stripe rather than Microsoft Store billing.
When subscription state is checked, AskDesk may create or retrieve a Stripe customer. The Cloud Function can send Stripe your Firebase user ID, account email, selected price, checkout metadata, and return URLs. Stripe can maintain customer, payment, invoice, and subscription records under its own terms.
Full card details are entered on Stripe-hosted pages and are not collected by the AskDesk app. Firestore stores the Stripe customer ID linked to your Firebase user ID. Canceling through the customer portal does not delete your AskDesk account or the Stripe customer record.
8. Microsoft Store and public website
AskDesk is distributed through the Microsoft Store as a full-trust Windows desktop application. Microsoft may process store account, installation, update, purchase, security, and diagnostic information under Microsoft’s terms. The app does not include a Microsoft Store analytics SDK or direct Store API call.
The static website loads Google Fonts and the Tailwind CSS development CDN. Your browser therefore provides ordinary request information, such as IP address and browser information, when loading those resources. The website host may also retain standard request logs. The current landing page has no newsletter, contact, or account form.
9. Service providers and recipients
- Google and Firebase: authentication, Firebase user ID, email, sessions, function requests, AI usage counts, and the Stripe customer-ID link.
- OpenRouter and the selected model provider: AI request text and bounded visible window-title context.
- Stripe: account email, Firebase user ID, customer and subscription identifiers, checkout information, and payment records handled by Stripe.
- PostHog: analytics identifier, Firebase user ID and email after sign-in, app version, and custom event properties.
- Microsoft and the Microsoft Store: store account, installation, update, purchase, security, and diagnostic information handled by Microsoft.
- Website infrastructure and resource providers: standard request data used to serve the site, Google Fonts, and the Tailwind CDN.
These providers may process information under their own terms and retention practices.
10. Your choices, retention, and deletion
Depending on the data, you can clear clipboard history, delete individual quick links, sign out, remove AskDesk through Windows, clear available app data, or contact us about cloud account records.
Local records remain until deleted through available controls, removed with local app data, or removed when the application is uninstalled. Learned commands, clipboard text, and quick links have their own delete controls in Settings, and learned words are removed by the Clear button on the Frequent items row of Settings › Data & privacy. The current app does not expose one control that clears all Frequent records, settings, and histories together.
Cloud records can remain in Firebase, PostHog, Stripe, OpenRouter, model-provider systems, or operational logs under the applicable provider and records-retention practices. The current app does not provide self-service cloud-account deletion, cloud-data export, or a Firestore expiry schedule.
Depending on where you live, privacy rights may include access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or portability. Contact us and we will coordinate with the relevant service provider where required.
Children
AskDesk is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Contact us if you believe a child has provided information through an account or billing flow.
International processing
Information may be processed in countries other than your own through the providers listed above. Their regional and transfer safeguards apply in addition to this policy.
11. Changes and contact
We may update this policy when the app or its providers change. The date at the top identifies the current version. Material changes should be reflected on this page and may also be announced through the Store listing or product release notes.
Questions, access requests, and deletion requests can be sent to hi@remoteskills.io.