Privacy policy

This website

Controller: Thomas Udo Ulrich (UT-Systems), Herrgasse 5, 5231 Schalchen, Austria, privacy@ut-systems.com.

Hosting. This website is hosted by Vercel Inc. (USA). When you open a page, Vercel processes server log data: the IP address of your device, date and time of the request, the address requested and the amount of data transferred, the HTTP status code, the referring page where one exists, and browser type and operating system. This is needed to deliver the website securely and reliably (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Vercel keeps these logs only briefly. Vercel is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which covers the transfer to the USA (Art. 45 GDPR).

Reach measurement. To see how often the website is visited, which pages are read and which links bring visitors here, we use Vercel Web Analytics. When you open a page, a small script loaded from watchbird.app itself reports to Vercel: the address of the page, the referring page if you came from another website, and the time. From the request, Vercel also derives your approximate location (country, region, city), browser, operating system and device type. To count visits, Vercel forms a hash from the request that is discarded after 24 hours. No cookies are set and nothing is stored on your device; we only see aggregated statistics, never individual visitors, and nothing is linked with other websites. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in improving the website with a data-minimising measurement (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object at any time: if your browser sends "Global Privacy Control" or "Do Not Track", the script is not loaded at all; tracking blockers also prevent the measurement.

No cookies. The website sets no cookies and loads nothing from other servers: fonts, images, the video and the measurement script come from watchbird.app itself. If you pick a language, your choice is kept in your browser's local storage (watchbird-lang); it never leaves your device.

Microsoft Store. The "Get" buttons link to the Microsoft Store. What happens there is covered by Microsoft's privacy statement.

Your rights. You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15–21 GDPR); an informal e-mail is enough. You can also lodge a complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority (Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde, Barichgasse 40–42, 1030 Vienna, dsb@dsb.gv.at).

The Watchbird app

Last updated: 20 October 2026

Watchbird ("the app") is a Windows app that shows what AI coding agents (such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI, Cursor, OpenCode, Qwen Code, Factory Droid, Cline, Devin and Auggie) are doing and lets you answer their requests. This policy explains which data the app handles, where it goes and how long it is kept.

Responsible: Thomas Udo Ulrich (UT-Systems), Herrgasse 5, 5231 Schalchen, Austria, e-mail privacy@ut-systems.com.

The short version

• No account, no server of our own, no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reports, no advertising.
• We (the publisher) receive no data from the app. Everything the app processes stays on your PC, except the network connections listed below, which go directly from your PC to the service named there.

What the app processes on your PC

• Agent events. When you connect an agent, the app adds entries to that agent's own hook configuration (for example ~/.claude/settings.json); a backup of the file is made before every change. The agent then sends events to the app through a local named pipe that only your Windows user can open. Events can contain prompts, commands, file paths, diffs, questions and plans. The app uses them in memory to show the notch and its cards. They are not written to disk at the normal log level; only with the diagnostic switch --debug are shortened excerpts written to the local log.
• Auggie (1.3): Auggie runs only script files as hooks, so the app writes small wrapper scripts to %USERPROFILE%\.watchbird\hooks\auggie and adds entries pointing at them to ~/.augment/settings.json (backed up first, like the other agents' files). It never asks Auggie to include your account details (such as your e-mail address) in its events.
• Settings: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchbird\settings.json. Secrets you enter (Telegram bot token and chat ID, ntfy access token, license key) are encrypted with Windows DPAPI for your Windows user.
• Logs: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchbird\logs, one file per day, deleted after 7 days; event types, IDs and durations, no prompts, code or diffs. The hook bridge writes errors only to %USERPROFILE%\.watchbird\logs.
• Attachments: files you drop on the notch or attach to a new task are copied to %USERPROFILE%\.watchbird\attachments and deleted automatically after 30 days.
• Backups of agent configuration files: %USERPROFILE%\.watchbird\backups (the last 10 per agent).
• History: for each finished session the History tab keeps the agent, the session title, the project folder, start and end time, the number of approvals, questions, plans and errors, and the first line of the last error. Stored only on your PC in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchbird\history and deleted automatically after 90 days. You can switch the history off or delete it at any time (Settings → Notifications → "Keep a session history" / "Clear history").
• Automatic decisions: what a rule or the autopilot allowed or denied, resumes after a limit and do-not-disturb periods are listed in History → Automatic, stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchbird\automation\automation.jsonl (commands with secrets removed and cut to 300 characters; deleted after 90 days, at most 5,000 entries).
• Night shift and queue (1.2): tasks you put in the queue (agent, mode, folder, prompt and the paths of attachments) and the state of a running night shift are kept in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchbird\nightshift.json until you delete them or close the morning report.
• Do not disturb (1.2): to notice a call, the app checks whether another app is using the microphone right now (Windows' own capability access records in the registry). It never opens the microphone, records nothing and does not store which app it was.
• Bird collection and weekly recap (1.2): the numbers of approvals, finished tasks, resumes and days in use are kept in the settings file to unlock birds. The weekly recap and the picture of a new bird are made on your PC and only saved (Pictures\Watchbird) or copied when you ask for it.
• Sign-in prompts (1.3): when an agent's command has been running for a few seconds, the app looks at the names of the programs that command started. Only if a known sign-in program is among them (for example Git Credential Manager or GnuPG's passphrase prompt) does it look at the titles of that program's windows, to show "Waiting for sign-in" with the service (for example GitHub) and to bring the window to the front when you click. This happens in memory on your PC; the app never reads what is in the prompt, never types or clicks into it, and does not store or send the window title. A phone notification you set up names only the session and the service.
• Agent session files: the app reads the end of session files the agents write on your PC: for Codex, the session (rollout) file of a busy session in ~/.codex/sessions, to recognize a usage limit and its reset time (1.3); for Claude Code, the session's transcript, for its title and to notice a turn you stopped (1.2.3). They are only read, kept in memory and never sent.
• Windows notifications (1.3): in the Microsoft Store and the installed (MSIX) version, Windows shows the app's notifications on your PC and keeps them in its notification center until their event is over; the app then removes them. They contain the same text as the notch (agent, session, command or file name).
• Other local data: a daily request count for Gemini CLI in the app's cache folder; for the direct version a second, encrypted copy of the trial start date in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Watchbird; the "Start with Windows" entry; temporary start scripts for new tasks in %TEMP%\Watchbird\launch (deleted after one day).
• Clipboard: to type a follow-up message into a terminal, the app briefly puts the text on the clipboard (excluded from the Windows clipboard history) and restores the previous content afterwards.
• Diagnostics: "Copy diagnostics" (Settings → General) only copies a report to your clipboard – version, system, agent and hook status, settings without secrets and the last 200 log lines with secrets removed. Nothing is sent; you decide whether to paste it into a support request.

Network connections

The app connects to the internet only for these features, each directly from your PC:

Like any internet connection, these requests reveal your IP address to the server you connect to.

Your data, your control

• Turn off usage queries, phone notifications and the update check in the settings at any time.
• Settings → Agents → "Remove all hooks" removes the app's entries from every agent configuration.
• Uninstalling the app removes its program files; you can delete %USERPROFILE%\.watchbird and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Watchbird to remove all remaining local data.
• Because we receive no personal data from the app, we cannot view, export or delete any data of yours. If you contact us (for example with a diagnostics report), we use your message only to answer it and delete it when it is no longer needed. Under the GDPR you have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Children

The app is a developer tool and is not directed at children.

Changes

We will update this policy when the app's data handling changes and note the date above.