Privacy

Link runs between your Mac and your Android devices. You sign in with your Google account so your devices can find each other; what you use Link for goes only between your devices, end-to-end encrypted. To fix problems, the apps send crash reports and how you use them, without any of your content; you can turn that off.

The short version. Everything the apps carry (notifications, messages, calls, your clipboard, files, the camera picture, the screen) goes between your Mac and your devices, encrypted with keys only they hold. Google's Firebase helps them find each other and start the connection; it sees which of your devices are signed in and when they connect, never what they carry. Where no direct connection is possible, Cloudflare's relay can pass the encrypted connection on, without being able to read it. Nothing is sold, and nothing is used for advertising.

What the apps handle, and where it goes

Each feature moves the data below between your own linked Macs and devices and nowhere else, at home or away.

Feature	What moves	From	To
Extend	The Mac's extended display as video; your touches	Mac	Device
Mirror	The device's screen as video; clicks and keys when you control it	Device	Mac
Remote screen	One of the Mac's displays as video, and its sound if you turn it on; your touches and keys, and the PIN you type, which the Mac checks	Mac, and device	Device, and Mac
Pointer and keyboard	Your Mac's mouse movements, clicks and keys, when you move onto the device	Mac	Device
Notifications and messages	The notifications your phone shows, including message text and sender; your replies	Phone	Mac
Calls	Who is calling and the call's state, your call history and contacts; answer, decline and dial	Phone	Mac
Clipboard	Text and images you copy	Either	The other
Share	The text, links and files you choose to share, and their names	Any of your devices	The one you pick
Files	The folders and files in the device's shared storage that you open or copy in Finder	Device	Mac
Camera	The phone camera's picture while a Mac app uses it as a webcam	Phone	Mac

A copy that the app you copied from marks as sensitive (a password manager, say) is never sent. Link never asks for SMS permission: messages come from the notifications your phone already shows you.

How the connection is protected

Each Mac and device has its own key. A device joins when you sign in to it with your Google account, and only devices signed in to your account can link with yours; "Remove from account" takes one out again. Every connection proves both keys and is encrypted with keys made for that connection alone, using the Noise Protocol Framework (X25519 key agreement, AES-256-GCM). Nobody else gets anything, neither Google nor anyone relaying the connection. Remote screen also asks for the Mac's own PIN before it shows the Mac's screen, and the Mac shows who is in control.

Your Google account, and what Google sees

Link needs you to sign in with the same Google account on your Mac and your devices. It asks Google for your email address, your name and your profile picture (the openid, email and profile scopes), to show which account you're signed in with, and for nothing else. It uses Google's Firebase to introduce your devices to each other and to wake a phone when you press Connect beside it on the Mac. Firebase keeps, under your account and readable only by your devices:

Each device signed in: its name, kind (Mac, phone or device), its public key, the token Google uses to wake it, whether it is online right now, and the day it was last seen.
For a moment while two devices start a connection, the details they exchange (network addresses among them), sealed with keys only those two devices have, then deleted.
For each device you removed or signed out, when and from which device, until it signs in again.

Google therefore sees your account, which of your devices are signed in, when they connect and from which network addresses, and the size and timing of what Firebase holds, but none of what Link carries. To find a direct way between your devices away from home, the apps also ask Google's and Cloudflare's STUN servers for their own public address; nothing else goes to them. If you turn on "Use a relay when a direct connection isn't possible", and only where no direct connection can be made, the connection goes through Cloudflare's relay (TURN). It is encrypted twice, by WebRTC and by Link's own keys, so Cloudflare sees only scrambled data, its size and timing, and the network addresses at each end. Signing out on a device removes it from Firebase.

Crash reports and usage

To find and fix problems, both apps send Google's Firebase Crashlytics and Google Analytics reports of what went wrong and how you got there. You can turn this off at any time with Share crash reports and usage, in Settings › General on the Mac and in Settings on Android; it is on until you do.

Sent	Never sent
Crashes and errors: the kind of error and where in the app it happened	An error's text, which might hold a file name or a name
The screens you open, the kind of control you press (a button, a switch) and which action it was (say, "connect" or "open a folder")	Labels, what you type, folder and file names, contacts
How connections between your devices go: when they start, open and close, and by which route	Anything the connection carries: notifications, messages, calls, the clipboard, files, the screen, the camera
Random ids that tie one action's reports together across your devices, and an id for your account made by scrambling its Firebase id, so reports from your Mac and your phone can be read together	Your email address, your devices' names, an advertising id
The app's version, the kind of device and its operating system's version

Crash reports are kept for 90 days and Analytics events for 2 months, the shortest Google Analytics allows. They're used only to fix and improve Link, never for advertising, and never sold or shared. Google processes them for us under the Google Analytics and Firebase data processing terms.

What stays on your Mac and your devices

The keys that identify your Mac and your devices to each other, the list of devices you allowed, and your Google sign-in: in the Mac's Keychain, and on the device encrypted with a key the device's secure key store holds.
Your settings for each device and feature.
Message history, if you turn it on: kept on the phone so the Mac can show whole conversations, with a copy on the Mac of the conversations it shows, for 90 days. Delete it from the phone's settings at any time.
The phone's notifications on the Mac: 30 days, never more than 90 even while still on the phone.
App icons and contact pictures the Mac shows, as a cache, for 90 days after they were last used.
The Mac app's log, for 90 days.

Uninstalling the Android app deletes everything it kept. On the Mac, "Reset Android Link…" in Settings deletes everything the Mac app kept, and makes the devices that are connected forget the Mac too. "Remove from account" on the Devices page removes one device and deletes its records from Firebase, and signing out removes this one from your account.

How long we keep your data

Nothing is kept for longer than 90 days. Every day, anything older is deleted.

Data	Where	Kept
Each device's record: name, kind, public key, wake token, when it was last seen	Firebase	Until the device signs out or is removed, or 90 days after it was last seen
Whether each device is online	Firebase	90 days after it last said so
Connection details exchanged while two devices connect, and wake requests	Firebase	Seconds; a day at most
Which devices were removed or signed out, when and by which device	Firebase	Until it signs in again, 90 days at most
Your relay use: the relay's logins this month, and how many this hour	Firebase	90 days after the month ends
Your sign-in: your account's id, email address, name and picture	Firebase Authentication	While you have a device signed in, or used Link in the last 90 days
Usage events	Google Analytics	2 months
Crash reports	Firebase Crashlytics	90 days
The service's own logs, with no names, addresses or account ids	Google Cloud Logging	30 days
A record that an account was deleted: when, and which steps were done, with nothing that names you	Firebase	90 days
The email confirming a deletion	Amazon Simple Email Service	Not kept: it is only delivered
Emails you send us	Google Workspace	Until we have answered, then deleted when no longer needed; a year at most for a request about your data
The relay's own usage figures	Cloudflare	As Cloudflare keeps them
Message history, notifications, the Mac's caches and log	Your Mac and your devices	90 days at most (see above)

Deleting your account

Choose Delete account… while you are signed in: on the Mac, click your picture at the bottom of the sidebar; on Android, it is in Settings, in your account's card. If you no longer have a device, email us instead (below), or see Delete your account and data. Deleting your Link account doesn't touch your Google account.

Deleted at once:

In Firebase: every device's record, whether it is online, connection details, wake tokens and removed devices.
Your relay use, and any relay login still valid is ended.
Your sign-in (the Firebase Authentication user), which signs every device out. The devices that are on or connected sign out straight away; the others when they next go online.

Finished later: we ask Google Analytics to delete your usage events at the same time, and Google takes up to about 2 months to finish. Crash reports can't be deleted one person at a time, so they expire on their own after 90 days. Each device deletes what it kept of your account as it signs out.

We keep a record that a deletion happened, for 90 days, as proof: when it happened and which steps were done, with no email address, no account id and nothing else that names you. The app shows you its number, the date and what is still to finish, and we email the same to your Google account's address. That email is sent through Amazon Simple Email Service, which uses your address only to deliver it and doesn't keep the message.

Under UK and EU data protection law (GDPR) you have the right to have your data erased, and California residents have the right to delete under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA. We don't sell or share your personal information. To ask by email, write to hello@getlinked.now from your Google account's address; we reply within one month (GDPR), or within 45 days for a request under the CCPA.

Permissions, and why

Each one is asked for when you turn on the feature that needs it, never at launch, and the rest of the app keeps working without the ones you decline.

Permission	Where	Used for
Notification access	Android	Showing the phone's notifications and messages on the Mac, and replying from there
Phone, contacts and call log	Android	Naming callers, showing your call history, and dialling from the Mac
Camera	Android	The phone as the Mac's webcam
All files access	Android	Showing the device's shared storage in Finder
Screen sharing	Android	Mirror: showing the device's screen on the Mac
Notifications	Android and Mac	Telling you about calls, shares and the connection, and showing the phone's notifications on the Mac
Accessibility	Android	Pointer and keyboard: drawing the Mac's pointer and carrying out its clicks and keys. It reads nothing on screen
Screen recording	Mac	Extend and Remote screen: sending the Mac's display to the device
Accessibility	Mac	Extend and Remote screen: turning your touches and keys on the device into clicks, drags and typing on the Mac; Pointer and keyboard: taking the pointer to the device
Local network	Mac	Connecting straight to your devices when they are on the same network as the Mac

This website

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Your rights

Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask for a copy of your data, have it corrected or deleted, object to or restrict how it is used, and take it elsewhere. If you live in California, the CCPA as amended by the CPRA gives you the right to know what we hold, to have it deleted or corrected, and not to be treated differently for asking; we don't sell or share personal information, and use none of it for advertising. Most of it you can see and delete in the apps yourself; for anything else, email us. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority. We use your data to provide the service you asked for, and crash reports and usage on the basis of our legitimate interest in keeping the apps working, which you can turn off at any time.

Link isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data. Google, Cloudflare and Amazon may process data outside the UK, under their standard contractual safeguards.

Who makes it

Link is made by Filip Drabik. Questions about this page or your data: email hello@getlinked.now.

Last updated 5 November 2026. Any change to what the apps do with your data will be described here before it ships.