Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated 4 November 2026
Sidekick is made and run by Abdullah Farouk ("we", "us"), who is responsible for the personal information described here. Sidekick is an AI agent for your Mac. To do what you ask, it has to show an AI model some of what is on your Mac. This policy says exactly what that is, who receives it, how long it is kept, and what never leaves your Mac.
The short version.
- Nothing goes to an AI model until you ask Sidekick to do something. Then only what that task needs is sent.
- The AI is Anthropic's Claude. In the Setapp edition it runs through Setapp AI, the AI gateway run by MacPaw, the company behind Setapp. In the edition you download from our website, our server sends requests to Anthropic directly.
- Your requests pass through our server on their way to the AI. We do not save them. We keep counts, like how many tasks ran and whether they worked, but not what you asked.
- Sidekick never reads password fields. It does not save passwords, payment details or government ID numbers. Your remembered form answers, clipboard history and notes are stored on your Mac.
- We do not sell your information, use it for advertising, or put ad trackers on our website.
1. What is sent to the AI, and when
Sidekick sends something to the AI model only when you start a task. You can start one by typing or speaking a request, using a shortcut, running a routine you set up, or sending a message from Telegram. What is sent depends on the task:
| When you… | The AI model receives |
|---|---|
| Ask Sidekick to do something | Your request, plus a few details that help it act on your Mac: your Mac user name, your home folder's path, your macOS version, and your local date, time and time zone. |
| Ask it to fill in a form or write in an app | The text and fields it can read in the window you are working in, such as the questions on a form. It also sends any of your remembered answers (section 2) that match those questions. Password fields are never read. |
| Ask it to work with files | The names and locations of the files the task involves. If the task needs it, also the contents of the files Sidekick opens to do it, such as a document you asked it to summarise. |
| Ask it to check or change something on your Mac | The results of the commands it runs for that task, such as your battery health or how much disk space is free. |
| Turn on Use the screen (off by default) | Screenshots of your screen while the task runs, so the model can see and click apps that cannot be controlled any other way. Press Esc to stop at any time. |
| Drop files onto Sidekick | The files you dropped, or the parts of them the task needs. |
Before Sidekick does anything that cannot easily be undone, such as deleting files or sending a message, it stops and asks you first.
Who processes it
Sidekick comes in two editions: one in Setapp, and one you download from our website. Each request goes from Sidekick to our server, which adds Sidekick's own instructions.
In the Setapp edition, our server sends it to Setapp AI, the AI gateway run by MacPaw, the company behind Setapp. MacPaw passes it to Anthropic, PBC, whose Claude models write the answer. The answer comes back the same way. Setapp AI counts the AI credits each request uses, which is how your Setapp membership pays for Sidekick's AI use. Because of this, each request is linked to your Setapp account. See Setapp's privacy policy.
In the edition from our website, our server sends it to Anthropic directly, and the answer comes straight back. Each request uses a little of the credit you hold with us (section 3).
Anthropic receives requests through its commercial API. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, that data is not used to train its models. Anthropic deletes it within 30 days. It may keep it longer only if the content is flagged for a safety review or the law requires it. We do not use your data to train any AI model. See Anthropic's privacy policy.
We do not use any other AI provider. If that changes, we will update this page first.
2. What stays on your Mac
- Remembered form answers. These are answers you gave on earlier forms, such as your notice period, stored on your Mac so the next form is faster. Only the answers that match a form you ask Sidekick to fill are sent, as part of that task. Passwords, payment details and government ID numbers are never stored. You can see and delete these answers in Settings.
- Clipboard history, notes and routines. These are stored only on your Mac. Their content leaves your Mac only if you include it in a request.
- Your voice. When you talk to Sidekick, macOS speech recognition turns your speech into text on your Mac wherever your Mac supports it. Otherwise Apple's speech service handles it, under Apple's privacy policy. Only the resulting text is used, and it is treated like a typed request.
- Your files. Files are never uploaded in bulk or in the background. A file's contents leave your Mac only when a task you started needs them, as described in section 1.
3. What we keep on our servers
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| The task you are running: your request and the steps taken so far | To carry out the task step by step | Held only in memory, never written to a database. Deleted when the task ends, or up to an hour later if you can still send a follow-up. |
| An anonymous account for your Mac: a random ID, a scrambled (hashed) form of your Mac's hardware ID, and your credit balance | To recognise your Mac and count usage against your plan | While you use Sidekick |
| Credit you buy in the website edition: the Polar order number, the amount and when | To add the credit to your Mac's account, once | While you use Sidekick, and as long as tax and accounting law requires |
| Usage records: the model used, the number of tokens and the cost of each request | Billing and spending limits | While you use Sidekick |
| Task records: the type of task (such as "forms" or "desktop"), whether it worked, how many steps it took, which tools it used and which shortcut started it | To find out what fails and fix it | While you use Sidekick. The text of your request is never stored here. |
| Daily activity: one record per day you use Sidekick | To count active users | While you use Sidekick |
| Error reports: which app Sidekick was working in, Sidekick's own error message, and the app and macOS versions | To fix bugs | Not linked to your account |
| Server logs: request times, token counts and costs | To run and monitor the service | Kept by our hosting provider for a short period. They never include your requests or the AI's replies. |
4. Control from Telegram (optional)
If you connect Telegram, messages you send to @SidekickMacBot travel through Telegram's servers to ours. Our server holds each message only until your Mac collects it. It is then deleted, and anything not collected is deleted after 24 hours. To link your Telegram account to your Mac, we store your Telegram user ID and first name. Sidekick's replies, and screenshots you ask for with /screenshot, are sent back to you through Telegram. Telegram's own privacy policy applies to anything sent through it. You can disconnect Telegram in Settings at any time, which deletes the link and any waiting messages.
5. Service providers
We share information only with the companies that help run Sidekick, and each one receives only what its job needs:
| Provider | What they do | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| MacPaw (Setapp and Setapp AI) | Licensing, measuring app usage, and carrying AI requests to Anthropic | What is described in section 1, linked to your Setapp account, and the fact that you use Sidekick |
| Anthropic | Runs the Claude AI models: through Setapp AI in the Setapp edition, directly from our server in the website edition | What is described in section 1 |
| Railway | Hosts our server and database | The information in section 3 |
| Telegram | Delivers messages, only if you connect it | Your messages to and from the bot |
| Polar (Polar Software, Inc.) | Sells credit in the website edition, as the merchant of record that handles payment and sales tax | What you enter at checkout: your email, payment details and billing address. We never see your payment details; we receive the order number and amount. See Polar's privacy policy. |
| Cloudflare | Website analytics and our contact and sign-up forms | Pages visited, the referring site, your country, and anything you type into our forms |
| GitHub Pages | Hosts this website | Standard web request data, such as IP addresses |
| Google Fonts | Serves the fonts on this website | Your IP address and browser details when the page loads |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it. We do not sell or rent personal information.
6. Enterprise features
If your Mac is connected to an organisation through Enterprise Connect, that organisation can see limited device, enrolment, usage and audit information, as described in the product. Enterprise tracking records which recognised tools were used. It does not record the contents of prompts, source code, keystrokes, AI responses or personal files.
7. Website cookies and analytics
This website uses no advertising or tracking cookies. It stores your light or dark theme choice in your browser. Our own analytics record page views and clicks on the Setapp link, using an anonymous visitor ID that changes every day, together with your country and the site that sent you here. The page fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when it sends them.
8. Security
All traffic between Sidekick, our server and our providers is encrypted. Account tokens and recovery codes are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, so even we cannot read them. Our server decides which AI model is used and what instructions it gets, so the app cannot be used to make other requests to the AI on our account.
9. Why we process your information
| Purpose | Legal ground |
|---|---|
| Carrying out the tasks you ask for, including sending them to the AI model | Performing our contract with you |
| Counting usage against your plan, and preventing abuse | Performing our contract with you, and our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe |
| Selling and adding credit in the website edition | Performing our contract with you, and our legal duty to keep sales records |
| Task records, daily activity and error reports, used to fix and improve Sidekick | Our legitimate interest in making Sidekick work well. None of these records contain what you asked. |
| Control from Telegram | Performing our contract with you, once you choose to connect it |
| Answering your messages to us | Our legitimate interest in replying to you |
| Counting visits to this website | Our legitimate interest in knowing how people find Sidekick |
10. Your rights
You can ask us to access, correct or delete the information we hold about you. Email us at the address below and we will help you find your records. Deleting Sidekick from your Mac removes everything it stored locally. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to object to how we process your information, or to complain to your data protection authority.
11. Children
Sidekick is not intended for children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
12. Changes
If we change what is sent for AI processing, or which companies handle it, we will update this page and its date before the change takes effect.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information? Email abdullah@sidekick-os.online.