Privacy

Who we are

This website and Trindle are made by the Trindle project.

Write to distro@trindle.org about anything on this page.

What stays on your computer

• Snapshots of the system are taken on your own disk and restored from it. They are never copied anywhere.
• Clipboard history is a file in your own home folder. You choose when it is forgotten, and you can forget one line at a time.
• Backups of app settings are written as a single file in your home folder. Where you then copy it is your business; nothing sends it for you.
• Your settings are plain files in your home folder, and your documents are simply your documents.

There is no account to make, nothing is registered, and no usage is counted or reported.

When it uses the network, and who it talks to

Trindle reaches the internet only for the things below. The update checks happen by themselves unless you switch off Check for updates in Settings, About this computer; the rest happen because you asked. The whole list:

• Apps fetches the Flathub catalogue, and installs and updates apps from Flathub, when you open it or press install.
• Software sources you choose add a Debian repository run by that maker. From then on that maker's server is asked for updates along with Debian's.
• Debian's own updates come from Debian's servers. The computer asks for the list of what is new once a day, and installs nothing but security fixes until you press Update.
• Apps' From GitHub page asks AppImageHub and GitHub when you search there, and downloads from the release you choose.
• Stars and reviews on an app’s page in Apps are read from GNOME’s open review service, odrs.gnome.org, when you open that page. The request names the app and your language, and nothing that identifies you.
• Firmware: when you open Apps’ Updates page, fwupd fetches the list of new firmware from the LVFS, fwupd.org, if its copy has gone stale. fwupd also has a timer of its own that does the same.
• The updates button in the ring looks 90 seconds after you log in, then every three hours, and again when you open the ring if the last look is more than ten minutes old, for updates waiting. For your apps it asks Flathub; Debian’s and Trindle’s are read from the lists the computer already has.
• Trindle's own updates come from apt.trindle.org, which we run, in the same way Debian's do. The computer asks that server, and Debian's, for a list of what is new once a day, so the ring can say when updates are waiting. Debian’s security fixes install by themselves every day; nothing else is installed until you press Update.
• Plugins: the list of Trindle’s plugins is read from github.com, from Trindle’s own releases, when the ring looks for updates and when you open the Plugins page.
• The blocker is off until you switch it on in Settings, Blocking. Then it fetches its lists of advert, tracking and scam sites from cdn.jsdelivr.net once a day, and sends your name lookups over an encrypted connection to the private server you chose there: Quad9, unless you pick Mullvad or Cloudflare.
• Opening a .deb file in Apps checks where it was downloaded from against a list of risky sites, fetched from cdn.jsdelivr.net when the copy kept is over a day old. Nothing about the file is sent.
• Tailscale is off until you switch it on in Settings. Switching it on installs it from pkgs.tailscale.com, and signing in goes through login.tailscale.com.
• The clock is checked against time servers on the internet whenever the computer is connected, unless you switch automatic time off in Settings.
• Network sign-in check: NetworkManager, with Debian’s check, asks network-test.debian.org from time to time whether a Wi-Fi network wants a sign-in first.
• Problem reports go to Trindle’s community home, only when you press Send in the Report a problem window. The window first asks it whether reports are being taken, and only if reports are switched on in Settings, Crash reports.

Switching off Check for updates stops the ring’s looks, the daily list fetches, Debian’s security fixes and the blocker’s daily lists; a computer with no lists at all still fetches them once.

On your own network, the computer looks for printers by asking the other devices there; none of that goes to the internet.

Those requests carry nothing about you beyond what any download needs: your computer's address and what it is asking for. The installer downloads nothing at all, because it copies the system from the USB stick.

This website

The site is a set of plain files, served by GitHub Pages. We set no cookies, run no analytics, use no tracking pixels and load nothing from another company. There are no accounts and no forms on the site itself.

Like every web host, GitHub receives your IP address and browser user-agent as a technical necessity of serving a page, and may keep short-lived server logs. We do not use them to follow anyone.

Nothing is kept in your own browser: no cookies and no other local storage.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you may ask what personal data an organisation holds about you, have it corrected or erased, and object to how it is used. Because we hold no personal data about visitors or users, in practice there is nothing for us to return or delete, but you are welcome to ask.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled a data matter, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.