Privacy policy

Last updated October 15, 2026

Draft. Highlighted bits are placeholders still to be filled in before launch.

Deskercise counts how much you move, click and type. It's built so that it can't tell anyone what you typed, including you.

Deskercise is made by [YOUR LEGAL NAME OR COMPANY], [MAILING ADDRESS] ("we", "us"). We're responsible for the data described here.

What the app stores

Hourly totals, in plain JSON files on your computer (in %AppData%\Deskercise on Windows, or ~/Library/Application Support/Deskercise on a Mac):

Your settings hold your preferences, your optional body weight, and calibration values for each mouse, identified by its hardware vendor and product ID. Logs, kept for 7 days, record start-up, errors and the names of detected pointing devices. They never contain input.

What the app never stores or sends

• Which keys you pressed, in any form. The key code is used for a split second, in memory, to tell a new press from a key being held down (on a Mac, to tell a key press from the keyboard's other signals), and is then discarded.
• What you type: passwords, messages, or anything that could be reconstructed from keystrokes.
• Cursor positions, screenshots, window titles, app names or websites.
• Anything about you on a server, unless you join The Desk League (below). The app has no account, no analytics and no telemetry.

Windows' secure screens (sign-in, the lock screen, Ctrl+Alt+Del and administrator prompts) aren't visible to Deskercise at all.

On a Mac, Deskercise asks for macOS's Input Monitoring permission, the one any app needs to notice a key press. It uses it only to count key presses, clicks and scrolling and to read your mouse's sensor, as described above. It never asks for Accessibility access. You can turn Input Monitoring off in System Settings → Privacy & Security at any time, and Deskercise can't count without it.

Network access

The app makes three kinds of routine network request (two on a Mac, which doesn't check for updates yet), and sends your activity only if you join The Desk League (below):

• License activation. When you activate, the app sends your license key and a random label (like "Deskercise · 3f2a91c0", not your name or your computer's name) to Polar, our store, to check the key. It checks again about once a month, and when you deactivate a computer. If Polar can't be reached, the app keeps working.
• The update check (Windows). It downloads release information from the update server and sends nothing but a normal web request. You can turn it off in Settings.
• The League board. While the League page is open, the app loads the public standings about once a minute. If you haven't joined, the request carries nothing about you; if you have, it includes your username, to find your row.

Only activating needs the internet. After that, Deskercise keeps counting with no connection at all: if a check can't connect, nothing changes. An organization can also turn off the League and update checks for everyone; the page For your IT person lists each destination and how.

The Desk League (optional)

The Desk League is an opt-in leaderboard. If you never join, none of this applies. If you join from the app:

• You choose a username, so don't use your real name unless you want to.
• About every 10 minutes, the app sends that day's and the previous day's calories (scored for a 154 lb person, so the board is fair). It sends your keystroke, click and mouse-distance totals too only while you're on the worldwide board or in a Friends league, the boards that show them; if you're only in Office leagues, it sends calories only. Never which keys, what you typed, or anything else.
• The worldwide board is optional. If you're on it, your username and totals are public, on the website and in the app. If you'd rather not be, you can play only in mini leagues: then only their members see your username and totals.
• Mini leagues (private boards with friends or coworkers): the League stores each league's name, invite code and mode, and who's in it or invited. Only its members see its board and who's been invited. Whoever starts a league chooses its mode when they start it:
  • Friends: the board shows every member's calories, keystrokes, clicks and mouse distance.
  • Office: the board shows calories only. If Office leagues are all you're in, your keystrokes, clicks and mouse distance never leave your computer. If you're also on the worldwide board or in a Friends league, they do, but the League server still leaves them out of everything it sends for an Office board, so coworkers never receive each other's counts.
  Whoever starts a league sees the same board as everyone else. They can remove people and make a new invite code.
• Finding you to invite you: other members can search for your username to invite you, unless you turn that off. Then they can still invite you by your exact username, or give you the league's invite code. An invite does nothing until you accept it.
• To check you're a member, your license key is checked with Polar once when you join. The League stores Polar's id for your key, not the key itself, and no email, name or IP address.
• When you leave the worldwide board, or your last Friends league, the League deletes the keystroke, click and mouse-distance totals it has stored for you, and keeps only your calories.
• Leave League in the app deletes your username, every day you reported and your place in every mini league. Uninstalling the app doesn't do this, so leave first. If you don't, your League account is deleted the same way after 12 months without any activity.

Your control

• Pause from the tray icon (the menu bar on a Mac) or the Today page: for 30 minutes, an hour, until tomorrow, or until you resume.
• Export everything as a CSV file from History (on Windows, also from Settings).
• Delete all data from Settings, or delete the data folder (%AppData%\Deskercise on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/Deskercise on a Mac).
• Uninstalling removes the app but keeps your data folder, so reinstalling picks up where you left off. Delete the folder yourself if you want it gone.
• The Desk League: whether you're on the worldwide board and whether people can find you by searching are yours to change in the app, and Leave League erases your League data.

This website

This part is about the website, deskerciseapp.com. The Deskercise app is separate: it has no analytics, no tracking and no ad code, whatever you choose here. What the app sends is listed under Network access.

Every visit

• [WEBSITE HOST] serves the pages and keeps standard request logs: your IP address, browser, the page you asked for and the page that linked to it.
• Google Fonts serves the fonts, so Google receives your IP address and browser details when a page loads.
• The live telemetry panel on the home page counts your mouse movement, clicks, scrolling and key presses (on a phone or tablet, your taps, swipes and scrolling) while the page is open, to show you a (very small) calorie count. It runs entirely in your browser: its counts are never stored or sent anywhere, it never looks at which keys you press, and it resets when you close the tab.
• On a phone, the Send to my computer button opens your phone's own share menu (or copies the link). We don't collect an email address.

Only if you say yes

On your first visit, a banner asks whether the site may use analytics and marketing cookies. Until you choose, none of the tools below load. Reject all keeps it that way, Accept all turns them all on, and Choose lets you pick each kind.

• Analytics: Google Analytics, run by Google. It records the pages you visit, how you got here (the website or ad that sent you), your device and browser, your approximate location (worked out from your IP address, which Google Analytics doesn't keep), and a few things you do on the site: reaching the pricing, pressing a buy button, opening an FAQ question, and following the links to the IT page or to our email. We use it to see what gets read and where people get stuck. It never records what you type, or the live panel's counts. Google keeps this data for [14 MONTHS].
• Marketing: Google Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram). They receive your IP address and browser details, that you visited, and whether you looked at the pricing or pressed a buy button, along with the ad that brought you here, if one did. We use them to see which ads lead to purchases, and to show Deskercise ads to people who've visited the site. Google and Meta may connect this to an account you have with them, under their own privacy policies.

Cookies

If you arrive from one of our ads and allow marketing, _gcl_aw (Google) or _fbc (Meta) also records which ad, for 90 days. Google and Meta can also use their own cookies, on their own websites (such as google.com and facebook.com), under their own policies.

Changing your mind

Cookie settings, at the bottom of every page, opens the banner again. Turning something off stops it straight away and deletes the cookies it set on this site. Clearing your browser's cookies for deskerciseapp.com works too, and the banner asks again on your next visit. We also ask again after 6 months.

Buying Deskercise

Payments and license keys are handled by Polar (polar.sh), which processes your payment details under its own privacy policy. We never see your card number. We receive your email address and order details so we can deliver the app, help with support and handle refunds. When you activate, the app shows the name or email on your license in Settings and About, on your computer only.

If you buy as a business, Polar also collects the business name, billing address and tax ID for your invoice, and we receive them with the order. Keys from a gift and team pack, and launch-week spotter keys, belong to the buyer's order, but a computer activated with one doesn't keep or show the buyer's name or email.

Who else handles data

• Polar: payments, receipts and license keys.
• Cloudflare: hosts The Desk League, if you join.
• [WEBSITE HOST]: serves this website, and sees standard request logs (IP address, browser).
• Google Fonts: serves this website's fonts.
• Google Analytics (Google): website analytics, only if you allow analytics.
• Google Ads (Google) and Meta (Facebook and Instagram): measuring and showing our ads, only if you allow marketing on the website.

We don't sell your data for money, and we don't give it to anyone not listed here, except where the law requires it. If you allow marketing on the website, Google and Meta receive what This website describes, to measure and show our ads. Some laws, such as California's, count that as "sharing" personal information for advertising: to say no, choose Reject all, or turn off Marketing in Cookie settings. Nothing from the app is ever shared for advertising. These providers may process data outside your country, under their own safeguards.

How long we keep it

• Your activity totals stay on your computer until you delete them.
• League data is kept while you're in the League and deleted when you leave. Inactive League accounts are removed after 12 months without any activity (no totals sent from the app in that time), with everything in them.
• Website analytics, if you allow them, are kept by Google Analytics for [14 MONTHS]. Cookies last as long as the table under This website says.
• Purchase records are kept for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Support emails are kept for [RETENTION PERIOD].

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK, or the CCPA in California), you can ask to see, correct, export or delete the personal data we hold about you, or object to how it's used. Most of your data never leaves your computer, so you already control it. For anything we hold (purchase details, League data, emails), write to us and we'll respond within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Our legal basis for purchase data is performing our contract with you; for the League, your consent, which you can withdraw by leaving; and for the website's analytics and marketing cookies, your consent, which you can withdraw in Cookie settings.

Children

Deskercise isn't directed at children under [13 / 16], and we don't knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has joined the League, tell us and we'll remove them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, such as the app sending something new, we'll say so in the app's release notes before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email contact@deskerciseapp.com.