Bowerbird Privacy Policy

Effective 1 October 2026. Applies to Bowerbird for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, Android and Windows.

What Bowerbird does

Bowerbird keeps a history of the text and images you copy, and the files you send to it, and, if you turn on sync, shares that history between your own devices.

End-to-end encryption

Everything you copy or send is encrypted on your device before it is sent, with a key made from your sync code. The sync code never leaves your devices in a form our server can use to decrypt anything. Our server stores only encrypted data and cannot read your clips or files. File names, types and sizes are encrypted too.

What our server stores

• Your encrypted clips and encrypted images.
• Your encrypted files, split into encrypted 4 MB pieces.
• Technical details needed to sync: a random history identifier, a one-way hash of your device's access token, item sizes, when an item was last used, whether it is pinned, and for files the number of pieces and their total encrypted size.
• Short-lived technical logs (such as IP address and time of a request) used only for security and troubleshooting.

You choose how long your history is kept ("Keep history": 7, 30, 90 or 180 days, or Auto). Unpinned clips and files are deleted automatically once they haven't been used for that long; Auto keeps them up to 180 days but removes the oldest unpinned items first once your history grows past 5 GB. If our server runs low on space, new uploads wait until space is available; nothing you have saved is removed to make room. Pinned items are only removed by you. Pieces of a file upload that was never completed are deleted after 24 hours. Deleting a clip or file, using "Clear history", or replacing your sync code removes the data from the server. If you never turn on sync, nothing leaves your device.

What we don't do

• No accounts: we never ask for your name, email or phone number.
• No ads, no analytics, no tracking, no selling or sharing of data with anyone.

On your devices

• Your history is stored in the app's private storage on each device.
• Items that password managers mark as secret are skipped and never saved.
• The Bowerbird keyboard (iOS and Android) only inserts clips you tap. It does not record what you type.
• The camera is used only to scan the pairing QR code. Camera images are not stored or sent anywhere.
• Files you send or open are kept in the app's private storage; downloaded copies may be removed to save space and downloaded again when needed. "Save to Downloads" puts a copy in your Downloads folder, which Bowerbird no longer controls.
• On Android, Bowerbird asks to show notifications only to display the progress of a file upload.

Children

Bowerbird is not directed at children under 13.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be published on this page with a new effective date. Questions or deletion requests: feedback.cpl3.dev.