Privacy Policy

Last Updated: January 11, 2026

Anchor (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how your personal information is collected, used, and disclosed by Anchor. This policy applies to our website (https://anchordesktop.com) and our web application.

Anchor is a South African entity. By accessing or using our Service, you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

1. Information Collection by User Type

We collect different information depending on how you use the Service:

1.1. Guest Users (Local Mode)

If you use the Service without creating an account ("Guest Access"):

  • No Content Collection: We do not collect, store, or transmit your Notes, Tasks, Bookmarks, or settings to our servers. This data lives strictly in your browser's local storage.
  • Usage Data: We do collect anonymized telemetry and usage data (e.g., "User added a widget") to help us understand how the app is used. This data is not linked to your identity or your specific content.

1.2. Registered Users (Cloud Sync)

If you create an account to use Cloud Sync features, we collect and store:

  • User-Generated Content: We store the data you create, including Bookmarks, Notes, and Tasks/To-Dos, in our secure cloud database (Google Firestore) to enable synchronization across your devices.
  • Account Information: Name, email address, and profile picture (via Firebase Auth).

2. Google User Data (Restricted Scopes)

(Applicable only to Registered Users who enable Google integrations)

Anchor allows you to sign in using your Google Account and voluntarily integrate Google Calendar data. To comply with Google's API Services User Data Policy, we explicitly disclose the following regarding Restricted Scopes:

Data Accessed

If you choose to connect your Google account, Anchor requests access to:

  • Basic Profile (userinfo.profile, userinfo.email): To authenticate your identity.
  • Google Calendar (calendar.events.readonly): This is an optional feature. If enabled, we access your calendar events to display them on your dashboard (startpage).

Data Usage & No Advertising

How we use, process, and handle your Google User Data:

  • Functionality: We use your calendar data solely to display your upcoming events on your personal dashboard.
  • Storage: Calendar data is fetched via a secure Cloud Function and temporarily cached in our secure cloud database for performance.
  • Retention: We utilize a Time-To-Live (TTL) mechanism to ensure this data is automatically deleted from our servers after a short period (cache refresh).
  • Strict No-Advertising Policy for Restricted Data: Notwithstanding any other provision in this policy regarding general advertising, we do not use your Google Calendar data (Restricted Scope data) for serving advertisements, retargeting, or data mining.

Limited Use Disclosure

Anchor's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

3. Microsoft User Data & Graph API

(Applicable only to Registered Users who enable Microsoft integrations)

Anchor allows you to sign in using your Microsoft Account. To comply with Microsoft's publisher requirements:

Data Accessed

We utilize the Microsoft Graph API to access:

  • User Profile (User.Read): To authenticate your identity.
  • Calendars (Calendars.Read): If enabled, we access your calendar events to display them on your dashboard.

Data Handling

Microsoft Calendar data is fetched via a secure Cloud Function and temporarily cached. We apply a strict Time-To-Live (TTL) policy to ensure this data is automatically deleted from our servers shortly after retrieval. We do not store your calendar data permanently, nor do we use it for advertising or training AI models.

4. Advertising and Third-Party Cookies

To support the free provision of the Service (for both Guest and Registered users), we reserve the right to display third-party advertisements. If we display ads:

  • Third-Party Vendors: We may work with third-party advertising companies (such as Google AdSense) to serve ads when you visit the Service.
  • Cookies: These companies may use cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies to collect information about your visits to this and other websites. This information is used to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.
  • Exclusion of Private Data: We do not provide your personal User-Generated Content (Notes, Tasks) or Restricted Scope Data (Calendar Events) to advertisers. Targeting is based on non-personally identifiable usage data or cookies stored on your browser.

5. AI Features and Automated Processing

(Applicable only if you opt-in to AI features)

Anchor integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) features, such as automatic bookmark categorization, to enhance your experience. These features are powered by Google Gemini (via Firebase Genkit).

5.1. How We Process Your Data

If you explicitly choose to use AI features (e.g., "Auto-Categorize Bookmarks"):

  • Data Shared: We send the specific text content required for the task (e.g., Bookmark URLs, Titles, and Descriptions) to the AI provider.
  • Purpose: This data is processed solely to generate the output you requested (e.g., suggesting a category).
  • No Model Training: We use the paid, enterprise tier of Google's AI services. Your personal data is NOT used to train Google's public AI models.

5.2. Data Retention for AI

Data sent to the AI model is transient. It is processed in memory to generate a response and is not permanently stored by the AI provider for their own use.

6. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

  • Provide, operate, and maintain the Anchor web app.
  • Sync your data across devices (Registered Users only).
  • Display relevant advertisements or sponsored content.
  • Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support messages (Registered Users only).
  • Detect, prevent, and address technical issues or fraud.

7. Data Retention

7.1. Registered Users

We retain your personal information (including your Notes, Bookmarks, and Tasks) only as long as your account is active. If you request account deletion, we will delete all your personally identifiable information and User-Generated Content from our servers within 60 days.

7.2. Guest Users

Since we do not store your content on our servers, we have no data to retain or delete. Your data is retained on your local device until you clear your browser cache or manually delete the data.

8. International Transfers

Your information, including Personal Data (for Registered Users), may be transferred to—and maintained on—computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. We utilize Google Firebase and Google Cloud AI services, which has servers primarily in the United States.

9. Your Rights (POPIA & GDPR)

We respect your privacy rights. Whether you are in South Africa (POPIA), Europe (GDPR), or California (CCPA), you have the right to:

  • Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. (Note: For Guest users, we do not hold your data, so we cannot provide an export.)
  • Correction: Request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate.
  • Deletion: Request that we erase your personal data.
  • Withdraw Consent: You can revoke Anchor's access to your Google or Microsoft Account at any time via their respective security dashboards.

To exercise these rights, please contact us at the email below.

10. Security

We use industry-standard security measures, including HTTPS encryption and secure tokens (OAuth) via Google Firebase, to protect your data.

Staff Access: We have a strict internal policy against accessing, reading, or analyzing the content of your personal Notes, Tasks, or Bookmarks, except where strictly required by law.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you wish to exercise your rights under POPIA or GDPR, please contact our Information Officer: