LinkoidPrivacy policy
The short version. Your phone or tablet talks to your Mac directly, over your own network. There is no Linkoid account and no Linkoid server: we never receive your notifications, messages, files or anything else. The apps contain no analytics, advertising or crash-reporting code.
How your devices connect
- You pair a phone or tablet with your Mac by scanning a QR code the Mac shows (or typing a short code). Each device makes its own key pair, and each remembers the other's certificate.
- From then on every connection is encrypted with TLS 1.3, and each side accepts only the certificate it paired with. Nothing else on the network can read or join the link.
- The phone finds the Mac with Bonjour on the local network. While you pair, the Mac also sends a Bluetooth signal so the phone's pairing screen can list it. If the phone can't find the Mac, you can type the Mac's address.
- The phone only connects while it's on a network that reaches the Mac: the same Wi-Fi, the phone's hotspot, or a private network (VPN) you set up yourself.
What the phone app can read, and why
Android asks you before Linkoid can use most of these. Features whose permission you don't grant simply stay off.
| Access | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Notification access | To send your notifications to the Mac (with their pictures), and to reply, press their buttons or clear them when you do so from the Mac. Linkoid skips its own notifications, media players and system status notifications. Ongoing ones such as a ride or delivery go to the Mac's live cards. |
| SMS and contacts | To show your text conversations on the Mac with names, and to send a text you write on the Mac. |
| Phone and call log | To show an incoming call on the Mac, answer, decline or place a call when you ask from the Mac, and to tell a missed call from a declined one. Call audio always stays on the phone. |
| Photos and videos | To let the Mac browse and copy your photos and videos, and to show a new screenshot on the Mac. |
| All files access (optional) | For the Mac's Files browser: listing, opening, uploading, renaming and deleting files in the phone's shared storage when you do so on the Mac. |
| Camera | To use the phone as the Mac's webcam when an app on the Mac turns "Linkoid Camera" on, and to scan the pairing QR code. |
| Clipboard | To send what you copy to the Mac and receive what you copy there. A copy its app marks as private (an authenticator's code, for example) is sent only when you send it on purpose, and the phone keeps no record of it. |
| Screen capture (only when you start a cast) | To show the phone's screen on the Mac. Android asks every time. |
| Accessibility service (optional, off until you turn it on) | To let the Mac tap, swipe and type on a screen you're casting, switch the hotspot on, open links you send from the Mac, and offer to continue the page open in your browser. It acts only on a cast you started or a request from your Mac. Incognito and private tabs are never offered, and page addresses aren't kept. |
| Do Not Disturb | To show the phone's Do Not Disturb on the Mac, and turn it on when you ask from the Mac. |
| Media sessions | To show what's playing on the phone and control it from the Mac. |
| Wi-Fi, hotspot and network state | To know when the Mac is reachable, and to turn the hotspot on for the Mac. |
| Companion device, battery and background running | To keep one connection to the Mac alive in the background and reconnect after a restart, update or network change. |
What the Mac app can use, and why
| Access | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Local network | To receive your phone's connection and to send and receive Quick Share files. |
| Bluetooth | Only while you pair, so your phone can find this Mac. |
| Camera extension | To offer your phone's camera to FaceTime, Zoom and other apps as "Linkoid Camera". |
| Clipboard | To send what you copy to the phone and paste what you copy there. Copies that password managers mark as concealed or temporary are skipped. |
| Accessibility (optional) | To press ⌘V for you after Paste from Phone, and to move the pointer and type when you use the phone as a remote. |
| Automation of your browser and Spotify (optional) | To read the front browser tab when you continue it on the phone, and to start a track in Spotify with Play on Mac. |
| Focus status (optional) | To turn on the phone's Do Not Disturb while the Mac is in a Focus, if you ask it to. |
| Location (optional) | macOS only tells apps the name of a Wi-Fi network with this permission. Linkoid uses it to join your phone's hotspot and never reads where you are. |
Linkoid Tablet for Mac uses the local network to show its display on your tablet, the Screen Recording permission to capture the display it adds for the tablet, and Accessibility so the tablet's touches and pen can move and click the pointer. Linkoid Tablet for Android uses the camera only to scan the pairing QR code.
What is kept, and where
- On your Mac: the notification history (1 day, 7 days, 30 days or forever; 30 days unless you change it), the clipboard history (7 days and 25 copies unless you change it; one-time codes leave after 10 minutes, and private copies are never stored), recordings you make of a cast (in your Movies folder), a cache of photo thumbnails you've viewed, and the pairing keys in the macOS keychain. Search over the words in your photos and screenshots is done on the Mac by macOS's own text recognition.
- On your phone: notifications waiting to reach the Mac, deleted once the Mac confirms them (or after 7 days), the pairing, the Mac's addresses, your settings, and a small diagnostic log that stays on the phone.
- Text conversations are shown on the Mac but not stored there.
- Removing an app removes what it kept. Unpairing stops all transfers.
When the Mac app contacts the internet
Linkoid itself never sends your data to the internet. Two features on the Mac fetch a public web page on your behalf, directly from the Mac:
- Handoff: when the phone offers a page to continue on the Mac, the Mac may fetch that page's title from the site, without cookies, so it can show it. Addresses that look like one-time links are not fetched.
- Play on Mac: when you choose to continue a video or song from the phone, the Mac may search YouTube for it to find where to play it.
Links you open from a notification open in your browser, as any link would.
This website
linkoid.app is a static site. It sets no cookies, has no forms and runs no analytics or third-party scripts. It is served by Cloudflare, which processes basic request data (such as IP addresses) to deliver and protect the site.
Children
Linkoid doesn't collect data from anyone, including children.
Changes
If what the apps do with your data changes, this page will change with it, and the date at the top will say when.
Contact
See the support page.