SlyPilot Privacy Manifesto & Policy

Effective Date: 6 October 2026 · Last reviewed: 23 October 2026 Publisher: Alan Bedian Product: SlyPilot Desktop Helpers

🔒 The Short Version: The Program Collects Nothing About What You Do

SlyPilot Desktop Helpers runs on your own Windows computer. The program has no accounts, no telemetry and no analytics. Voice commands and SlyPilot's AI dictation run on your PC. Nothing leaves it unless you turn on an optional feature (AI actions, the update check, model downloads, or activating a SlyPilot Pro SLY-... licence key); the Phone Remote (SlyPilot Pro) talks only to phones you paired, on your own network. This policy describes the program and its licence; it does not cover the slypilot.com website.

No User Accounts: The program never asks you to create an account, log in, or provide an email address.
No Analytics & No Telemetry: SlyPilot contains no analytics tracking SDKs, no behavioral telemetry, no crash reports sent anywhere, no advertising and no user profiling. Nothing about you, your voice or your PC is sent to the publisher or to any analytics service.
Your Voice Stays on Your PC: Voice commands (the offline Windows recognizer) and SlyPilot's push-to-talk AI dictation (SlyPilot Pro) run on your local hardware. Dictation audio is never saved to disk and is never uploaded by SlyPilot. (The one thing outside SlyPilot's control is Windows Voice Typing, which the free program opens for dictation, described below.)
Your Screenshots Stay on Your PC: screenshots, screen recordings and guides are saved in your own folders. SlyPilot has no upload service, and protected windows (password managers, private browsing) can be painted black in your screenshots.
No Subscriptions: The free program has none, and SlyPilot Pro is a one-time purchase.
Everything powerful is off until you switch it on: voice commands, dictation, AI actions, meeting notes, the text expander, agent control, the phone remote and Home Link.

🎙️ Microphone & Speech Audio Handling

Voice Commands

Recognized by the speech recognizer built into Microsoft Windows, offline.
The microphone is open only while voice command listening is active or while you dictate (the Touch Bar microphone button shows muted when listening is off).

Optional AI Dictation (Whisper & Parakeet; SlyPilot Pro)

Audio recorded during push-to-talk is sent to a small local program (whisper.cpp, or CrispASR for NVIDIA Parakeet) that listens only on 127.0.0.1 (your own machine) on a random port. SlyPilot starts and stops it, and it receives audio only from SlyPilot.
Dictation audio exists only in temporary memory (RAM) and is never written to your hard drive.
Once transcribed, text is injected into your active application. The last 20 dictations are kept in memory for the Dictation Settings history viewer and are gone when SlyPilot closes.
Optional dictation polish sends the text (not the audio) to the AI model you chose; see AI actions below.

Windows Voice Typing (the free program's dictation)

In the free program (without SlyPilot Pro), and whenever no AI engine is set up, the dictation button, the voice command "dictate" and the command line open Windows Voice Typing (Win+H). That is a Windows feature, not part of SlyPilot; depending on your Windows settings it may use Microsoft's online speech service, under Microsoft's privacy statement.

Natural-Voice Read-Aloud (TTS; SlyPilot Pro)

Reading aloud with a Windows voice is free and handled by Windows. With the 45 natural voices, text that is read aloud passes through a small request file in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\Tts\run, which the voice engine deletes as soon as it has read it.
Text read aloud is never logged.

Microphone Mute and "Who Is Listening"

The mute switches the Windows mute of your microphones. The optional pill ("ON AIR" / "MIC MUTED") reads the usage records Windows itself keeps for the microphone privacy page, one look every 2 seconds and only while you have the switch on. Nothing about it is logged or stored.

🌐 Network Activity SlyPilot Starts

SlyPilot starts no network traffic on its own except in these cases, each of which is off until you set it up or click it:

Model downloads (optional AI speech engines, models, natural voices and the built-in language model):
- Only after you click Yes in a consent window that lists the exact filenames, sizes, licences and source URLs. The files come from github.com and huggingface.co.
- Every downloaded file is checked against a published SHA-256 checksum before it is used. A file that does not match is deleted.
- Beyond what any download involves (your IP address and the file requested), SlyPilot sends no information about you.
Update check:
- Happens only when you click Check for Updates... in the tray menu (Help and Backup), or once a week if you ticked Check for updates once a week (off by default; the program asks and says what is sent before it turns on). The Microsoft Store edition, if it ever exists, would not have this: the Store updates it.
- It is one read-only request to api.github.com for the project's latest release. GitHub sees your IP address and the text SlyPilot/<version>; SlyPilot sends nothing else.
- Nothing is downloaded or installed by it. The release page opens in your browser only after you answer Yes.
Optional AI actions (off until you set them up):
- SlyPilot can ask a language model to fix, rewrite, translate or explain text you select and, with a separate switch, to clean up what you dictate. Nothing is sent until you open AI Actions Setup (tray > AI and Meetings), choose a model and turn it on.
- The model is yours. The built-in model, or an address on your own PC (127.0.0.1, for example Ollama or LM Studio), keeps the text on your PC. An address on another computer or service (for example Ollama's cloud or OpenRouter) is refused until you tick a box that names that host and says that your selected text and instructions will be sent there; the answer card names the host every time, and dictation polish needs its own second tick. What such a service does with the text is governed by that service's own policy, not SlyPilot's. With OpenRouter, free models may keep prompts or learn from them, depending on your OpenRouter privacy settings.
- What is sent: the text you selected (or dictated), the instruction and the model name, in one request when you press the key or speak the command. A request that ends in @screen sends the text read from the region you dragged (read on your PC by offline OCR); @clip sends the clipboard text, never a clipboard a password manager marked private; @meeting sends your newest transcript, and a model outside your PC is asked about it every single time. Follow-ups send the earlier conversation again, which is kept in memory for ten minutes and never written to disk or the log. Windows of password managers and private browsing are never read. Nothing goes to the publisher.
- OpenRouter requests carry the program name and its GitHub address in the HTTP-Referer / X-Title headers. With the option If my free model is busy, try other free models (on by default for free models), your text may go to the company behind one of two other free models; the card names the model that answered. Untick it if you want only the model you chose.
- Your API key (only for a service outside your PC) is stored encrypted for your Windows user (Windows DPAPI). It is never written to the log, the diagnostics report or an exported settings file.
- Nothing is logged: the selected text, the instruction and the answer are not written to the log. A temporary file that holds a request while an answer is streamed is deleted as soon as the answer ends. The usage counter in AI Actions Setup keeps counts only, never text.
- The model's answer to an AI action is only ever pasted as text; it is never run as a command.
- The SlyPilot Assistant (free wording; a separate switch, off by default): tray > Voice Commands > SlyPilot Assistant (AI). When it is on and SlyPilot does not know what you said (after the wake word or with push to talk) or what you typed in the command palette, it asks the model of AI Actions Setup what you meant. The request holds the words you said, a list of the names of SlyPilot's commands, and the names of the programs that have windows open (such as chrome.exe, not protected programs), of your desktops, modes, automations and workspaces. No screen, no window titles, no window contents. The model can only answer with steps from those lists: SlyPilot checks every one before anything runs, never runs keys, typing, clicks or closing through it, acts on windows with the same rules as for AI agents (protected programs refused), and shows you the plan first when it does more than one thing; a risky command always waits for you. The same rules as above decide whether a model outside your PC is allowed. The words are not written to the log. Questions about the screen ("what does this error say?") are the one exception: only then SlyPilot reads the text of the window you were using (Windows OCR, on this PC; protected programs and SlyPilot's own windows never) and sends at most 6000 characters of it with your question; to a model outside your PC only after you chose Only this time or Always for this service on a card. The window text is never written to the log.
Meeting summaries (only when you ask):
- Go through the same AI model and the same rules as AI actions: a model outside your PC is refused unless you allowed outside models, and then SlyPilot asks before every single transcript and names the host that would receive it.
Phone Remote (SlyPilot Pro; off until you switch it on and pair a phone):
- While it is on, a small helper program listens on your local network (a port on your PC's private addresses) and answers only phones that you paired, and only on private network addresses. It never listens for or connects to the internet, and nothing is sent to the publisher or to any server.
- Pairing uses a one-time code shown on your own screen (valid 2 minutes). Both sides prove they know it, and all traffic between phone and PC is encrypted (TLS) with a certificate made on your PC.
- What the phone sends (taps, typed text, keys, voice audio, files you send) goes only to your PC. Audio from the phone is recognized by the speech engines on your PC and is not saved. What you push from the PC (Send Clipboard to Phones) goes only to connected phones that may use the clipboard, and nothing is sent when a password manager marked the clipboard sensitive. The log records only that a phone connected or disconnected; typed text, keys, audio and spoken words are never written to it.
- You control it: per-phone permissions, a time limit per phone, instant removal of a phone, a pause hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12), and the tray switch Phone Remote On. Password-manager windows are hidden from the phone unless you give a phone the Unrestricted permission.
Home Link (SlyPilot Pro, preview; off until you switch it on and pair an app):
- While it is on, a helper program makes the PC a Matter device on your local network (UDP port 5540, and 5353 so that it can be found), so a smart home app you paired it with (Google Home, Alexa, Apple Home, SmartThings, Home Assistant) can switch the devices you chose. It never contacts the internet itself and sends nothing to slypilot.com.
- What reaches the PC: only “device X on / off / level N” from the apps you paired, encrypted and authenticated by Matter. No sound, no speech and no text: your speaker and its company handle what you say, as for any smart plug, and they see the device names you chose.
- Pairing: a code shown on your own screen. Anyone on your network who has that code could pair while the pairing window is open (15 minutes: at the start while nothing is paired, or when you open Pair with an app).
- Limits: only harmless devices are offered, commands that would need a spoken confirmation are refused (also inside a macro), while the PC is locked only display, volume, media and lock work, and nothing unlocks the PC.
- Sensors (off until you tick them and answer a separate question): Computer in use (keyboard, mouse, pen or touch used in the last few minutes) and Computer call (a program other than SlyPilot's own uses the microphone) send only “occupied” or “not occupied”: never sound, program names or content. With them on, the smart home company learns when the PC is in use and when you are on a call.
- The engine log (%LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\Home\engine.log, at most 5 MB, stays on the PC): starts, the network adapters, warnings and the devices switched; with Detailed Log for 24 Hours (off by default, ends by itself) also how apps found the PC and the pairing steps, with network addresses. It never holds the pairing code, the passcode or anything that was said. The diagnostics report includes its end with the addresses masked, only when you copy or save the report yourself.
- What is logged: which device was switched, which app is paired and when a sensor changes (for example “Computer display off”, “paired with Google Home”), never anything that was said.
Pages opened in your browser, only on your click:
- Report a Problem (tray > Help and Backup) copies a redacted diagnostics report (no speech, names or settings values) to your clipboard and opens the project's issue page in your browser, only after you say Yes. SlyPilot sends nothing itself; what you paste into the page is up to you.
- A few buttons open a web page in your browser (for example the release page after the update check, a Doctor fix that opens a library's download page, or the Buy button of the SlyPilot Pro window, which opens slypilot.com/pro#buy). They open only when you press them.
- SlyPilot Pro licence (optional): SlyPilot Pro is unlocked by a licence key (SLY-...) that you activate online, or by an offline licence file (SlyPilot.lic). Activating a key sends to the licence server of slypilot.com: the key, an anonymous id of the PC (a one-way hash of the Windows installation id together with the product name—the Windows id itself is never sent), the PC's name, the word "win32" and the version of SlyPilot Pro. The server answers with a signed 30-day lease for that PC, stored as SlyPilot.lease in SlyPilot's data folder and checked there. While SlyPilot runs it asks the server for a fresh lease about twice a day, sending the key, the same PC id and the version; nothing else is sent (no usage data, no files, nothing you type or say). Without internet Pro keeps working until the 30-day lease ends. Remove licence in the Pro window tells the server to free that PC (sending the key and the PC id) and deletes the lease. The server keeps which PCs a key is activated on so it can enforce the 3-PC limit. An offline licence file (SlyPilot.lic, ECDSA P-256) is checked only on your PC, offline, and nothing about it is sent; it holds the name you bought it under, a one-way hash of your e-mail address, the number of PCs, the dates and a licence number. Backing up or exporting your settings does not include the licence: keep the e-mail.
Network diagnostics ("network status" / "ping"):
- If you ask SlyPilot to run "network status" or "ping", it runs the Windows ping tool, only at your request.
**Sound packs (the Sound Themer; only when you open Get more packs...):**
- SlyPilot reads the list of the source you choose: the SlyPilot gallery (slypilot.com/sounds/index.json) or the Sound Manager collection on GitHub (one read of api.github.com for its file list). The list is kept on your PC for a day.
- A pack is downloaded only when you click it (from slypilot.com or raw.githubusercontent.com; no other host is accepted), checked against its SHA-256 checksum when the gallery names one, and shown on a card before anything changes.
- These requests carry nothing about you beyond what any download involves (your IP address and the file requested). Nothing is uploaded: sharing a pack makes a file on your PC, which you pass on yourself.
**Pointer packs (the Cursor Themer; only when you open Get more packs...):**
- SlyPilot reads the list of the SlyPilot pointer gallery (slypilot.com/cursors/index.json), kept on your PC for a day.
- A pack is downloaded only when you choose it (from slypilot.com only), checked against the SHA-256 checksum the list names, read and written again by SlyPilot, and shown on a card before anything changes.
- These requests carry nothing about you beyond what any download involves (your IP address and the file requested). Nothing is uploaded: sharing a pack makes a file on your PC, which you pass on yourself.

🎬 Meeting Notes (SlyPilot Pro; off until you agree)

Meeting notes record your microphone (unless you untick Include my microphone) and the sound your PC plays, only after you agreed in a consent window and for as long as a red indicator is on screen. SlyPilot starts nothing by itself: you start it, every time, from the tray menu or Ctrl+Alt+Win+T, and no agent, voice command, macro or script can start it for you.

What happens to the audio: it is cut into short pieces in a private temporary folder and each piece is deleted as soon as SlyPilot has read it; the speech engine that turns it into text runs on your PC. No audio is kept and nothing is sent anywhere. Recording other people can need their consent where you live: SlyPilot shows a sentence to tell them before each start.
The transcript is a plain text file in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\Transcripts (not next to the program, which may be a synced folder). It is never written to the log or a diagnostics report, never exported with your settings and not readable through the agent interface. The tray menu opens the folder and deletes all transcripts; [SlyMeeting] RetentionDays can delete old ones automatically.
Consent is stored in your settings file; a restored settings backup cannot give it.

📸 Screenshots, Screen Recordings & Guides

Screenshots are free; the screenshot editor, screen recording, scrolling screenshots and guides are SlyPilot Pro. All of them work on your PC only.

Only when you start one: a screenshot, a recording or a guide starts when you ask for it: by voice, a key, the tray menu, the Touch Bar, or the command line. An AI agent can take a screenshot only at the agent level you chose. A recording and a guide show a bar for as long as they run.
Where they go: pictures go into Pictures\Screenshots and recordings into Videos\Captures, or the folders you choose in Screenshot Settings.
- The history, its thumbnails, the copies kept so a picture can be edited again (deleted after 30 days by default) and your guides live in SlyPilot's data folder.
- Nothing is uploaded: SlyPilot has no upload service. Sharing means copying the file, or dragging it into a program you choose.
What is left out:
- SlyPilot's own bars are left out of pictures and videos.
- Windows of password managers and private browsing can be painted black in your screenshots (one switch in Screenshot Settings), and always are in guides.
- In a screen recording they are not painted black: the ready bar says so before you press Start.
- A picture you redacted keeps no original unless you ask for one.
Sound: a recording includes your microphone or the PC's sound only when you tick them on the ready bar.
Keys:
- The key badges of a recording show shortcuts and special keys only (Ctrl+C, Enter, F5), never letters, digits or symbols you type.
- A guide keeps that you typed after a click ("and type your text"), never what you typed.
- A password box is filled solid in a guide's picture.
- Nothing about keys is written to the log.
Reading text in pictures (copy text, Quick Redact, Find secrets) uses Windows' own OCR on your PC. The text it finds is never written to the log.

💾 Local Storage on Your Hard Drive

All user data is stored locally in human-readable plain text unless noted:

SlyPilot.ini: Your UI preferences, custom button sets, snap zones, word list, voice macros, text-expander texts and per-app rules. An AI service key is stored encrypted for your Windows user.
Workspaces\*.ini: Window layout snapshots.
Packs\*.vdspack: Custom voice command packs.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\: Downloaded engines and models (Whisper, Parakeet, Kokoro, Piper, Supertonic, the built-in language model in LLM), if you chose to install them; meeting transcripts in Transcripts; a daily copy of your settings (the newest 7, plus repaired damaged copies) in Backups.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\Home\: If you use Home Link: the pairing data of the smart home apps you paired (their Matter certificates) and a random setup code for this PC. Reset Home Link... in its window forgets them.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\SlyPilot\Remote\: If you use the Phone Remote: the security certificate it made and the list of paired phones, protected for your Windows user (Windows DPAPI). Files a phone sends you go to Downloads\From phone.
Screenshots and recordings: in the folders you chose (Pictures\Screenshots and Videos\Captures by default). SlyPilot's data folder holds the screenshot history and its thumbnails, the copies kept so a picture can be edited again (30 days by default) and your guides (Shots).
logs\crash.log: Capped at 2 MB. Contains start-up and error messages and the commands that were recognized. What you say or dictate and what the AI heard are NOT logged unless you explicitly enable it ([Privacy] LogSpeechText=1) for troubleshooting. logs\agent.log lists what each AI agent did, never what it typed.
In memory only: the clipboard history (never written to disk; copies a password manager marks private are never recorded), the last 20 dictations, AI follow-up threads, and "what did you hear?".

Where these files are depends on how SlyPilot is installed: next to the program (zip), in its install folder (setup program), or in the app's private data folder (Microsoft Store edition, if it ever exists). The setup program asks whether to delete your settings and downloaded models when you uninstall.

🤖 AI Agent & MCP Protocol Safeguards

SlyPilot includes an optional automation interface (the agent API and a Model Context Protocol server) for local coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI):

Default state is OFF: The agent API and MCP server do nothing until you turn agent control on in the tray menu. The older command-line switches and /say (used by Stream Deck and your own macros) are not covered by that gate: any local program can use them, as before.
Permission levels: The higher levels (typing, clicking, launching programs) are time-limited, and risky actions ask you to click Allow.
Protected windows shield: Windows of password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, KeePass and others) and private browsing windows are hidden from agents by default (they are painted black in screenshots). You can add more programs or window titles to that list.
Emergency kill switch: Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12 or saying "pause agent control" freezes all agent activity (and all phones) at once.

📋 Clipboard, Text Expander & Other Programs

To paste dictated text, SlyPilot briefly uses the clipboard and then restores what was there.
The text expander (off by default) watches what you type in order to spot your abbreviations. It never acts in password managers or private browsing windows or in programs you exclude, and what you type or expand is never written to a log. SlyPilot cannot tell a password box from another text box, so never choose an abbreviation that could be part of a password.
SlyPilot can list, move and snap your windows and press keys you ask it to; it does this locally, on your request. It records the screen only in a screen recording or a guide you started (see above), and it never records what you type.

⚖️ Licence & Verification

SlyPilot's free core is under the MIT License and written in human-readable AutoHotkey v2. The four SlyPilot Pro programs (in the Pro folder) are proprietary and are unlocked by a signed 30-day lease (SlyPilot.lease, Ed25519, from activating a SLY-... key) or an offline licence file (SlyPilot.lic, ECDSA P-256). The source repository is private at the moment; this page will point to it when it is public. Questions about this policy can be sent to the publisher through https://slypilot.com/support.