Privacy

What Backspace stores on your computer

Backspace normally keeps its settings and working data in Backspace.config beside the application. A custom configuration location can be selected when launching it. The folder contains:

• Your config. The list of backups you created, the source folders, the destinations, the schedules and filter rules, stored as readable JSON.
• An encrypted secrets vault. Cloud OAuth refresh tokens, S3 access keys, repository encryption passwords. On Windows the vault is wrapped with DPAPI so only the current Windows user account can read it; on macOS and Linux a per-installation key file lives alongside it with user-only file permissions.
• Per-run logs. Each backup run writes a log file capturing engine messages, file counts, durations and errors. Logs can contain file paths, backup names and destination details. Backspace does not upload these logs automatically; inspect them before sharing a support report.
• The Backrest sidecar's data. Backspace bundles Backrest and drives it as a localhost-only RPC sidecar. Its state (operation history and cached repository metadata) lives under backrest/ in the same config directory. The sidecar binds to 127.0.0.1 only — it is not reachable from any other computer.

Engine working files can also contain readable cloud credentials and repository passwords while Backspace manages its connections. Keep the whole configuration folder private, not just the encrypted vault. Removing a destination or its local settings does not erase backups already stored with your provider.

What Backspace sends out

Backup, restore, browsing and maintenance connect to the destinations you configured. Their providers receive the authentication needed for those requests, along with normal connection information such as your IP address.

• Local drives and network shares. An internal or directly attached drive does not need a network transfer. A NAS or network share receives the backup across your network.
• S3 destinations. Restic's S3 driver talks directly to the bucket you configured, with the AWS credentials you supplied, over HTTPS.
• Cloud destinations (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive). Restic talks to rclone, which talks directly to the provider's API over HTTPS using the account access you authorised. Access tokens are sent to the provider's API; refresh tokens are sent to that provider when renewing access. They are not sent to a Backspace-operated server. Restic encrypts repository contents on your computer. Choose a repository password to protect them: a repository created without a password does not provide meaningful confidentiality even though restic still uses its encrypted format.

Which cloud files Backspace can access

You sign in on the provider's own page and choose whether to approve Backspace. Its standard backup connections request access only to the application's own storage area:

• Dropbox: the Apps/Backspace folder, plus basic account information used to check the connection.
• OneDrive: Backspace's application folder, using Microsoft's delegated app-folder permission.
• Google Drive: Backspace's private application-data folder. Google hides it from the normal Drive file list and other applications.

Backspace uploads, lists, restores and removes repository data within that area according to your backup and retention settings. This access does not let it back up unrelated online-only files elsewhere in your drive. You can revoke the connection in your provider's account settings. Revocation prevents later access; deleting Backspace's application data in Google also deletes the backups stored there.

Telemetry, analytics, crash reporting

Backspace has no usage analytics, advertising identifiers or automatic crash-report uploader. Besides storage and sign-in, these features make network requests:

• Optional monitoring and email. Healthchecks.io, Resend or Mailgun receive the messages needed for the services you enable. Reports can include your backup name, source paths, computer name, timing, status and error details. Email also includes the sender and recipients you configure. Backspace does not attach the backed-up files to these messages.
• Update checks and downloads. Backspace queries GitHub's release service. On Windows, the updater downloads a release when you choose to install it. GitHub receives normal request information, including your IP address.
• A one-time download of release binaries from GitHub (backrest, restic, rclone) the first time you build Backspace from source. Disabled by passing -p:SkipBackrestDownload=true.

Cookies, tracking, third-party scripts

This website (the page you're reading) is a static HTML page hosted on GitHub Pages. It has no analytics tags, no cookies, no third-party scripts, and no embedded advertising. GitHub's standard hosting access logs apply (per their privacy statement); we do not have access to those logs and do not request them.

Children's privacy

Backspace does not operate user accounts or collect usage profiles. The storage and notification providers you choose have their own account requirements and privacy policies.

Changes to this policy

This page is updated when the application's data handling changes. Material changes should also be described in the corresponding release notes. The date above identifies this version of the policy.

Contact

Questions, concerns, or "actually I think you're collecting something you didn't list here": open an issue on GitHub. Or, if you'd rather not do that in public, email the maintainer at the address in the LICENSE file.