What we collect, and why.

The desktop app sends anonymous usage events: when it launches or quits, when the kill switch is used (including how many apps it closed — a number, never their names), update checks and their outcomes, and settings changes such as the chosen language or the start-at-login toggle. Each event carries the app version, operating system, and app language. If the app itself crashes, a crash report with the technical error message is sent so we can fix it.

Events are tied to a random install ID generated on first launch — a coin-flip identifier for one installation, connected to nothing about you. We never collect your name, email, or account details (there are none), and never anything about the apps, windows, files, or keystrokes on your machine. The app only asks the operating system to quit your apps; it cannot see inside them.

Usage and improvement, nothing else: understanding which features are used, which platforms and languages need attention, and which crashes to fix first. The data is not used for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond making the product better.

Events are processed by PostHog (PostHog Inc., hosted in the United States), our analytics provider, and configured as anonymous events — PostHog builds no person profiles from them. Data is retained only as long as needed to analyse usage and is accessible to no one beyond the maintainers of this product.

When you trigger it, the app asks each running application to close, then force-quits only the ones that ignore the request. It deliberately leaves your desktop session and core system services untouched, so you are never logged out. The sweep itself happens entirely locally — only the count of closed apps is reported, as described above.

So it can keep itself current, the app requests a small version file from our download host at launch and on demand, and installs newer versions when available. Like any web request, this is visible to the host as your IP address and the app version you are running; we do not log, store, or analyse it to identify you.

captainkillswitch.com is hosted on Vercel, which keeps standard, short-lived server logs (such as IP addresses) for security and reliability. The site stores one preference to remember your chosen language.

The site also sends anonymous usage events to PostHog (the same processor as the app): page views and explicit actions such as clicking a download button or opening an FAQ item. There is no session recording, no autocapture, and no tracking or advertising cookies — a random identifier is kept in your browser's local storage, tied to nothing about you, and your browser's Do-Not-Track setting is honoured.

The app is free, so we collect no payment information. If paid features are ever offered, checkout would be handled by a dedicated third-party payment processor, and this policy would be updated to describe it beforehand.

We do not sell, rent, or share your information with anyone. The only third parties involved are the infrastructure that serves this website and the app downloads, and PostHog, which processes the anonymous usage events on our behalf.

Uninstalling the app removes it completely, including its random install ID — any events already sent remain anonymous and cannot be traced back to you or your machine. Because there is no account, there is nothing identifying on our side to delete.

Questions about privacy? Reach us through the project on GitHub.

If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above and post the new version on this page.