What Cozybyte collects
and why.

The service this covers

This policy covers the Cozybyte website, the account, and the Windows app. Cozybyte watches a PC, explains what it finds in plain language, and by default waits for a yes before it changes the computer.

The other party is the operator of this website. The legal name and mailing address will be listed here before a publicly signed Windows release. Until then, the practices on this page are the ones the service follows.

Information you give us

An account needs a name, an email address, and a language. You can add a passkey, or open the account from a one-time email link. Cozybyte stores the passkey public key and a sign-in counter when you add one, and only a hash of an email link. The account has no password.

A sign-up you have not finished keeps the name, email, and passkey ceremony until you finish or the draft expires. My Account can also hold a pending email until you open the link sent to the new address.

• Display name, email, and language
• Passkey public key and sign-in counter
• Household role: owner, caregiver, or the person at the PC

What the PC reads and what it shares

The Windows app does nothing until the computer is signed in to Cozybyte. Then it reads, on the PC, the capacity and free space of the drive, memory, processor use, the Windows build, and the connection, including one quick check to the PC’s own router, which stays on your home network. It also reads which apps use the most memory (names and sizes), which apps start with Windows, and folder sizes for the disk chart. Background checks add Windows Security settings, crash and unexpected-restart counts, and update status.

Almost all of that stays on the PC. The full app list, the startup list, the folder sizes, the router check, and a 60-day baseline of processor, memory and router readings (numbers only, so a level that is normal for your PC is not called a problem) are never sent. When you approve updating apps that are installed for everyone on the PC, the names (package ids) of exactly those approved apps are sent to Cozybyte's service once, so it can sign the permission the helper checks; the service keeps only a fingerprint of that list, never the names, and nothing else about your installed software leaves the PC (the list of apps with updates, their versions and the rest stay on the PC and never reach a model). Cozybyte does not collect documents, photos, browser history, saved passwords, screenshots, or an inventory of the software you have installed. A check Cozybyte runs to look into a problem can name a service, app or update involved in it, but never reads the window titles, paths or command lines of your programs.

With AI troubleshooting on, it can also share what kind of PC it is, from fixed lists only: the maker and model family, laptop or desktop, the processor generation, how much memory, the kind of disk, the graphics maker, and the Windows edition. It never shares the exact model or the serial number. Cozybyte uses this only to prefer fixes that worked on PCs like yours, and counts a kind of PC only after five households have it.

If AI troubleshooting is on, “Share app names with AI” is on in Settings (it is on by default once AI is on), and your question is about memory, a slow PC or a slow start, Cozybyte also shares the names and sizes of up to 5 of the apps using the most memory, and the names of up to 20 apps that start with Windows. A name that could be personal, such as one that contains your Windows user name or your PC’s name, is held back.

A note Cozybyte keeps so another household can benefit from a known fix is redacted. It leaves out your name, email, household id, file paths, the text of your question, your apps, and what kind of PC you have.

Diagnostics are on by default, and “Send diagnostics to Cozybyte” in Settings > Advanced turns them off. After each background check the app sends the service a small health signal: the app version, the Windows build, the architecture, the language, whether the app saw a Plus subscription or Free, the care level and whether each setting is on or off, whether the last check ran and how long it took, the kinds and severities of what it found, which of Cozybyte’s own fixes ran and whether they worked, how many notifications it showed, error codes, and whether the app crashed (the type of error and where it happened in Cozybyte’s own code, never file paths). It never includes app names, the facts of a finding, readings, or chats. It is kept 30 days, so the person who runs Cozybyte can see whether a computer is checking in and help when something goes wrong.

“Send a report to Cozybyte support” in Settings uploads the same redacted report you could already save as a file: 7 days of Cozybyte’s own log and its crash log, and your questions and Cozybyte’s answers only if you tick “Include what I asked Bit”. Cozybyte keeps it 30 days and shows you a short code to read out or paste in an email, so support can find it. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose to send it.

Conversations and models

AI troubleshooting is on with a Plus subscription unless you turn it off in Settings, it is off on Free, and Cozybyte’s routine checks never call a model. With it on, a question sends what you asked, the newest turns of that chat so a follow-up makes sense (up to 8 messages, only what you wrote and what the service answered), the readings and check results needed to answer, and what Cozybyte’s own checks found. A check that only reads runs on the PC without asking, and its result goes back to the model for the next step.

The service does not keep the chat. Cozybyte asks the router that reaches the model providers to use only providers that do not store or train on what they receive. Cozybyte does not use your account, files, or device readings to train a foundation model. Model use stops at $1.50 per computer per month. An answer can be wrong. Cozybyte shows the evidence and the limit of the conclusion. You decide whether to go further.

Households

A Plus subscription covers the number of computers the owner pays for, one price per computer. The owner can change billing and remove a computer. A caregiver, and the person at that PC, can approve a step. They cannot change the card or delete the household.

A computer that has not checked in for 30 days stops counting toward the subscription.

Payments

Cozybyte is $9.99 per computer a month, or $99.90 per computer a year. Adding a computer to a Plus subscription raises the number of computers on the subscription, and the rest of the current term is charged in proportion. The price is shown again before you pay.

When payments are turned on, checkout continues to Stripe. Cozybyte stores the Stripe customer id, the subscription id, the number of computers, the billing period, and the renewal date. Card numbers stay with Stripe.

Cookies

Cozybyte uses a few cookies. All but one are there to sign you in; the other remembers whether you chose light or dark for this site. They are HttpOnly and SameSite=Lax. On HTTPS they are marked Secure. Cozybyte does not set advertising or analytics cookies. The Cookies page lists each one.

• tend_session lasts 30 days and keeps you signed in
• tend_challenge_signin, tend_challenge_add, tend_challenge_recovery, tend_challenge_reauth each last 5 minutes and finish one passkey step
• tend_signup lasts 15 minutes and remembers a sign-up draft
• tend_pending_email lasts 15 minutes and remembers which address you asked a sign-in email for
• cozybyte-theme lasts 365 days and remembers light or dark, only after you press the switch

Email, codes, and connected computers

Cozybyte emails sign-in, confirmation, recovery, billing, and cancellation messages. A sign-in or email-change link lasts 15 minutes, works once, and another message to that address waits 60 seconds. A confirmation link lasts 7 days. A recovery link lasts 20 minutes and adds a passkey without removing the ones you already have.

The send record stores the address, the kind of message, the time, and the IP address of the request, so Cozybyte can limit repeated mail. That record is not used for advertising. A code that links the Windows app lasts 5 minutes, or 10 minutes when you type it at the link page. When you connect a computer, the app creates a key on it that cannot be copied off, and uses that key to prove each request comes from that computer. Cozybyte stores the public half of that key, hashes of the app’s short-lived sign-in, and the label and last-seen time of the computer. The app’s sign-in lasts 15 minutes at a time.

How we use it

Cozybyte uses this information to create and protect the account, run health checks, explain a finding, answer your questions when AI troubleshooting is on, carry out a step you approved, bill the subscription, and send the messages the account needs. It is also used to limit abuse, including repeated email and a computer you have revoked.

What Cozybyte does not do

Cozybyte does not sell personal information. Cozybyte does not share it for cross-context advertising. Cozybyte does not read your files to build an advertising profile.

Who else receives it

Cozybyte hands information to the services that perform a specific part of the product, and to the people in the household who are allowed to see it.

• Stripe, when you pay, receives the email and the payment details. Stripe’s privacy policy applies on Stripe’s page.
• The email provider configured for Cozybyte receives the address and the message. When sending is turned on, that provider is Resend.
• OpenRouter, the router that reaches AI model providers, receives a question and the related readings only when AI troubleshooting is on and a model is needed. Cozybyte asks it to use only providers that do not store or train on what they receive.
• The owner can see the subscription and the computers. A caregiver who is allowed to approve can see the step they are asked to approve.
• The person who runs Cozybyte can see an account to help with support and billing. See “Who at Cozybyte can see your account” below.
• Windows receives whatever you do in a Windows settings page that Cozybyte opens.

Who at Cozybyte can see your account

The person who runs Cozybyte can open an account’s details, the health signals from its computers, model spend, and the reports you chose to send, so they can help with support and billing. They never see your chats, your files, or your readings. Every such view is recorded.

How long we keep it

The account, passkeys, computers, and subscription stay while the household exists. On the PC, Cozybyte keeps its data in its own folder. Your chats are stored only there, and you can delete them one by one or all at once in Settings. Activity keeps up to 250 events (readings, diagnosis summaries, and what each step did), and you can clear it. The 60-day baseline of numbers stays on the PC, and Settings can forget it.

Cozybyte’s own log, in the same folder, keeps 14 days of what the app did, with your questions and Cozybyte’s answers in separate files. A support report you save leaves your questions out unless you tick “Include what I asked Bit”, and nothing is sent: you decide who gets the file.

The service does not keep your chats. It keeps a reply for up to 24 hours, filed under a one-way hash of the question and that computer, so asking the same thing again does not cost twice. It also keeps a record of model spend for each computer and month so it can apply the cap, and, for a fix that worked, the redacted note described above.

Sign-up drafts, passkey challenges, and connect codes expire on the timers above. Deleting the household removes the account records Cozybyte controls. The owner does this with Delete household in My Account. Stripe keeps the billing records the law requires it to keep.

What the service keeps on its side, besides the records above, and for how long:

• Diagnostics signals (the health signal after each check): 30 days
• Support reports you send: 30 days
• Server error records, which hold no personal data: 90 days
• Notes the person who runs Cozybyte adds to an account: 2 years

Your choices

In My Account you can change your name and email, add a passkey, remove a passkey while one remains, revoke a computer, cancel or resume the subscription, and, as the owner, delete the household. In Settings in the Windows app you can:

• Turn AI troubleshooting on or off (“Use AI to help troubleshoot”)
• Choose whether Cozybyte shares app names with AI (“Share app names with AI”)
• Choose what Cozybyte does when it finds something: Tell me, Ask me, or Fix it for me
• Turn background checks on or off (“Check in the background”), and choose whether Cozybyte keeps running in the notification area
• Delete chats one by one, or all at once (“Delete all chats”)
• Clear Activity, forget what Cozybyte has learned about this PC, and clear Cozybyte’s log
• Turn diagnostics off (“Send diagnostics to Cozybyte”, in Settings > Advanced)
• Save a report for support, with or without your questions, or send it to Cozybyte support with “Send a report to Cozybyte support”

Your rights

Where a US state privacy law gives you a right to know, correct, or delete personal information, use these controls. The owner can delete the household with the Delete household button in My Account, which asks you to confirm with a passkey or a sign-in email link. It cancels the subscription at once, signs out every computer, and deletes the account’s data; billing records stay with Stripe as the law requires. Cozybyte will not charge a different price because you used that right. Cozybyte does not sell personal information, and does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Account help is on Help & support.

How the data is protected

Cozybyte has no passwords to leak: sign-in uses a passkey or a one-time email link, and email links are stored only as hashes. Each request from the Windows app is signed with a key that cannot be copied off the computer, and you can revoke the computer in My Account. Before anything goes to an AI model, Cozybyte strips Windows paths, email addresses, and secrets from it. The Security page has the details.

Children

Cozybyte is not directed to children under 13, and Cozybyte does not knowingly create an owner account for a child under 13. A Plus subscription with several computers is for computers an adult owner is responsible for. A child should not create the owner account or enter payment details. If the law where you live sets an older age for consent, that age applies. If you believe a child’s information is on an owner account, write from an adult’s email and ask Cozybyte to delete it.

Changes and contact

Changes to this policy are posted on this page, and the date at the top is updated. If a change materially narrows a choice you already have over information Cozybyte holds, Cozybyte will say so in the account or by email before it takes effect.

Write privacy requests from the email on the account, so Cozybyte can tell they are yours. You can also start at Help & support. Cozybyte will not ask you for a password. The Terms of use explain the account, the subscription, and cancellation.