Sternway privacy policy
Last updated: 2026-10-23
This policy covers the Sternway apps: the Android and iOS app and the desktop app for Linux, Windows and macOS. Sternway is made by IRONPINE LABS LLC (“we” below). Questions about this policy: privacy@sternway.dev.
In short
- We collect nothing. There is no telemetry: no analytics, no crash reporting, no usage statistics and no advertising identifiers, and no such library is in the apps. The apps talk to a server of ours only for the desktop update check, and only when you turn it on.
- No account is needed. Without one, your hosts, keys, passwords and settings stay on your device, in an encrypted database.
- What leaves your device is what you send yourself: the connections you open, and the optional features below, each of which you turn on and point somewhere yourself.
The apps list every one of these features, where it sends to and whether it is on, under Settings › About › What leaves this device. The technical version of this page, naming the code behind each statement, is “What leaves your device” in the documentation at docs.sternway.dev.
What stays on your device
Your hosts, groups, keys, identities, certificates, saved passwords, snippets, known hosts, port forwarding rules, settings, connection history and session logs are kept in a database on the device, encrypted with a key held by the operating system’s keystore. Backups the app makes (snapshots) are encrypted the same way and stay on the device. On Android the app’s data is excluded from Google’s cloud backup and from device-to-device transfer. Session recordings never leave the device. The app’s log stays on the device; “Copy diagnostics” only puts text on your clipboard.
Your connections
SSH, SFTP, Telnet, serial, jump hosts, proxies and port forwards go to the servers you choose, with what you type into them. That is what the app is for. We do not see any of it.
Optional features that send data
Each of these is off, or does nothing, until you use it.
Sync and the Sternway account. Sync runs through a Sternway sync server whose address you type in when you sign in; the apps have no built-in one, and we do not operate one for you. The server is run by you, your organisation or whoever you choose, and that operator is responsible for it. When you sign up or sign in, the app sends your email address, your name, your public keys and this device’s id, name and platform in plain text. Your password never leaves the device: a key derived from it is sent instead. While you are signed in, every change to your data is sent encrypted on the device (XChaCha20-Poly1305) with a key the server never has, together with a little metadata in plain text (each item’s id, type, revision and whether it was deleted). The server cannot read your hosts, keys, passwords or snippets. Session logs are synced only if you turn that on, encrypted the same way. Teams on the same server share vaults; team names and invite emails are sent in plain text. While you are signed in, the app also tells your team which hosts in a team vault you have a session open to, unless you turn off Settings › Security › Show my activity to my team.
Single sign-on and passkeys. If your server offers them and you choose them, the app opens your server’s sign-in page in your browser and receives the answer on the device.
Shared terminal sessions. When you join a session someone shares with you, it runs through your Sternway server’s relay, encrypted with a key in the invite link that the server never receives. The server tells the host your name and email.
AI command help. Off by default. If you turn it on and choose a provider (Anthropic, an OpenAI-compatible service of your choice, or your Sternway server), the app sends your question, a fixed instruction text, the terminal text you selected if any (at most 8 KiB) and, on the phone, the host’s operating system and shell name, to that provider, with your API key. That provider’s own privacy policy applies to what it receives.
Leaked-password check. Off by default. When on, setting your Sternway account password sends the first five characters of the password’s SHA-1 hash to Have I Been Pwned’s Pwned Passwords service; the password itself is not sent and whether it was found is worked out on the device.
Finding devices on your network. When you search, the app asks the local network (multicast DNS) which devices offer SSH. The questions do not leave your local network.
Sync through a folder. If you turn it on, the app writes encrypted files into a folder you choose and reads the ones your other devices wrote there; the app sends nothing over the network for it, the sync tool you chose carries the files.
Desktop only: an update check you turn on, which downloads Sternway’s update feed from downloads.sternway.dev
(or a feed address you set; no version, platform or id is sent),
and imports from Tailscale or AWS EC2 that you set up with your own keys.
Notifications and permissions
Notifications are posted on the device by the app itself; no push service is used and no push token is registered anywhere. On Android the app asks for these permissions, for these reasons only:
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Internet | Your connections, and the optional features above. |
| Wi-Fi state, Wi-Fi multicast | Searching your local network for SSH servers when you ask; keeping Wi-Fi awake while a session is open. |
| Foreground service, notifications, wake lock | Keeping your open sessions and port forwards alive while the app is in the background, with a notification that says so. |
| Ignore battery optimisations | The “Disable battery optimisation” button, which you press if the system still closes your sessions. |
| NFC | Using a FIDO2 security key held to the phone, when you choose one. |
| Biometrics | Unlocking the app with your fingerprint or face, if you set that up. |
| Vibration | The terminal’s bell, if you set it to vibrate. |
| Storage (Android 12 and older) | Asked for by the app’s framework on older Android versions. The app opens and saves only the files you pick in the system’s file picker. |
This website
sternway.dev, docs.sternway.dev and downloads.sternway.dev are static pages and files served by Cloudflare. They set no cookies and run no analytics or tracking scripts. Cloudflare handles each request, including your IP address, to deliver it, under its own privacy policy; we see only Cloudflare’s totals (how many requests, from which countries), never who made them.
The launch email list
If you give your email address on sternway.dev to hear when Sternway 1.0 is out, we keep that address, the time you gave it and the sentence shown beside the field, and nothing else (no IP address, no cookie). It is stored in private Cloudflare storage that only we can read. We use it for one email, when 1.0 is released, then delete the whole list. We never share it or use it for anything else. To be removed sooner, write to privacy@sternway.dev from that address.
Deleting your data
Without an account, uninstalling the app or clearing its storage deletes everything it kept. With an account, Settings › Account & Sync › Security and account › Delete account deletes the account and its data on your Sternway server. If you cannot reach the app, ask the operator of your server, who can delete the account there. We hold no copy of either.
Children
Sternway is a tool for administering servers and is not directed at children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version is published at this address with a new date above.