Privacy
BetterDesk is self-hosted. You run the server and console on machines you control. The project maintainers do not run a cloud that receives your users, sessions, or device lists.
This page describes what the open-source code does today. Forks and third-party images may differ.
Accounts, devices, address books, audit logs, session history, and fleet metrics live in your database and files (for example under /opt/betterdesk and /opt/BetterDeskConsole).
We do not operate product analytics, crash telemetry, or usage tracking for UNITRONIX. There is no Sentry, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or similar SDK in this project.
Managed devices can report CPU, memory, disk, and inventory to your BetterDesk API (for example /api/bd/telemetry and CDAP heartbeats). That is for your operators — not for the vendor.
Sync frequency is configurable (silent / standard / turbo on enrollment bundles).
These calls are functional, not maintainer analytics:
| Action | Destination | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Check / apply updates | GitHub API and raw content | Only when an admin uses Updates (or the install script update path). User-Agent like BetterDesk-Console/{version}. No machine install ID. |
| Public IP detection | checkip.amazonaws.com, api.ipify.org, ifconfig.me | At install/startup so relay ads can use a public address. Result stays on your server. |
| Clock sync | NTP (default pool.ntp.org / similar) | Configurable via NTP_SERVERS. |
| Optional UI assets | Google Fonts (branding / some pages), jsDelivr (xterm) | Main console Material Icons are self-hosted. You can avoid extra font downloads by not using branding font fetch and by firewall policy. |
| Docker images | ghcr.io | Normal image pull. |
| OIDC | Your identity provider | Only if you enable SSO. |
Help links (GitHub, Discord, Buy Me a Coffee) are ordinary links — nothing is sent until someone clicks.
The panel can advertise itself on the local network (UDP discovery and optional mDNS _betterdesk._tcp) with hostname, version, and panel URL. That stays on your LAN.
Disable mDNS with:
PANEL_MDNS=offStock RustDesk clients and Support Agents talk to your BetterDesk host. They do not phone home to UNITRONIX for analytics.
If you find phone-home behaviour we missed, please report it via SECURITY or a private security advisory — not a public issue with exploit detail.
Full copy in the repo: PRIVACY.md.
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Wiki source: docs/wiki/ — last sync: 2026-09-06