PearOffice

PearOffice collects no personal data. Your spreadsheets, documents and slides live only on your devices and the devices of the people you share them with. Nothing readable is sent to any server. No account required.

Everything is stored on your devices:

• Your files: spreadsheets, documents, slide decks and the pictures in them
• Your name and optional profile picture, which the people in your files see
• The people in each file, their roles and the keys that identify their devices
• Your linked devices and their names
• Your identity, which your 12-word recovery phrase can restore
• App settings such as the theme

None of this leaves your devices except to sync directly with the people in a file, your own linked devices and any seeder you choose (see below).

When you share a file, PearOffice syncs it directly between devices using the Hypercore Protocol, a peer-to-peer technology. There is no server storing your files and no account. Each file has its own key, held only by its members, and everything sent between devices is encrypted. Changes to who is in a file are signed by the person who made them.

While you have a file open, the other people in it see that you are there and which cell, slide or part of the document you are on. You can turn this off in Settings.

A seeder is an optional device you run yourself, such as a home server, an Umbrel or StartOS box or your own computer. It keeps an encrypted copy of the files your devices back up to it, and an encrypted list of your files so your recovery phrase can bring them back. It is never given the keys, so it cannot read any of it. PeerLoom runs no seeder and receives none of this data.

Most of the time your devices connect to each other directly. On some networks that is not possible, and PearOffice can fall back to a relay that PeerLoom runs, which passes the encrypted traffic between the two devices.

The relay cannot read what passes through it. What it handles is the fact that two devices are talking, identified by random public keys rather than names or email addresses, along with the timing and the amount of data. It keeps no record and stores nothing. Turn off Connect anywhere in Settings to stay strictly device to device. Full detail: The PeerLoom relay.

The desktop app checks GitHub once an hour, and the seeder download once a day, for a new version of PearOffice. The request asks only for the latest release and carries nothing about you or your files. GitHub sees the request like any web request.

• Camera: to scan invite, device and seeder QR codes. Nothing is recorded or kept.
• Photos: to add the pictures you choose to your documents and slides, and to save exports when you ask.
• Local network (iPhone and iPad): to connect straight to your other devices and the people you share with on the same Wi-Fi.
• Network access: for peer-to-peer connections, the relay fallback and update checks. No readable file data is sent to any server.

On Android, your files and keys are excluded from Google's cloud backup. Moving straight to a new phone still brings them along.

PearOffice contains no analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting services and no third-party trackers of any kind.

PearOffice does not ask for an account, an email address or a phone number. Your identity is a key pair made on your device.

PearOffice is MIT licensed. The licences of the libraries it includes are listed in the app under About > Open-source software.

Questions about this privacy policy? Reach out at peerloomllc@proton.me.