Security

1. In flight and at rest

Encrypted every time it leaves your computer. The app talks only to AirBubble and to the providers that do specific jobs for us, and always over an encrypted connection.

In transit

Everything the app sends is encrypted with TLS. There is no unencrypted fallback and no setting that turns the check off. If a connection cannot be verified, the app refuses it.

At rest on your computer

Your notes are stored in AirBubble's own folder on your computer, under your user account, and protected by FileVault on a Mac, or BitLocker or device encryption on Windows, if you have it switched on. Screenshots are not kept. Your recent questions to Bubble and his answers are held in memory, so a follow-up makes sense. Your latest question and his answer may be saved, encrypted, as a discussion in your Notetaker library until you delete it. Each save replaces the one before, so earlier questions in that discussion are not kept.

At rest on the server

What we store on our servers is encrypted at rest, and only our own service can reach it, over an authenticated connection. The outside services involved are listed on the subprocessors page.

Where your question goes

1. Your computer. You ask. Nothing starts until you do.
2. Encrypted. Sent over a connection that is checked every time.
3. AirBubble. Confirms it is you, then has our AI provider work out the answer.

2. Credentials

Your sign-in is kept encrypted on your computer. A key saved in a plain file can be read by other apps on the same computer. AirBubble keeps its sign-in key in an encrypted store instead.

Encrypted on the device

The key that signs the app in to AirBubble is kept in an encrypted store tied to your user account on the computer. It is never written to a plain file you could open in a text editor.

Kept out of logs

The key is read only when a request needs it. It never appears in a log, and our logs are written so they are safe to paste into a support request.

Nothing of yours to hold

AirBubble never asks for the password to another app or service, and the agent will not type one for you. If a lesson reaches a login screen, it stops and hands the keyboard back.

3. Permissions

What it asks your computer for, and why. Each permission is asked for when it is first needed, with the reason on screen. You can turn any of them off in System Settings on a Mac, or Windows Settings on Windows, whenever you like. On Windows it asks only for the microphone: reading the app in front of you and the hold keys need no permission there.

On a Mac: Screen Recording

Lets him see your screen when you ask. Without it he cannot see, and he tells you so.

He looks when you ask, and during a walkthrough or agent task you start, until it ends.

Microphone

Opens while you ask and closes when you are done. Dictation works the same way.

There is no wake word. The exceptions are the Notetaker, voice conversations and a question you start with Speak in the notch on a Mac or the panel on Windows, and you start each one. The Notetaker records only when you start it or say yes to its offer, and it stops by itself after eight silent minutes. A voice conversation listens until you end it. A question you start with Speak listens until you stop speaking or tap it again, for 30 seconds at most.

On a Mac: Accessibility

Lets him read the app in front of you when you ask, so he can show you the right place. macOS also requires it before AirBubble can notice you holding its keys.

The agent uses it to click and type for you, and only for a task you asked for.

On a Mac, more, only if you use what needs them. When AirBubble types text for you, as dictation does, macOS may ask whether it can control System Events. When you say “this folder”, it may ask whether AirBubble can control Finder, so it can read which folder the front Finder window shows; choose Don’t Allow and you can say the folder’s name instead. When you choose a knowledge folder, or use documents kept in your Desktop, Documents or Downloads, macOS asks whether AirBubble can open that folder. If you connect your calendar so the Notetaker can spot a meeting, it asks to read your calendar, and the events are read on your Mac. AirBubble does not ask for Full Disk Access, contacts, photos, location or your keychain, and it installs no kernel extension. If a future release needs a permission that is not on this page, we will add it here before that release ships.

4. What runs on your machine

Signed by us and checked before it runs. On a Mac, Apple verifies that AirBubble came from us and has not been changed. On Windows, the installer and the app carry our signature, which Windows can verify. The app then checks its own parts every time it uses them.

Signed on the Mac and on Windows

On a Mac, the app is signed with our Apple Developer ID and notarised by Apple before release, so macOS can verify it came from us and has not been altered since. A build that fails that check will not open, and you should not force it.

On Windows, the installer and the app are code-signed with a certificate Microsoft issued after verifying the signer’s identity. Windows shows that verified publisher when you open the installer. Every signature is timestamped, and the helpers that work with your screen, keyboard and pointer are signed the same way.

Hardened runtime

On a Mac, it runs with Apple’s hardened runtime switched on, which closes off common ways for another program to tamper with it while it runs.

Checked every time

The parts of AirBubble that work with your screen and your apps are checked against a fingerprint we record when we build them. If one does not match, it does not run.

5. The agent

The agent acts only on your own request. A web page, a document or another app cannot ask for you. Switch Let Bubble act off and a task that is under way stops, even halfway through a step.

1. Let Bubble act is switched on
2. You asked for this task, in your own words

Before a step it recognises as sending, posting, submitting, deleting, accepting or installing something, it asks you once. It can tell by the button's name, by the key, or by what it has just written there; where a button has no name it can read (an icon, an app that shows it nothing), it asks only if it takes the step for one itself. It never types a password, a one-time code or a card number, and it stops before paying on any page it can tell takes money.

A task starts from your own words, said or typed. Always approve routine steps, which lets a routine task start by itself after 5 seconds, ships switched off; turning it on is your decision.

Every change to these safeguards is reviewed as a security change and tested against the real code.

Read our promises

6. How the code is kept

How the code is looked after, and what we have not done yet. We keep outside code to a minimum and review changes before they ship. No outside auditor has checked any of it yet.

Little outside code, locked down

The outside libraries we use are locked to exact versions and updated by hand. An update that touches the screen, input or the network gets a closer review.

What runs on your computer is what we built and signed.

Reviewed before it ships

Any change to how the app sees your screen, clicks for you or talks to our servers is reviewed as a security change. The agent's safeguards are tested against the real code.

Our own keys never go into our source code. If one ever slips in, we treat it as exposed and replace it.

No certification yet

AirBubble holds no SOC 2 report and no ISO certification, and no external penetration test has been commissioned yet. There is no audit under way that we are waiting to announce.

When a report exists, this page will name the firm, the scope and the date.

7. Coordinated disclosure

Found something? Tell us before you tell the internet. We would rather hear it from you than read it somewhere else. Report it privately, give us a reasonable window to fix it, and we will keep you in the loop while we do.

How to report

Send it to the security address below. Include what you did, what happened, and what you expected. Add your macOS or Windows version and the AirBubble build number, which is in the app under About.

A short proof of concept helps more than a scanner export. If you would rather encrypt the report, say so in the first mail and we will send you a key.

Security contact

Email security@airbubble.io. A person reads every report.

Response target

We reply to every report within 3 business days. We fix critical issues within 30 days, and other issues within 90.

What happens next

1. We confirm we have it, and ask anything we still need.
2. We reproduce it and tell you what we found.
3. We fix it, ship it, and tell you which build carries the fix.
4. We credit you by name if you want it, or keep you anonymous if you do not.

There is no paid bounty programme yet. If that changes, the terms will be on this page.

In scope

• The current released version of the AirBubble app for Mac and Windows, including how it reads the screen, listens for the keys and stores data on your computer.
• The AirBubble servers and the API the app talks to.
• This website and anything served from it.
• The agent. Anything that makes it act on something you did not ask for, send, post or delete without asking you, type a password or pay, or act while Let Bubble act is off.
• How sign-in details and session data are kept on your computer.

Out of scope

• AirBubble appearing in screen recordings and screen shares. That is on purpose.
• Attacks needing physical access to an unlocked computer, or an account you already control end to end.
• Social engineering of our team, our users or our suppliers, and anything involving physical premises.
• Denial of service, load generation and volumetric testing against our servers.
• Scanner output with no demonstrated impact, and missing headers or best-practice flags with no exploit path.
• Issues in third-party services we depend on. Report those to them, and tell us so we can track it.
• Findings that only reproduce in a modified, repackaged or unsigned build.

Safe harbour

Research done in good faith should not put you at risk. If you stay inside the scope above, use only your own accounts and test data, avoid touching anyone else's information, avoid degrading the service for other people, and give us a reasonable window before you publish, we will treat your work as authorised and will not pursue legal action over it.

If a report puts you in an unclear position, ask us first and we will answer in writing.

8. What this page does not claim

No badge yet. Check it for yourself. Everything above describes how the app behaves and how we work on it. No outside auditor has checked any of it yet.

You can test the visible parts yourself. Ask him something and watch the microphone indicator come on and go off. Record your screen and see AirBubble in the recording. On a Mac, turn off Screen Recording in System Settings, ask him something, and he tells you he cannot see.