What Aurora sends, and what it keeps

In short

What Aurora sends to the Internet

The update check

Once a day (the first time 90 seconds after startup), Aurora reads a small public file on GitHub, raw.githubusercontent.com, that holds the latest version number. Its request contains nothing but Aurora's name and version: as for any web page, GitHub only sees your connection's IP address. If there's something new, a banner tells you; nothing downloads or installs on its own.

You can turn it off in Settings, startup and updates panel: Aurora then contacts no website on its own.

The speed test

Only when you click it. Aurora downloads and uploads empty data (zeros) to Cloudflare's test servers, speed.cloudflare.com, which see your IP address. The result isn't sent anywhere: it stays on your PC (the last 24 tests).

Your message to support

Only when you click “Send” (Settings → Support → Write to support). Along with your message go: Aurora's version and language; your email address, only if you type it to get an answer; and your hardware sheet, only if you check its box, which starts unchecked. You see the exact text of the sheet before sending it.

The sheet holds the models and versions of your hardware, Windows and drivers, your displays, what your sensors read right now, Aurora's theme and skin, whether it has administrator rights, the state of its driver (PawnIO) and of its sensor helper, and whether the FACEIT anti-cheat is installed, since it can block temperature readings. Never your PC name, your user name, your IP address, serial numbers, your other software, your games or your music.

Your message goes through a Cloudflare relay (support.auroraapp.ca), which emails it to me. Like any connection, it sees your IP address: it only uses it to block bursts of messages, and it isn't in the email I receive.

What opens in your browser

A few buttons open a page in your browser, only when you click: the new version's page and the skins page (auroraapp.ca), Aurora's Facebook page (after a thumbs up), and Microsoft's pages about a Windows update, whose address holds the Windows language, the update number and your Windows version. A Steam game opens in the Steam app. These sites have their own rules.

In the Windows tab, “Check and repair Windows” runs Windows' own tools (DISM, SFC), which may fetch repair files from Windows Update.

On your home network

None of the following goes through the Internet.

• Sharing is off at first. When you check “Share this PC on the home network”, your PC answers the devices on your network: its name, its processor and graphics card models, its readings, the game in progress, the PCs it follows, and what's playing (title, artist, album art) while the Media panel is on screen or a device follows your readings. It also offers its installer to the other Auroras, and accepts music commands (a box to uncheck in the My PCs tab). There's no password: don't turn sharing on in a network you share with strangers (residence, café, hotel).
• The My PCs tab, while on screen, looks for the other Auroras at home with a short message that says nothing about your PC, and reads the readings of the PCs you follow. Every 10 minutes, Aurora also asks those PCs whether they have a new version to give it.
• Your phone: the QR code leads to a page served by your PC itself, on your network; it loads nothing from the Internet.
• Sending files is off at first. Two PCs pair once, with a 6-digit code; after that, file names and contents travel encrypted. Only the sending PC's name goes in the clear, at the start of the connection. Received files land in Downloads\Aurora.
• Network devices: Aurora reads the list Windows already knows, without sending anything to find them. For their names, Windows asks your usual name server (DNS); the makers come from a list built into Aurora.
• The Stream Deck: its plugin reads Aurora on your PC itself, without any network.

What Aurora keeps on your PC

All of this stays on your PC: it's what lets Aurora compare, and tell you what changed.

• Your settings, in %APPDATA%\Aurora: your choices, the names you give your fans, the PCs you follow or paired (with their pairing key), the installed skins.
• The timeline of changes, over two years: installed software and their versions, drivers, services, startup programs, the BIOS, and what Aurora changed for you.
• Its memory, in C:\Program Files\Aurora\donnees, over 400 days: a daily summary of temperatures and power, your game sessions (game, length, FPS), the incidents Windows logged, and startup times.
• The latest speed and cooling tests, your last game session, and a crash log (crash.log) if Aurora crashes: it's never sent; you attach it to a message yourself if you want.
• Only if you ask: your recordings and reports (in Documents\Aurora), and received files (in Downloads\Aurora).
• Never kept: the list of duplicate files (forgotten when Aurora closes), network devices, music.

Uninstalling keeps your settings and Aurora's memory, in case you reinstall it: you can delete those two folders if you're not coming back.

Skins

They're bought on the website, through Polar, which takes the payment: I never see your card. Polar passes your name and email address on to me for the sale. Aurora itself checks the file's signature without the Internet: it doesn't know who bought what. See also the terms of sale.

The auroraapp.ca website

• It's hosted by GitHub Pages: like any host, GitHub receives your IP address and the usual details from your browser.
• It counts its visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, with no cookies and nothing that identifies anyone: I only see totals (page views, countries, device types, sites visitors come from).
• Its fonts come from Google Fonts: Google therefore sees your IP address when a page is displayed.
• No cookies. Your language choice (FR or EN) is remembered in your browser, and only if you click it.
• Links to Polar, Ko-fi, GitHub, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and VirusTotal lead to sites with their own rules.

What I receive, and what I do with it

I only receive what you choose to send me: your support messages and your emails to contact@auroraapp.ca (with your address if you give it, and your hardware sheet if you attached it), and, for a skin, the name and email address Polar passes on to me. They arrive in an email inbox at Proton.

I only use them to answer you, fix Aurora or refund you; never for advertising. I don't sell them or give them to anyone. I keep them as long as they're useful (an answer, a bug to follow, a sale), then I delete them.

Your rights

You can ask me at any time what I have about you, have it corrected or deleted: write to contact@auroraapp.ca, I answer myself within 30 days. The person in charge of protecting personal information is me: Denis, Aurora's creator, at the same address. If my answer doesn't satisfy you, you can turn to Quebec's Commission d'accès à l'information.

If Aurora ever starts sending something new, this page will change first, and so will its date at the top.