Privacy Policy

1. What this policy covers

This policy explains what information ATARS handles when you use the application and this website, and the choices you have. It is written in plain language and is not a substitute for formal legal advice.

2. Data you analyse

Datasets you load into the ATARS desktop app are processed locally on your own computer to perform the analysis you request — cleaning, visualisation, modelling, forecasting and reporting. They are never uploaded to our servers (we don't have any), and are not sold, rented or shared with third parties.

3. Optional features that use the internet

ATARS works fully offline by default. Each of the features below is off until you turn it on, and each sends only what it needs:

• Cloud AI providers. If you add an API key, the parts of a request needed to answer it are sent to that provider only. When ATARS reads your text columns, the themes are worked out on your computer and only a few representative words are sent to be named — never your rows. You remain subject to your provider's own privacy terms; note that some providers may use prompts on their free tiers to improve their models, so keep confidential data on a local model.
• Local AI. A model you install with Ollama runs entirely on your machine. Nothing is sent anywhere.
• Web search. When you allow a question to use the web, the text of that question is sent to DuckDuckGo to find sources — not your dataset. Like any web request it reaches DuckDuckGo from your internet connection, and DuckDuckGo's own privacy terms apply.
• Update check. Off by default. If you turn it on or press "check for updates", ATARS downloads a small, digitally signed version file from our website. It carries no account details and nothing from your analysis; like any download, the request reaches the website's host from your internet connection.
• Matching your documents by meaning. Off until you turn it on. The first time it is used, ATARS downloads a small open language model (about 90 MB) onto your computer; from then on it runs offline. Your documents, and the questions you ask about them, are never sent anywhere — the model comes to your data, not the other way round.

Your API keys. If you choose to save a key, it is stored in your operating system's secure credential store (Windows Credential Manager) — never in plain text and never in the source code. If that store is unavailable, the key is used for the session only and not saved at all.

Licence keys. If you enter one, it is verified on your own computer. Nothing about you is sent to us to check it.

4. Checking for updates

So that you are not left running an old version with a known bug, ATARS asks our website whether a newer release exists. It fetches a single small file, https://atars.netlify.app/latest.json, which lists the current version number and a download link.

That request carries what any web request carries: your IP address, and a label identifying the software making it (for example ATARS/5.4.7). It contains no account, no device identifier, no licence key and nothing about your data or your files. We do not build a profile from it, and the file is served as a static asset like any page on this site.

If you installed ATARS from the Microsoft Store, the Store handles updates instead and the app does not make this request at all.

5. The terminal edition (pip install atars)

The terminal edition makes no network requests at all. It contains no AI package — a stub occupies that import path, and a test fails the build if a provider import or a credential read ever reaches the published package — so there is no credential to read and nowhere for a request to go. It also performs no update check of its own: new versions arrive only when you run pip install --upgrade atars, and that request goes to the Python Package Index, never to us.

Downloading the package from PyPI is a request to PyPI, under the Python Software Foundation’s privacy policy. We receive nothing from it beyond the public download counts that PyPI shows everyone.

6. Installing from the Microsoft Store

When you install ATARS through the Microsoft Store, Microsoft handles the download, installation and updates. Microsoft collects its own information about that install under Microsoft's privacy statement, which we do not control and cannot see beyond the anonymous, aggregated counts shown to every developer. Nothing about how you use ATARS, or what you analyse in it, is reported to Microsoft or to us.

7. What ATARS stores on your computer

• Your settings and recent files — in your own user folder, so the app reopens the way you left it.
• AI provider keys — if you add one, it is handed to Windows Credential Manager (the operating system's own secure store), not written into a plain file and never sent to us.
• A licence key, if you have a paid tier — checked entirely offline. ATARS does not fingerprint your hardware and does not contact us to activate.

Uninstalling removes the app. Your data files were never ours to begin with and stay exactly where you put them.

8. Website analytics & cookies

The application disables usage-stat gathering. This marketing website uses only the minimal storage needed to remember your light/dark theme preference (a single value in your browser's local storage). We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

9. Information you send us

If you contact us (for example via the contact form or by email), we receive the details you provide so we can respond. We use them only for that purpose.

10. Data security

We take reasonable measures to protect information handled by the application. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and you use the platform with appropriate care for sensitive data.

11. Your choices

• Use ATARS with no AI, or with a local model, to keep all processing on your computer.
• Choose which cloud AI provider (if any) receives your requests.
• Leave web search and the update check off, which is how ATARS starts.
• Clear this website's browser storage to reset your theme preference.
• Uninstall the app at any time — your files stay yours, on your machine.
• Contact us with any privacy question or request.

12. Children’s privacy

ATARS is intended for general educational and analytical use and is not directed at children under the age required by local law to consent to data processing without a guardian.

13. Changes

We may update this policy as the product evolves. Material changes will be reflected by the "last updated" date above.

14. Contact

Questions, or a request about your information? Email priyanshukumar9053@gmail.com, or use the contact page. ATARS is built and maintained by Priyanshu Kumar, India.