Legal
Privacy Statement
Last updated: June 24, 2026
The short version: Rest Hippo has no accounts, no telemetry, and no third-party tracking. Everything you create in the app — requests, collections, history, and secrets — stays on your own device. This website sets no cookies and runs no analytics.
This statement explains how the Rest Hippo desktop application and the resthippo.com website handle your information. Both are built and maintained by Jason Figge. The principle behind both is the same: Rest Hippo is a local-first tool, so your data belongs to you and stays with you.
1. The Rest Hippo app
Your data stays on your device
Collections, requests, environments, variables, run history, and settings are stored in local files under your operating system's user-profile folder. None of it is uploaded to us or to any cloud service — there is no Rest Hippo account and no server that holds your work. You can back it up, move it, or delete it yourself at any time.
The requests you send
Rest Hippo's whole job is to send the HTTP, GraphQL, and WebSocket requests you compose to the servers you choose. That traffic goes directly from your computer to those destinations. It does not pass through us, and we never see, log, proxy, or store your requests, responses, headers, or bodies.
Secrets and credentials
Tokens, passwords, API keys, and other secrets are encrypted at rest on your machine (using your OS keychain, an app-managed key, or an optional master password — your choice in Settings). They stay local and are never transmitted to us.
Software updates (optional)
Automatic update checks are off by default. If you turn them on — or use “Check for Updates” manually — the app contacts GitHub to look for and download new releases. That connection reaches GitHub's servers and is subject to GitHub's privacy statement. You can leave updates off and download new versions yourself instead.
Logs and diagnostics
The app keeps a local, rotating log of its own lifecycle and error events to help you troubleshoot — it never records your secret values. Nothing is sent anywhere automatically. “Export Diagnostics” bundles recent logs and build info into a single file only if you ask it to, and it is entirely up to you whether to share that file (for example, when filing a bug report).
No telemetry
Rest Hippo contains no analytics SDKs, usage tracking, crash-reporting services, advertising, or “phone-home” beacons. The optional donation link (Help → Support Rest Hippo) simply opens a page in your browser; the app does not track whether you visit it or give.
2. This website
Static, cookie-free, no analytics
resthippo.com is a static website. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics or advertising scripts, and includes no third-party tracking. Fonts are loaded from your own system, so there are no web-font CDN requests either.
Hosting
The site is hosted on GitHub Pages. As with any web host, GitHub may process standard technical information — such as your IP address and browser user-agent — in server logs in order to deliver and protect the site. We do not receive or store those logs; that processing is governed by GitHub's privacy practices, not ours.
Content loaded from GitHub
A few pages load public data directly from GitHub in your browser: the Feature Requests page lists open issues from the project's repository, and the download links point to GitHub Releases. When those load, your browser connects to GitHub, subject to GitHub's privacy statement.
Outbound links
Links to GitHub, X (Twitter), and other external sites take you to third parties that have their own privacy policies, which we don't control.
3. What we never do
- We don't sell, rent, or share your personal data — we don't collect it to begin with.
- We don't run ads or embed third-party trackers, in the app or on this site.
- We don't require or create user accounts.
- We don't collect, transmit, or store your API requests, responses, or credentials.
4. Your data and your rights
Because we don't collect or hold personal data about you, there is nothing on our side to access, correct, export, or delete. The information the app stores lives on your own device and is fully under your control — you can view, edit, back up, or erase it at any time. If you are in a region with data-protection laws such as the GDPR or CCPA, those rights are effectively satisfied because no personal data about you ever leaves your machine for us.
5. Changes to this statement
If this statement changes, we'll update the “Last updated” date above and post the revised version here. Because the site is open source, its full history is also visible in the project's GitHub repository.
6. Contact
Questions about privacy? Email resthippo411@gmail.com or open an issue on GitHub.