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PrivacyFence

These pages describe PrivacyFence 7.0.0. Download it · What changed

Moving to organization mode

PrivacyFence's desktop (local) mode is deprecated in PrivacyFence 7 and will be removed in PrivacyFence 8. Desktop mode is the install you get from the macOS, Windows or Linux installer: it runs as a service on your own computer, with the companion app. Desktop installs keep working as they do today for as long as you stay on 7.x. This page is for people who want to move before then, and for anyone who has just seen the deprecation notice.

What you see

Every desktop start logs a warning, privacyfence_status carries a deprecation notice that your AI client is asked to pass on to you once, every desktop page shows a strip with the same text, and the companion shows a one-time desktop notification. The text is:

Desktop mode is deprecated and will be removed in PrivacyFence 8. PrivacyFence's built-in sign-in for Google, Slack, Salesforce, Atlassian and Miro works only in organization mode and the Docker image. Move to an organization server, or try the Docker image on this computer.

Nothing in your install changes: your connections, rules, passkeys and audit log are untouched.

Why desktop mode goes away

PrivacyFence's built-in apps, the relay that lets them work on any server, the Admin page and single-user mode all serve organization mode. Desktop mode cannot use the built-in apps: it signs in through a loopback address on your computer, which an app shared by many organizations cannot use with Slack, Miro or Atlassian. Keeping two products costs more with every feature, so organization mode is the one that stays. The decision is recorded in ADR 0261; the built-in apps are ADR 0255.

Two ways forward

The Docker image on this computer (single-user mode). The organization image starts without a configuration file, an identity provider or a public address, serves one administrator at http://localhost, and uses the built-in apps for Google, Slack, Salesforce, Atlassian, Miro and Telegram. You sign in with a setup code from the container's log and then a passkey. It is the closest replacement for a desktop install, with the same one person on one computer. Read the limits in Security and compliance first: anyone who can run docker on that computer controls the install. The steps are in the "Run it on this computer" section of Organization deployment with Docker.

An organization server. One PrivacyFence server for a team, behind your identity provider and an HTTPS address, reachable by claude.ai and ChatGPT as well as desktop clients. Follow Organization deployment. Its administrators use the built-in apps, or register their organization's own.

Bringing your rules along

Your always-allow rules and step-up level move to the new install as a file: export them on the desktop's Settings → Auto-accept page and import them on the new one. Connections, passkeys and scoped tokens do not move; connect your accounts again and enroll a passkey. The steps and the full list of what does and does not move are in Moving a person from a desktop install.

Before any later upgrade to 8.x

PrivacyFence 8 will not convert data written by releases before 7. So upgrade to 8.x only from 7.x, and first:

  1. Install the latest 7.x and start it once. Every start brings everyone's stored data up to date and records data_format.json in the data directory.
  2. Open Admin and check the line at the bottom of the page: Ready for PrivacyFence 8: yes. If it says not yet, it names the problems found at the last start; fix them and restart. The same problems are logged at every start as Not ready for PrivacyFence 8: ….

Details are in ADR 0262.

Going back to 6.x

The upgrade from 6.x to 7.x can be undone on an organization server. 7.x reads org/org_bundle.json, copied once from org_config.json, and never changes the 6.x files, so the latest 6.x (6.10.0 or newer) starts again with the configuration it had. What does not go back: changes made on the Admin page, bundles installed under 7.x, connections made through the relay, and passkeys or connections made in single-user mode. See ADR 0263.