# Privacy and Security

## Philosophy

Zed aims to collect only the minimum data necessary to serve and improve our product.

We believe in opt-in data sharing as the default in building AI products, rather than opt-out, like most of our competitors. Privacy Mode is not a setting to be toggled, it's a default stance.

As an open-source product, we believe in maximal transparency, and invite you to examine our codebase. If you find issues, we encourage you to share them with us.

It is entirely possible to use Zed, including Zed's AI capabilities, without sharing any data with us and without authenticating into the product. We're happy to always support this desired use pattern.

## Documentation

- [Worktree trust](../worktree-trust.md): How Zed opens files and directories in restricted mode.

- [Telemetry](../telemetry.md): How Zed collects general telemetry data.

- [AI Improvement](./ai-improvement.md): Zed's opt-in-only approach to data collection for AI improvement, whether our Agentic offering or Edit Predictions.

- [Accounts](../authentication.md): When and why you'd need to authenticate into Zed, how to do so, and what scope we need from you.

- [Collab](https://zed.dev/faq#data-and-privacy): How Zed's live collaboration works, and how data flows to provide the experience (we don't store your code!).

## Legal Links

- [Terms of Service](https://zed.dev/terms-of-service)
- [Terms of Use](https://zed.dev/terms)
- [Privacy Policy](https://zed.dev/privacy-policy)
- [Zed's Contributor License and Feedback Agreement](https://zed.dev/cla)
- [Subprocessors](https://zed.dev/subprocessors)
