The document discloses that Windsurf makes background requests to its servers without user-triggered input events, for the purposes of building context, understanding developer intent, and scanning for potential next steps. Embedding computation requests are also made proactively to process existing codebases.
This analysis describes what Windsurf's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision establishes that data transmission to Windsurf servers occurs continuously during IDE use, not only in response to explicit user actions. Compliance teams assessing network traffic, data minimization, and consent requirements should account for this continuous background data transmission in their assessments.
The updated terms establish a default policy permitting Windsurf to use customer data for model training purposes to improve services. Previously, the company required explicit opt-in before any training use. Under the revised policy, data training occurs automatically for free and paid users unless they affirmatively opt out through the Data Controls settings page. Once disabled, the terms state your data will not be used for training and Zero Data Retention will be enabled with model providers. Enterprise customers operate under a different standard, requiring express prior written consent before any training use occurs.
View change record →The updated document establishes explicit commitments about how Windsurf protects data and manages security. The terms state that all data transmission is encrypted in transit and at rest, that access to production systems is restricted to a small number of employees or contractors based on business roles, and that production systems are monitored via logging, error handling, and monitoring dashboards. The document discloses that Windsurf obtained SOC 2 Type II certification as of March 2024 and that all employees and contractors are required to use multi-factor authentication and receive annual security training. These disclosures describe organizational practices rather than establishing new user-facing rights or obligations.
View change record →Under these terms, the Windsurf client makes background requests to servers during IDE use independent of user keystrokes or prompts, transmitting context data for personalization and intent modeling purposes. The document states that individual code snippets rather than entire codebases are transmitted even for codebase-level operations, and that usage metadata rather than code data is logged to analytics infrastructure.
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"Real-time Personalization: Even without a trigger such as a keystroke or user prompt input, requests are made in the background to build context, understand developer intent, or scan for potential next steps. Ahead-of-time Personalization: To build state on the existing codebases and other data sources, requests are made to perform embedding computations.Excerpt from Windsurf's Security & Data Handling
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Ad personalization controls removed. Contact scanning added. Advertiser data partnerships quietly dropped. A timeline of every change.
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This provision establishes that data transmission to Windsurf servers occurs continuously during IDE use, not only in response to explicit user actions. Compliance teams assessing network traffic, data minimization, and consent requirements should account for this continuous background data transmission in their assessments.
Under these terms, the Windsurf client makes background requests to servers during IDE use independent of user keystrokes or prompts, transmitting context data for personalization and intent modeling purposes. The document states that individual code snippets rather than entire codebases are transmitted even for codebase-level operations, and that usage metadata rather than code data is logged to analytics infrastructure.
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