Tell HN: Installing Cursor on iOS irreversibly changes your privacy settings

Just hit this today and I'm furious. I installed the Cursor iOS app to see what it had.

I've been on `Privacy Mode (Legacy)` for a long time, which is the "Do not store my code" setting. A year or so ago they marked this as "Legacy" and hid it under a "Extra options" menu. They added a new Privacy Mode which is significantly more wishy-washy about what it might store - it includes a clause of "Code may be stored for Background Agents or Other Features", so I've never touched it or wanted to enable it.

pic: https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/optimized/3X/0/9/09412f800cb07a713d13c034f40eaf28e165e8f4_2_1032x1000.jpeg

Upon installing and logging in to the iOS app, my account was changed to the softer Privacy Mode and the previous setting I was on has disappeared from all menus. I contacted support and they've said:

> Really sorry about this. When you set up the mobile app, the prompt to turn on Cloud Agents switched you from Privacy Mode (Legacy) to our current Privacy Mode,

> without making clear what that meant or that it's hard to undo. That wasn't right, and we're working on making that prompt clearer.

>

> To be straight with you: I'm not able to switch your account back to Privacy Mode (Legacy). The option to move back isn't available in the app today.

So just a PSA I guess; do not install or set up the app if you want to keep your privacy settings.

I honestly don't understand how it's legal to make logging into the iOS app change your privacy settings at all. Making the option then disappear from all menus so you can't get it back is doubly ridiculous.

80 points | by zkldi 1 hour ago

10 comments

  • soared 47 minutes ago
    That support quote is from an LLM. If you have any escalation paths (twitter, or this thread lol) there may still be a way to change it back.
  • conartist6 1 hour ago
    That's about the level of respect the tech industry has for users
  • jmuguy 32 minutes ago
    The mobile app is kind of pointless anyway, imo. It cannot start an agent session on your computer, it can only be "handed off" an existing session from your computer. I don't use Cloud Agents, because for some reason they can't connect to our Linear instance. So I was only interested in using the mobile app as a proxy for my home system.
    [-]
    • LatticeAnimal 12 minutes ago
      It is surprising that they went this route instead of the Claude-code route. The cloud agents are significantly more limiting.
  • rekttrader 16 minutes ago
    Elon’s invisible hand strikes again.
  • sbmsr 33 minutes ago
    Wow - same happened to me earlier today and was bummed. Glad to see a public place to flag this.
  • jklm 49 minutes ago
    Happened to me too, incredibly dark pattern
  • HeyMeco 1 hour ago
    Yeah fell into the same trap. Super annoying
  • cmdrmac 1 hour ago
    This bait-and-switch with privacy is what annoys me. I get that if the software was completely free, you are the product. But if I'm paying, why can I not have a privacy policy that actually benefits me - the user?
    [-]
    • klibertp 8 minutes ago
      You're probably not paying nearly enough? IDK, but pricing in tech is stretched on both ends (either way too cheap, or incredibly expensive) so much that it's hard to say anything for sure just because one is a "paying customer".
  • LoganDark 1 hour ago
    Similarly, the Claude app for iOS tries to force you through a mandatory onboarding where you're required to set your account name among other things. I've never needed this to use the CLI or the web app so I have no idea why they think they need it on iOS. There's seemingly no way to bypass this, so on iOS I've had to use Claude in Safari. Ridiculous.
  • sleepybrett 1 hour ago
    surprise! the ai companies that stole every conceivable copywritten work to train their models doesn't want you to be able to have any privacy either.
    [-]
    • dbalatero 22 minutes ago
      I suspect that while they prefer you to give up all your data, what's even more likely is they are moving fast and breaking things at a rate unseen before, and not enough conversation is happening in design phases where someone can flag that "Hey if you add this new prompt it might break an important user contract you forgot about."

      In either case annoying still.

      [-]
      • sleepybrett 10 minutes ago
        just another line in the context. 'Make sure the customers have at least the same level of privacy protection that they currently have.'