I’ve been testing Penpot for few month, since our company is interested in changing Figma to some other tool. So far Penpot looks promising. I’ve been using Penpot Desktop App, and I am wondering why is there this floating AI Docs button in the lower right corner? When I open Penpot in the browser, the button isn’t there. I can’t find any information about the button in the Penpot website or forum. Who put it in the Desktop app? What does it do? Where does it send the data? And most importantly, can it be turned off?
In the forum only post I could find about the button is this:
If our company decides to start using Penpot, IT security will do a security audit for it, and they surely will point that button and ask the same questions.
Hi, @tonivertanen, Penpot Desktop App is not maintained by Kaleidos (the company behind Penpot), so some features might differ. This is the repo, maybe you can ask there!
This unofficial Penpot fork seems to do a lot of things I don’t like, for one it has Google ads telemetry (recorded with OpenSnitch 1.7.2 Arch Linux). Try it for yourself, OpenSnitch runs on almost on all popular Linux distributions
@Arthurium Thanks for the tip. I use a Mac (I do have a Linux machine also) so I checked with Little Snitch. And yes, it connects to DoubleClick servers and Google ads servers. There is also a connection to Inkeep servers, that is mentioned in the AI docs dialog window.
I really think Penpot needs an official desktop app. I always use the Figma desktop app. All designers I know, use Figma desktop, and rarely uses it in the browser.
(I changed my username. Sorry if it causes any confusion)
@LauraKalbag Standalone app has fewer distractions. In the browser I have tons of tabs open. I could use separate window, but still there is all the browser controls and buttons around. In desktop app there is just the controls I need to use the app, and nothing else.
Hello, I work on Penpot Desktop (the project mentioned by @elenatorro). If that’s the desktop client you are using, maybe I can help.
The official release of Penpot Desktop, doesn’t integrate any AI, advertising, and/or tracking solutions. One outgoing request that comes to mind is going to GitHub (Releases) for updates.
@tonivertanen About the AI chat button, I believe I saw it on the forum in the past and it’s coming from the Discourse platform. There are a few reasons why it would be visible in the app and not in a browser, like A/B testing or a browser’s content blocking.
@Arthurium These requests look like requests that Penpot makes, at least from what I’ve compared. Similarly to the above, if these requests are present when the app is active and not when Penpot is open in a browser, could this be an effect of in-browser blocking? E.g. through a built-in content blocker or an extension. You referred to a Penpot fork tho, so I’m not sure if that issue is about the desktop app.
