June 30, 2026
Privacy mode? More like privacy vanished
Tell HN: Installing Cursor on iOS irreversibly changes your privacy settings
Users say Cursor’s iPhone app quietly rewrites your privacy choice — and locks the old one away
TLDR: A user says installing Cursor’s iPhone app quietly changed a stricter privacy setting to a looser one, and support admitted the old option can’t currently be restored. Commenters are furious, calling it a privacy bait-and-switch and proof that mobile AI apps can change more than users realize.
A Hacker News warning post turned into a full-on trust meltdown after one user said installing Cursor’s iPhone app silently changed their account from a strict “don’t store my code” setting to a looser privacy option — and then made the old choice disappear. Support reportedly admitted the mobile setup flow can switch people over when they enable cloud features, and said they can’t switch it back. That detail is what really lit the comments on fire: for many readers, this wasn’t a bug, it was a giant flashing sign that user consent got bulldozed.
The hottest reactions were brutally simple: if people are paying, why are they getting the “you are the product” treatment anyway? One commenter called it a “bait-and-switch with privacy,” while another said this is exactly the level of respect the tech industry has for users. Others piled on with the wider “AI companies don’t care about privacy” argument, which brought the usual internet mix of rage, cynicism, and dark humor. One especially sharp jab basically boiled down to: surprise, the companies accused of scraping everything also don’t seem eager to protect your secrets.
And it wasn’t just Cursor catching heat. A commenter dragged in the Claude iPhone app too, complaining about forced mobile onboarding and saying they now use it in Safari instead. The vibe across the thread? Phone apps are acting like tiny privacy traps, and users are watching settings menus like hawks. Not exactly the kind of brand loyalty you can download from the App Store.
Key Points
- •The author says they had been using Cursor’s Privacy Mode (Legacy), which they describe as a 'Do not store my code' setting.
- •The post says Cursor introduced a newer Privacy Mode whose wording includes that code may be stored for Background Agents or other features.
- •According to the author, installing and logging into the Cursor iOS app switched their account from Privacy Mode (Legacy) to the current Privacy Mode.
- •The author reports that the legacy privacy setting disappeared from account menus after the app setup process.
- •A support response quoted in the post says the Cloud Agents setup prompt caused the switch and that support could not restore Privacy Mode (Legacy) through the app.