Aurora Viewer privacy policy

Effective date: 6 November 2026

Aurora Viewer is a free, open source viewer for Second Life, made by a team of volunteers. This page explains what the viewer sends, to whom, and what it keeps on your computer. The source code is public, so you can check every point below.

Contact: contact@aurora-viewer.org

The short version

  • The Aurora team runs no server. Nothing you do in the viewer is sent to us.
  • The viewer talks to Linden Lab (or the other grid you choose to connect to) to connect you to Second Life, as every viewer does.
  • Other services are contacted for the features listed below. A few requests start by themselves: the update check and the news at startup, and the preview of a link someone sends you to a known site. The others start only when you use the feature.
  • Your settings, chat logs and caches stay on your computer, and you can delete them.

What goes to Linden Lab, or to the grid you choose

To log you in and show the world, the viewer connects to Linden Lab's servers (or those of the other grid you choose to connect to): login, regions, inventory, the asset and texture servers, the world map, voice, search, Marketplace and web profiles. It sends what Second Life needs to work: your account name and password, your avatar's movements and actions, your chat, the viewer's name and version, your operating system's version, and two hashed device identifiers.

Login identifiers. To identify the device the way Second Life's official viewer does, the viewer sends Linden Lab two hashed device identifiers when you log in: an MD5 hash derived from your computer's motherboard identifier (or, if it is unavailable, its Windows serial number or network adapter address; the network adapter address on Linux; on a Mac, its serial number, or the network adapter address without one), and an MD5 hash of your system drive's volume serial number (on Linux, of a disk identifier; on a Mac, of its serial number). Only these hashes are sent, never the identifiers themselves; they are the same values Linden Lab's own viewer sends from the same computer, and Linden Lab uses them, for example, to enforce account and device bans. Aurora does not send them anywhere other than Linden Lab.

Viewer statistics sent to Linden Lab. Like Second Life's official viewer, Aurora sends Linden Lab's standard viewer statistics report to the region you are in, through the simulator's ViewerStats capability: once when you arrive in-world, every five minutes after that, and when you log out. It goes only to Linden Lab, never to the Aurora project, and is never written to Aurora's log files. The report contains the viewer's name, version and interface language; session times, frame rates and frame-time stability; your network ping, data received and sent, and packet loss counters; how far your avatar travelled and how many regions you visited; the memory the viewer uses; your operating system, processor model, number of threads and amount of RAM; your graphics card's name, vendor, driver version and video memory, and the graphics API in use (Vulkan, or Metal on a Mac); whether display names are shown; your network adapter's MAC address; and the same hashed system identifier that is sent when you log in. It contains no chat, no inventory content and no settings. Aurora does not offer an option to turn it off, as Linden Lab's Third Party Viewer Policy asks viewers not to omit it.

Your password is never sent in clear text: like the official viewer, the viewer sends only its hash. Linden Lab's use of this data is described in its own privacy policy and the Second Life Terms of Service.

Other services, and when they are contacted

Besides the grid, the viewer contacts the services below. Like any web request, each one sees your IP address, and the viewer names itself and its version (its user agent, AuroraViewer/ followed by the version). A few requests start by themselves, at startup or when someone sends you a link. The others start only when you use the feature. Other grids you connect to are run by their own operators, under their own privacy policies.

Requests that start by themselves

ServiceWhen, and who starts itWhat is sentDefault
GitHub, update check (privacy)The viewer, at each start of a released version (development builds never check), and when you ask it to check for updatesA request for the list of Aurora's releases (api.github.com). When a newer version is found and you accept it, its download from Aurora's release files on GitHub. On macOS and Linux the viewer opens the release page in your browser insteadPreferences › Language and updates: Ask before downloading. Download automatically downloads it without asking. With Required updates only, the check still runs, so that a required update is still offered
GitHub, newsThe viewer, when the login screen showsA request for the news file in the viewer's language (raw.githubusercontent.com)Always
Link previewsThe person who sends the link: the preview loads when the message shows in the Conversations window, before you click anythingA request for the link's picture, or for what leads to it, to the site the link names or to that service's servers (details below). No cookie and no referrerOn in private messages and in groups, off in nearby chat. Only links from residents to known sites load by themselves

Link previews

Link previews are an Aurora feature: the Legacy style of the Conversations window shows links as text only. Their settings are in Preferences › Chat › Link previews:

  • In private messages: on. In groups and conferences: on; the pictures are loaded, then blurred until you click them. In the nearby chat: off.
  • Load by themselves: Known sites (the default), All links, or Never (every preview waits for your click).

With Known sites, a preview loads by itself only when a resident sends a link to a trusted site and the link shows a picture: a picture file (.png, .jpg, .gif, .webp, .bmp), a YouTube video, a Gyazo, Flickr, Imgur, Lightshot or Reddit page, or a Bluesky or X post. The trusted sites are listed, and can be changed, in Preferences › Protections › Trusted sites. The built-in list holds the sites of Second Life and Linden Lab (secondlife.com, lindenlab.com, tilia-inc.com, secondlife.io, secondlifegrid.net and Second Life's status page), of CasperTech (casperdns.com, casperpanel.com, casperlet.com), of the Legacy Viewer, of Aurora (aurora-viewer.org) and of OpenSimulator (opensimulator.org, osgrid.org); Flickr, Primfeed, Discord, GitHub, YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, Wikipedia, Reddit, Bluesky, X and Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Imgur, Gyazo, Lightshot, Tenor, GIPHY and KLIPY, with their subdomains, short links and picture servers (flic.kr, staticflickr.com, redd.it, prnt.sc, prntscr.com, twimg.com).

These always wait for your click, whatever the settings: the links that objects and scripts send; links to a region or to a script's web address (a simulator's address, an address with a port number or a /cap/ path, and casperdns.com); and video files (.mp4, .webm), of which nothing is fetched before you press play. A link the viewer marks as dangerous (a short link, an IP address, an address that hides its destination or imitates another site) or that leads to your computer or your local network never gets a preview, and a preview never follows a redirect to such a place. A download stops at 8 MB.

LinkServers contactedWhat is asked
A picture fileThe site the link namesThe picture
YouTube (Google privacy)www.youtube.com, i.ytimg.comThe video's title, channel and thumbnail. The video itself only once you press play (below)
Gyazo (privacy)api.gyazo.com, i.gyazo.com, thumb.gyazo.comThe picture of that page (Gyazo's oEmbed), then the picture
Flickr (privacy)www.flickr.com, staticflickr.comThe picture of that page (Flickr's oEmbed), then the picture
Imgur (privacy)imgur.com, i.imgur.comThe start of the page, to find its picture, then the picture
Lightshot (privacy)prnt.sc, image.prntscr.com, img.prnt.sc, i.imgur.comThe start of the page, to find its picture, then the picture
Reddit (privacy)www.reddit.com, i.redd.it, preview.redd.it, external-preview.redd.itThe post's public feed, then its picture
Bluesky (privacy)public.api.bsky.app, cdn.bsky.app, video.bsky.appThe post, from Bluesky's public API, then its first picture or its video's thumbnail
X (privacy)cdn.syndication.twimg.com, pbs.twimg.comThe post, as X's embed widget reads it, then its picture
Your picture sitesThe sites you add in Preferences › Chat › Picture sites (none by default)The page, to find the picture it names, then the picture. Their links wait for your click, unless the site is also trusted

Requests only when you use the feature

ServiceWhenWhat is sentDefault
GitHub, web and media supportThe viewer asks whether to download it when web or media content first needs it (from version 0.9.3; version 0.9.2 and earlier download it at the first start)The download of a pack from Aurora's release files on GitHub, of about 241 MB on Windows, 197 MB on Linux and 319 MB on macOS: the plugins that show web pages and play videos and media (SLPlugin, CEF, and LibVLC or GStreamer)Downloaded only if you accept
GitHub, crash reportsAfter a crash, when you send the report from the crash window, or by itself with AlwaysA public GitHub issue in your name, only once you have authorised the viewer on github.com. The window shows its text first. It holds the version, build and commit; the kind of crash and where in the code it happened (code modules and offsets); the exit code and the session's length; your operating system; your graphics card, its driver and the graphics errors seen; the viewer's last state (screen, frame rate, window size, graphics preset, memory and video memory in use, how many objects, avatars and regions); the known overlay programs found hooked into the viewer and the graphics (Vulkan) layers installed; and the kinds of recent warnings and errors. Never your files, your log, your messages, paths or your avatar namePreferences › Privacy › Crash reports: Ask (you read the report and choose to send it). Always sends it by itself; Never keeps it on your computer
GitHub, bug reportsWhen you send a report from the viewer's bug report windowA public GitHub issue. Send public report publishes it in your name, once you have authorised the viewer on github.com; that authorisation is kept in memory only, until you close the viewer. You can also open the filled-in report in your browser and publish it there, or only save it on your computer. Each detail can be unticked first: version, build and commit, operating system, processor, memory, graphics card, driver and video memory, window size, graphics settings, frame rate, language and session length. In-world, your location (region and position) and your avatar name are offered, unticked. A filtered list of recent warnings and errors is unticked too. The viewer never uploads pictures: you add them on GitHub yourselfNothing is sent before you choose to
Videos of link previews (Google privacy)When you press play on a video cardA YouTube video plays through YouTube's privacy-enhanced player (www.youtube-nocookie.com); a video file (.mp4, .webm) from a trusted site plays from that site. Both play in the viewer's web browser, so these sites receive what a web browser sendsWaits for your click
Media, music and web pagesWhen you play a parcel's or an object's media or the parcel music, or open a web page in the viewer. The viewer's web browser opens DuckDuckGo as its home pageWhatever that site receives from a web browser, or the music stream's server from a player. A media filter asks before a new site is loaded (except, by default, for the media of items you wear)Parcel media and parcel music wait for you to press play
GIPHY / KLIPY (GIPHY, KLIPY)Only if you add your own API key, when you open the GIF picker and searchYour API key, your search words, your content filter choice, the interface language (GIPHY searches), the ids of your favourite GIFs when you open your favourites, and a random identifier the viewer creates for these services, as they require. GIPHY is told when a GIF is shown, clicked and sent; KLIPY when one is sent, with the search words. The GIFs come from their media serversNo key: the GIF button is hidden
Grid statusWhile the Grid status window is open, and while you are in-world with its button on a toolbar: every 60 secondsA request for the status feed of Second Life (status.secondlifegrid.net), or of the other grid you are on when it publishes oneIts button is not on a toolbar: only while you have the window open
Metaverse Ink searchWhen you use the web search of an OpenSim grid that gives no search page of its ownYour search words and your maturity choice, to search.metaverseink.com, over HTTP without encryptionNever on Second Life

The viewer also talks to programs on your own computer, never over the internet: the Blender plug-in of LiveMesh connects on this computer only.

What stays on your computer

  • Settings (including GIF API keys you entered, in plain text), conversation logs (private chats and groups by default; nearby chat only if you turn it on), caches (textures, meshes, objects), logs and the time of your last session per account.
  • Saved logins: if you tick "Remember password", only the hashed password is kept, in your system's credential store (Windows Credential Manager, your desktop's keyring on Linux, or the keychain on a Mac). If you ask the viewer to remember a two-factor login, that authorisation is kept there too, for up to 30 days. The GitHub authorisation for crash reports is kept there as well; Preferences › Privacy › GitHub connection › Forget removes it.
  • None of this leaves your computer unless you attach it yourself, for example to a bug report.

To delete it, close the viewer, then remove these folders and the entries of your credential store whose name starts with "Aurora Viewer":

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Aurora\AuroraViewer and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Aurora\AuroraViewer
  • Linux: ~/.config/auroraviewer, ~/.cache/auroraviewer and ~/.local/share/auroraviewer
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/org.Aurora.AuroraViewer and ~/Library/Caches/org.Aurora.AuroraViewer
  • A cache folder you chose in Preferences › Network and cache: the AuroraViewerCache folder inside it
  • A conversation logs folder you chose in Preferences › Chat › History: the account folders inside it

To remove the whole viewer, including the link handler and the Blender add-on, see Uninstall Aurora Viewer.

This website

aurora-viewer.org is hosted on GitHub Pages, which keeps its own logs (GitHub privacy). The page asks GitHub for the latest version and the news, and keeps your language choice and those answers in your browser's storage. It uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party fonts.

Children

Second Life is for adults (18+). The viewer follows Linden Lab's rules for who may use Second Life.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version is published on this page with a new date, and the change is visible in the website's public history.