Privacy policy
Last updated 13 October 2026. This policy covers the MacAid app for macOS and this website, both operated by Apexmart LLC.
The short version
Scanning happens on your Mac. MacAid does not upload a list of your files, their paths, or your scan results, ever. You can scan without an account.
What we collect
Account data only if you create an account, which the free trial and paid plans need. Scanning and restoring work without one. The requests the app makes on its own, such as update checks, are listed under Network requests the app makes, below.
| What | Why | Where it is held |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | To create your account and let you sign in on another Mac. | Supabase, in the United States. |
| Trial and subscription status | To know whether your trial or plan is active and when it ends. Includes the Stripe customer and subscription identifiers. | Supabase, in the United States. |
| A one way hash of your Mac's hardware identifier | To count how many Macs are using one subscription. The identifier itself never leaves your Mac, and the hash cannot be turned back into it. | Supabase, in the United States. |
| Your Mac's name and the app version | So you can tell your Macs apart when you release a seat. | Supabase, in the United States. |
| A daily count of AI requests and the tokens they used | To apply your plan's daily limit and to reconcile what the AI costs us. | Supabase, in the United States. |
| Anonymous operational events under a random installation ID | To measure whether setup, scanning, cleanup, checkout, and updates work. You can turn this off, and events never include file data. | Supabase, in the United States. Raw events are kept for 90 days and aggregate metrics for 24 months. |
| Crash diagnostics, only if you allow them separately | To diagnose crashes without collecting file inventories, paths, names, contents, or cleanup selections. | The configured crash service, under the retention shown when you choose. |
| After you delete your account: a one way hash (SHA-256) of your verified email address | So the free trial is given once per address. The hash cannot be turned back into the address. | Supabase, in the United States. |
| After you delete your account: a minimal billing reconciliation record | The Stripe customer and subscription identifiers and a hash of the address, so we can show the subscription was cancelled and match any later charge, refund or dispute. | Supabase, in the United States. |
Network requests the app makes
None of these carries a file name, a path, or anything from a scan.
| What | When | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| MacAid's own update check | Once a day, and when you choose Check for Updates. Turn it off in the app under Settings, Updates. | A request for MacAid's update feed on macaid.app, carrying the app's name and version. Our host, Vercel, sees your network address. Updates are offered, never installed without you. |
| Update checks for your other apps | Only when you open Applications, Updates, and at most every six hours unless you check again. | A request to the update address each app's maker built into that app, asking for its latest version. Each maker can see its own app is on your Mac, as it would when the app checks for itself. |
| Homebrew | Applications, Updates, if Homebrew is installed. | Nothing from MacAid. It runs Homebrew on your Mac with Homebrew's own updating and analytics turned off. An upgrade, only when you click Upgrade, downloads through Homebrew as usual. |
| App Store version lookup | Only after you click Compare with Apple in Applications, Updates. Later update checks repeat it until you turn it off in Settings, Privacy. | The bundle identifiers of your App Store apps, sent to Apple's public lookup service (itunes.apple.com). Apple returns each app's current version. |
| Sign in, trial and plan | When you sign in, start a trial or buy, and about twice a day while you are signed in. | Your sign-in token and the device details in the table above, so your access keeps working offline. |
| AI explanations | Only when you ask for one, on a trial or paid plan. | Categories, size ranges and age ranges, as described under AI guidance. |
| Usage reporting | Only after you turn it on in the Welcome screen or in Settings, Privacy. Off by default. | The operational events described under Analytics and tracking. |
What we never collect
- File names, folder names, or paths
- File contents, or any hash of file contents
- A list of what is on your disk, or the results of any scan
- Which files you removed
- Your location, contacts, browsing history, or keystrokes
- Advertising or cross site tracking identifiers of any kind
This is enforced in the software, not only in this document. The database has no column that can hold a file name or a path, and the AI service rejects any request containing one before it reaches a model.
AI guidance
AI explanations are part of the trial and paid plans, and run only when you ask for one. When you do, MacAid sends our service a list where each item is described by a category such as cache or log, a size range such as 100 to 500 MB, an age range such as 91 to 180 days, and a random identifier generated for that one request.
Our service forwards that list to Google, using the Gemini API, and returns the answer to your Mac. Google receives no account identifier, no email address, and nothing that identifies you or your Mac. Google states that data sent through the paid Gemini API is not used to train its models. Their handling of it is covered by the Gemini API terms.
The model cannot act. It returns an ordering and an explanation. MacAid checks every answer against the rating your Mac worked out locally, and any item your Mac marked as protected is excluded regardless of what the model said.
Payments
Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. Card numbers never reach us or the app. We store the Stripe customer and subscription identifiers so we know your plan is active. Stripe handles your payment data under its own privacy policy.
Analytics and tracking
MacAid can send anonymous operational events under a random installation ID so we can understand whether scanning, cleanup, and checkout work. It is off unless you turn it on in the Welcome screen or in Settings, Privacy, and turning it off later asks us to delete what that installation sent. These events never include file names, paths, contents, scan inventories, or cleanup selections. Raw events are kept for 90 days and aggregate product metrics for 24 months. Crash reports require a separate choice in the app.
This website is hosted on Vercel, which keeps standard server logs including IP addresses for security and abuse prevention. We have not added any analytics or advertising script to it.
How long we keep things
- Account and subscription records: for as long as your account exists.
- Daily AI usage counts: 13 months, so we can reconcile costs across a financial year.
- Device activation records: until you release the seat or delete your account.
- After you delete your account: a one way hash (SHA-256) of your verified email address, kept so the free trial is given once per address, and a minimal billing reconciliation record (the Stripe customer and subscription identifiers and a hash of the address). We keep nothing else, and nothing about your files, paths or scan results was ever sent to us.
Cleanup receipts, which record what was moved to your Trash, are stored encrypted on your own Mac and are never sent to us.
Your rights
You can ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, or delete it. Deleting your account removes your profile, entitlement, device activations and usage records. Email apexstack.dev@gmail.com and we will respond within 30 days.
Deleting your account first cancels your subscription with Stripe and confirms the cancellation. If that fails, your account is kept, nothing else changes, and you are asked to try again or write to apexstack.dev@gmail.com. Receipts and recovery history live on your Mac and are not affected by deleting the cloud account. Only the hash and the billing record described above remain.
If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, you also have the right to object to processing, to request a portable copy of your data, and to complain to your local data protection authority. We rely on contractual necessity to run your subscription and on legitimate interests to prevent abuse of the AI service.
Where your data goes
Account data is stored in the United States on Supabase. Payment data is held by Stripe. AI requests are processed by Google. If you are outside the United States, using MacAid means your account data is transferred there.
Children
MacAid is not for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will remove it.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date above. If a change affects what we collect, we will email account holders before it takes effect.
Who to contact
Apexmart LLC
30 N Gould St Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States
apexstack.dev@gmail.com