Privacy Policy
Last updated October 31, 2026
UnIdle is made by MergeHub L.L.C. ("we," "us," "our"). UnIdle is built to be local-only: it doesn't require an account, has no analytics or tracking code inside it, and doesn't read your screen, your terminal, or your code. This page lists, exhaustively, the few places any data does leave your Mac.
1. What UnIdle itself sends
| What | When | What's sent |
|---|---|---|
| Update checks | Automatically, in the background, and when you click "Check for Updates" | A request for our update feed at unidle.app/appcast.xml (the file itself lives on GitHub). It's made by the standard Sparkle update framework and carries the app's version, as any update check does. We count these requests anonymously, with the version and country, to know how many Macs run UnIdle and which versions; that count is the same anonymous one as the website's, described below. No personal data, no device identifier. |
| Referral link (website) | When you open a link like unidle.app/?ref=… | The code in the link is saved in your browser for 30 days and sent with your purchase, so the person who sent you gets credit. We keep a personal code for each buyer, tied to their email, to send them their reward. |
| License activation (Pro) | Once when you activate a license key, and when you deactivate this Mac | Your license key, a random ID UnIdle generates for this Mac, and the Mac's name and model (for example "Alex's MacBook Air", Mac14,2), sent to our license server so one key can't be used on more Macs than it allows. From version 0.1.9, a Pro Mac also asks once a day, while online, whether it's still on its key (the key and that random ID, nothing else). The name and model are only there so that, if you write to us to free a Mac you no longer have, we free the right one; deactivating a Mac deletes them. Nothing else about you or your Mac. |
| Your referral link (Pro) | When you open Pro › Manage, until the link has been fetched once | Your license key, sent to our license server to look up your personal referral code. Nothing else. |
| Lost-key form (website) | Only when you submit unidle.app/lost-key | The email you type, which we look up with Paddle to find the keys bought with it and email them there. We keep it for one hour, only to stop the form being used to flood an inbox. |
| Phone push alerts (Pro, opt-in, off by default) | Only if you turn this on in Settings | A notification's title and a fixed message: the project folder's name and what happened (e.g. "my-app — finished"), never your code, prompts, commands or the agent's replies. Sent to the public ntfy.sh service, addressed to a randomly generated topic string that acts as a shared secret between UnIdle and your phone. We don't send your name, email, or any other identifying information — just that message. |
Outside of those cases, UnIdle makes no network requests. Agent detection, activity tracking, and alert logic all run locally on your Mac and never leave it.
2. What Paddle collects
If you purchase Pro, your payment is processed by Paddle, our Merchant of Record — not by us. Paddle collects whatever billing information is needed to process your payment (name, email, payment method, and tax-relevant details) under its own Privacy Policy. We receive only what's needed to deliver and support your license — we don't receive or store your card details.
3. What we don't do
- No accounts, no sign-in, no cloud sync.
- No screen-scraping, no reading terminal, editor, or code contents — ever, regardless of which permissions you've granted. See our full list of permissions for what each one actually does and doesn't allow.
- No analytics or crash-reporting SDKs bundled in the app.
- No cookies, no third-party trackers or ad pixels on this website.
- No selling or sharing of any data, because we don't collect any to sell.
4. What the website counts
To know whether people find UnIdle and where buying gets stuck, the website and our server count, anonymously:
- page views: which page, the name of the site that linked to it (for example reddit.com, never the full address), and your country;
- downloads of the app;
- steps in the checkout (opened, loaded, email entered, payment started, completed, or an error), never what you type;
- the app's update checks, described above.
No cookies, and nothing is stored in your browser. Your IP address is never stored. To count unique visitors per day, the server makes a one-way hash of your IP address, your browser's name and a random value that changes every day and is then deleted, so the count can't recognise you on another day or be traced back to you. These counts are kept by Cloudflare, which runs our server.
5. Local data
UnIdle stores its own settings and license status locally on your Mac, using standard macOS mechanisms (UserDefaults and Application Support). Apart from the license activation above, this data never leaves your device. Uninstall UnIdle… in Settings removes it, along with everything else UnIdle added.
6. Changes to this policy
If what UnIdle sends or collects changes, this page will be updated and the "Last updated" date above will reflect it.