Privacy

Who is responsible

The controller of your personal data is Russell Howard of RAHV Labs. “We” in this policy means RAHV Labs. For any privacy question, write to rahv.labs@proton.me.

The FileMate app

Your files

FileMate processes files on your Mac. It doesn’t upload them, and there’s no FileMate server that receives them. Originals are only read; results are written as new files next to them.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint files are converted to PDF by a converter inside the app, which is blocked from using the network.

Network connections

FileMate doesn’t use the internet to process files, and it has no analytics, advertising, crash reporting or user account.

FileMate connects to the internet for two things only. The first is activating your licence, once on each Mac: it sends the licence and a random installation code that FileMate made on that Mac, which says nothing else about the Mac or about you. Our server answers with a signed activation, which FileMate keeps on your Mac. From then on FileMate checks its licence on your Mac, without connecting, and works offline.

The second is checking for a new version: when you choose Check for Updates…, and about once a month if you turn on Automatically check for updates in Settings › General, which is off until you do. A check downloads a small file from FileMate’s update server, hosted by Cloudflare, which, like any web server, sees your IP address; the request says which version of FileMate you have. It never includes your files, file names or anything about how you use FileMate, and nothing is installed unless you choose to.

FileMate is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple. When you first open it, macOS may check this with Apple, as it does for any app from the internet.

What FileMate stores on your Mac

• Your settings.
• Your licence, its activation and the installation code, in your keychain, so FileMate stays activated when it’s updated or reinstalled.
• A short history of recent jobs, with file paths and results but never file contents, so FileMate can offer to try again a job that was interrupted. Entries are removed after 7 days, or after 50 jobs. Settings › File Access has a button to clear it.
• Temporary files while a job runs. They’re deleted when the job ends, or the next time FileMate starts.

Metadata in the files you create

Compressed and converted images keep photo details such as the date, camera and location by default. In Settings › Images & PDF you can remove location and device details, or all metadata. Audio and video that FileMate saves don’t carry metadata from the original, such as location, device, title or artist.

Permissions

macOS asks before FileMate can use files in your Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders and on external or network drives. FileMate only reads the clipboard when you choose Paste Clipboard as File.

Reporting a problem

Report a Problem… prepares an email with the FileMate version and build, the macOS version, whether your Mac has Apple silicon or Intel, and whether the Finder extension is on. It never includes file names, paths, clipboard contents or documents. Nothing is sent unless you send the email yourself. If you do, we receive your email address and whatever you write, and use them only to answer you.

This website

Analytics

This website uses Umami Cloud, a service of Umami Software, Inc., to count visits. It doesn’t use cookies and doesn’t track you across other websites. For each page you open, Umami receives the page’s address and title, the site you came from, your browser, operating system, device type, screen size and language. It also learns whether you click a button to buy FileMate (on a guide, also which guide and where on the page), whether you continue to payment, and whether the purchase page confirms your payment, but never your email address, payment details, order or licence. It uses your IP address to work out your approximate location (country, region and city) and doesn’t store the address. We only look at the totals, for example how many people read the Help page or bought FileMate. Our Umami account keeps this data in the European Union. It isn’t sold or used for advertising. See Umami’s privacy policy.

Cookies

This website sets one cookie, and only when you continue to payment or open the link in your purchase confirmation. It links your browser to your order, so the purchase page can show whether your payment went through and offer the download. It holds a payment reference and a random order number, nothing else, and expires after 30 days. Mollie’s checkout page sets its own cookies; see below.

Hosting

This website is hosted by Cloudflare, which also protects it against abuse. To deliver the pages, Cloudflare receives your IP address and browser details, as any web host does (Cloudflare’s privacy policy). The site uses your device’s own fonts, and nothing else is loaded from other companies apart from Umami’s script.

Buying FileMate

Payment happens on a checkout page run by Mollie, the payment processor, based in the Netherlands. Mollie handles your card or other payment details and sets cookies on that page, for example to prevent fraud. For some purposes, such as fraud prevention and its own legal obligations, Mollie decides how it uses the data under its own privacy policy. Your full card number is never shared with us.

At checkout you give us your email address. We also receive what you bought, the amount, the payment method, whether the payment went through, and whether you ticked the box asking for immediate supply. Depending on the payment method, Mollie also passes on details such as the name on the card or account, the card’s country and last four digits, a bank account number, or the email address of a PayPal account. We keep your email address with your payment at Mollie. We use this information to provide FileMate, send your purchase confirmation with your download link, answer your questions and keep the records Spanish tax and accounting law requires, for as long as that law requires.

Your licence

When your payment goes through, we create your licence and show it on your purchase page and in your purchase confirmation. We keep it at Cloudflare with a reference to your payment, stored encrypted, with whether it’s active or was revoked after a refund or chargeback. Each Mac you activate adds a record of its random installation code and the date: no name, email address, IP address or other detail about the Mac. We use these records only to let your licence activate up to 3 Macs, and keep them while your licence can be used.

When FileMate activates, Cloudflare sees the IP address the request comes from, as any web server does. To stop automated guessing of licences, it counts activation attempts from each address for one minute. We don’t store the address.

Email

Your purchase confirmation is emailed through Cloudflare, which also runs the checkout and delivers the download. It shows FileMate’s icon from this website, the same image for everyone, so we can’t tell whether or when you open it. We don’t use your email address for newsletters or advertising.

If you write to us, your message is kept in our email account at Proton. We use it only to answer you and keep it while we need it for that.

Legal basis

We use your data to carry out our contract with you (your purchase, your licence and your questions about them) and to keep the records tax law requires. Hosting and protecting the website and the licence server, counting visits with Umami and answering other messages rely on our legitimate interests: running a secure website, knowing how it’s used and replying to you.

Transfers outside the EU

Cloudflare, Umami and some of the service providers Mollie uses may process data outside the European Union, for example in the United States. They do so under safeguards recognised by EU law, such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses. Proton, which provides our email, is based in Switzerland, which the EU recognises as protecting personal data adequately.

Your rights

You can ask to see the personal data we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to its use, or receive it in a portable format. Write to rahv.labs@proton.me. You can also complain to the Spanish data protection authority, the AEPD, or the authority where you live.