Privacy
Private by default.
NotchPulse is local-first. It shows what’s happening on your Mac and in the services you connect, and it doesn’t need our servers to do that. This policy explains exactly what does and doesn’t leave your Mac.
Last updated September 25, 2026.
What stays on your Mac
Clipboard history, the file and screenshot shelf, notes, timers, activity history, AI task details, workspaces and settings are stored only on your Mac, in NotchPulse’s Application Support folder. They never leave it.
Clipboard items that password managers mark as concealed or transient are never recorded.
Integration tokens — for GitHub, Vercel, Sentry, Stripe and others — are stored only in your Keychain, on this device, and are never synced to iCloud. They’re sent only to the provider they belong to, when that integration runs. Integrations talk directly from your Mac to the provider; their data never passes through our servers.
AI tools: status, never content
NotchPulse never uploads prompts, source code, terminal contents, AI conversations, diffs or repository source — to us or to anyone.
NotchPulse knows that Claude finished or Codex needs approval, not what was written. The hooks we ship send the app only activity metadata over a local socket — a title, a state, progress and a source — and discard transcript paths, tool inputs and outputs before anything is sent. Activity titles from your own scripts stay local.
If we ever add a feature that sends AI-related content anywhere, it will be opt-in, clearly labeled and described here before release.
What our license server receives
Our backend exists to sell and activate licenses. It receives license, device and purchase information only:
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your license key, during activation | To match your purchase | Never stored as-is — only a one-way fingerprint |
| Your Mac’s public key and signatures | To bind your license to this Mac | While activated, plus 30 days |
| Device name (editable before sending) | So you can recognize your Macs | While activated |
| Mac model, macOS and app version | Support and compatibility | While activated (latest value) |
| IP address | Rate limiting and abuse prevention | 30 days; a country code is kept with the activation |
| Email, name, country, Stripe references | Delivering your license, recovery, receipts, tax | While you hold a license; tax records as the law requires |
| A one-way trial hash, when your Pro trial starts (details) | So reinstalling can’t restart the trial | Only with the trial record, deleted one year after it was last seen |
We never collect your hardware serial number, your hardware UUID itself, MAC addresses, username, file paths, list of installed apps or how you use features.
The Pro trial hash
Every new installation includes a 7-day Pro trial, with one trial per Mac. To stop the trial from being reset by reinstalling, the request that starts it includes a platform hash:
- It’s an HMAC-SHA256 of your Mac’s hardware UUID (IOPlatformUUID), keyed with a NotchPulse-specific value. The UUID itself never leaves your Mac.
- It’s app-specific and irreversible: it can’t be matched with identifiers other apps use, and it can’t be turned back into your UUID. (Someone who already knows your Mac’s UUID could compute the same hash; it reveals nothing to anyone who doesn’t.)
- It’s used only to prevent trial resets — never for licensing, analytics or advertising, and never linked to a purchase.
- It’s stored only with the trial record — not in logs, not with Stripe, not in emails — and deleted with that record one year after it was last seen. The trial record holds no IP address, email or name.
- It’s sent only when a trial starts or an offline trial is confirmed; activating, syncing or deactivating a license never sends it.
It’s the only value derived from a hardware identifier that NotchPulse sends. There’s no other device fingerprinting.
Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
No analytics
- The app contains no analytics SDK. Any future telemetry will be opt-in, off by default, listed here field by field before release, and never include your content.
- Update checks send your app version and update channel to
updates.notchpulse.app. Optional system profiling is disabled. Access logs are kept for 30 days. - Crash reports are opt-in: after a crash, NotchPulse asks once. Reports contain stack traces, app and macOS versions and your Mac model, with your username removed from paths — never clipboard, activity titles, notes or integration data. They’re kept for 90 days.
This website
notchpulse.app uses no cookies, no analytics, no tracking pixels, no third-party fonts and no third-party scripts. Pages are served from our own server, which keeps standard access logs (IP address, browser, page requested) for security and troubleshooting. When checkout opens, clicking Buy sends a request to api.notchpulse.app and then takes you to Stripe Checkout, where Stripe’s privacy policy applies.
How long we keep things
- Your local data: until you delete it or uninstall. Limits are adjustable in Settings.
- Customer record: while you hold a license, or until you ask us to delete it.
- Orders and invoices: as long as tax law requires, typically up to 10 years depending on the country.
- Activations: while active, plus 30 days. Raw IP addresses: 30 days.
- Transactional email logs: up to 30 days. Support emails: 2 years after last contact.
Refunding or revoking a license never deletes your data; NotchPulse simply goes back to Free.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of your data, correct it, delete your account, or object to or restrict processing. Use your account page or email support@notchpulse.app; we respond within 30 days and verify requests with a one-time link sent to your purchase email.
Deleting your account removes your customer record and activations. Licenses then can’t be recovered, but installed copies keep working offline. Records required for tax are kept minimally and separately.
On your Mac, Settings → Privacy → Delete all local data removes NotchPulse’s local data and Keychain items, with a separate button for the license.
Changes
Any change that sends new data off your Mac is added to this policy before it ships. Questions: support@notchpulse.app.