Privacy and data

The short version

Your notes never leave your Mac. They are not uploaded, synced, indexed or read by us. There is no account requirement to write notes, and no telemetry in the editor.

What does go online

One thing: an account token, sent to api.shadynotes.app to check whether your plan is active.

That request carries the token and nothing else — no note content, no filenames, no vault paths, no usage statistics.

It happens when you sign in, and periodically afterwards. Between checks the app works offline for 14 days.

Note

This is a deliberately precise claim. Shady Notes is not a “nothing ever leaves your machine” app — it does contact a server to verify entitlement. What it does not do is send anything about your notes.

Two other network connections

• Update checks, once a day, to the release feed. A version request; nothing about you. → Updates
• Sign-in, which happens in your browser against our authentication provider. The app never sees your password.

Where things are stored

What	Where
Notes and attachments	Your vault folder, as plain files
Account token	The macOS Keychain
Settings, workspaces, starred notes	macOS preferences
Revision history	A git repository on your Mac

All local. Nothing is on a server.

If you never sign in

The app works. You get the free tier plus a 14-day trial, and the only network traffic is the daily update check.

Deleting your data

Notes are yours: delete the folder. Sign out to remove the token from the Keychain. Uninstalling removes the app and leaves your notes alone.

The site

The privacy policy covers shadynotes.app and account handling.