DeskMop privacy policy

Last updated: May 30, 2026

DeskMop doesn't collect or transmit any personal data. No analytics, no telemetry, no accounts. Everything DeskMop does happens on your Mac.

What DeskMop does on your machine

Snapshots the screen to composite cleanly. To make a hidden menu-bar item (or the whole bar) blend in seamlessly, DeskMop captures the area behind it with macOS screen-capture APIs (CGDisplayCreateImage), recomposes the strip in memory, and paints the result back as an overlay. Nothing is recorded, saved, or sent. Each capture exists only long enough to build the overlay and is discarded. Reading screen pixels requires macOS Screen Recording permission, which DeskMop asks for on first launch.
Reads menu-bar item positions. DeskMop enumerates the on-screen menu-bar items through the window server (CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo) to know where they sit. On the direct-download build it can also read the items' names through macOS Accessibility so the list shows "Wi‑Fi" instead of "Control Center 3"; the Mac App Store build does not do this.
Arranges windows (direct-download build only). When you snap, resize, or center a window, DeskMop moves that window using macOS Accessibility. This needs Accessibility permission. The sandboxed Mac App Store build cannot control other apps' windows and omits this feature.
Stages your background. If you pick an image as a clean background, DeskMop copies that file into its own application container so it can re-apply it later. The copy stays on your Mac. Setting a solid color, hiding desktop icons, and switching display resolution all use standard macOS APIs and change nothing outside your machine.
Stores your preferences — your background choice, menu-bar mode and which items to hide, resolution, and similar settings — in your local UserDefaults and application container. They never leave your device.

Network connections DeskMop makes on its own

The Mac App Store build makes no network connections of its own. The direct-download build makes two, both only in that build:

Update checks. The Sparkle framework periodically fetches https://bendansby.com/apps/deskmop/appcast.xml to see if a newer version is available. The request carries only a User-Agent string and the current DeskMop version — no identifiers, no telemetry, no tracking.
License validation. After the free trial, the direct-download build asks you for a license key and sends that key to our payments provider, Lemon Squeezy, to confirm it's valid and activate it on your device. Only the license key and a device activation identifier are exchanged; we don't receive your name, email, or payment details through the app. The Mac App Store build doesn't include licensing — Apple handles purchases.

What we don't do

No analytics or telemetry of any kind.
No user accounts, login, or remote configuration.
No advertising, third-party tracking SDKs, or fingerprinting.
No cookies, no server-side logs about you.
No screen recordings written to disk or uploaded anywhere — the pixels DeskMop reads exist only long enough to build the menu-bar overlay and are then discarded.

Contact

ben.dansby@gmail.com

Changes

If anything material changes about what DeskMop collects, this page updates and the next version's release notes call it out explicitly.