TopSecret privacy policy

Last updated: August 3, 2026

TopSecret doesn't collect or transmit any personal data. No analytics, no telemetry, no accounts. All redaction and detection happens on your Mac — the files you redact never leave your device.

What TopSecret does on your machine

Reads the file you give it. When you drag in an image or PDF, choose one from the Open panel, or open a .topsecret session, TopSecret loads it so you can redact it. That file stays on your Mac — it's never uploaded anywhere.
Detects sensitive content on-device. Auto-detect and Find & Redact use Apple's on-device Vision framework to recognize text and faces. This runs entirely locally; no image, text, or detection result is sent off your device.
Saves and exports where you choose. A .topsecret session embeds a copy of your original file plus your redaction boxes so you can keep editing — treat it as sensitive as the source. An Export writes a flattened image or PDF, with the redacted content permanently removed, to the location you pick. All of this stays on your Mac.
Stores your preferences — small settings such as which detection categories you last used — in your local UserDefaults and application container. They never leave your device.

Network connections TopSecret makes on its own

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

Update checks. The Sparkle framework periodically fetches https://bendansby.com/apps/topsecret/appcast.xml to see if a newer version is available. The request carries only a User-Agent string and the current TopSecret version — no identifiers, no telemetry, no tracking.

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 uploading of your files — they never leave your Mac.

Contact

ben.dansby@gmail.com

Changes

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