Dioptra does not collect any data. It has no analytics, no accounts, and no telemetry. It also has no network access: the app is sandboxed by macOS and does not request the network entitlement, so it is not permitted to make an outbound connection even in principle. Nothing leaves your Mac unless you send it yourself: when you connect to a server, copy or move files to a network share or iCloud Drive, or use the Share button, the transfer is made by macOS or by the app you share with, never by Dioptra. The one exception is macOS's own analytics: if you have chosen in System Settings to share analytics, macOS sends Apple a report when Dioptra crashes, and if you also share with app developers, Apple may pass crash reports and usage statistics on to me (see What leaves your Mac).
Who is responsible
Dioptra is made by Andreas Nelvik Engebretsen, an independent developer in Norway (“I”, “me”). For the personal data I do receive, which is only what you send me yourself, I am the data controller under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as it applies in Norway through the EEA Agreement and the Norwegian Personal Data Act.
What Dioptra does with your files
Dioptra is a file manager, so it reads the folders you point it at in order to show you what is inside them. That reading happens entirely on your Mac, and the results are only ever drawn on your screen.
Dioptra is sandboxed by macOS and starts with access to nothing. It can only read a folder after you have chosen that folder yourself in the standard macOS folder picker. macOS records your choice as a security-scoped bookmark, stored in Dioptra's own private container on your Mac, so the app can still open that folder the next time you launch it. You can revoke any of these grants from within the app.
Dioptra never uploads, transmits, or sends the contents of your files anywhere of its own accord. It has no server to send them to. Files go only where you copy, move or share them.
Features that analyse your files
Two features look at your files more closely than simply listing them:
- Reclaim Space finds large, old, and duplicate files so you can decide what to delete.
- Organize suggests folders to group files into, based on their names, kinds, and dates.
Both run entirely on your Mac, using Apple's on-device frameworks. Neither sends file names, file contents, or anything else off your device.
Purchases
From version 1.3 Dioptra is free to download, with one optional in-app purchase, Dioptra Unlock. Buying it, and Restore Purchases, are handled by Apple's App Store on your Mac: Apple shows the payment sheet, takes the payment, and tells Dioptra only whether this Apple Account owns the purchase. To decide whether someone who installed Dioptra before 1.3 keeps those features, Dioptra also asks the App Store which version was first downloaded. Dioptra never sees your payment details or your Apple Account, and the answers stay on your Mac.
What leaves your Mac, and when
Dioptra itself sends nothing anywhere. Something leaves your Mac only when you send it yourself, or when you have allowed macOS to:
- Files you copy, move or share. Copying or moving files to a network share or to iCloud Drive, connecting to a server (Go ▸ Connect to Server…, from version 1.2), and the Share button all hand the work to macOS, or to the app you choose to share with. They make the transfer, under their own terms; Dioptra does not.
- A purchase, or Restore Purchases. From version 1.3, when you buy Dioptra Unlock or restore it, the App Store on your Mac contacts Apple to complete it, under Apple's terms (see Purchases). Dioptra itself still makes no connection.
- An email you write to me. If you contact support, I receive your email address, your message, and anything you attach, such as a screenshot. Dioptra has no way to send me anything itself, so you decide what goes in. How I handle it is described under If you contact support.
- Crash reports and usage statistics, if you share analytics. If Share Mac Analytics is on in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Analytics & Improvements, macOS sends Apple a report when an app, Dioptra included, crashes. If Share with app developers is on as well, Apple may share those crash reports with me, together with statistics it prepares about how Dioptra is used. macOS and Apple do this under Apple's privacy policy; Dioptra does not (see Apple, below).
Ratings and reviews
Since version 1.2, Dioptra asks macOS now and then to show Apple's standard request for a rating, and has a Rate Dioptra… menu item that takes you to Dioptra's page on the App Store. Apple decides whether the request appears, and Dioptra is not told whether it did, or whether you rated.
If you rate or review Dioptra, you do it in Apple's App Store, and Apple collects your rating and shows it under Apple's own terms and privacy policy. Dioptra itself sends and receives nothing, because it has no network access, and I see only what the App Store publishes. Whatever Dioptra keeps to decide when to ask stays in its own settings on your Mac.
Data collected
None.
Dioptra collects no personal data, no usage data, no diagnostics, and no identifiers. This is also what is declared on Dioptra's App Store product page under “App Privacy”. The app gathers nothing itself: an email you choose to send me, and what Apple may share with me if you share analytics, are covered under If you contact support and Apple.
Apple: purchases, crash reports and statistics
You download Dioptra, and buy Dioptra Unlock if you choose to, through Apple's App Store. Apple handles the payment, your Apple Account and any refund under Apple's privacy policy. I do not receive your name, email address or payment details. Apple gives me sales and download reports.
If you have turned on Share Mac Analytics and Share with app developers in macOS System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Analytics & Improvements, Apple may also share with me crash reports, and statistics about how Dioptra is used, that Apple prepares from what macOS sends it. That sharing is controlled entirely by Apple and by your own settings; Dioptra does not gather or transmit anything itself. I use these reports only to understand sales and fix problems. You can turn the sharing off at any time in System Settings.
If you contact support
If you email me at the address under Contact, I receive your email address, your message and anything you attach, such as a screenshot. I use this only to answer you and to fix the problem you describe. Writing to me is voluntary, but I need your email address to reply. The legal basis is my legitimate interest in answering your request and improving the app (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)), or, where your message concerns something you bought, providing the product you paid for (Article 6(1)(b)).
Emails are kept in my mailbox at my email provider, which holds them under its own terms and privacy policy and may store them outside the EEA. I delete support conversations no later than 24 months after the last message, unless you ask me to delete them sooner or I need them to handle a legal claim. I never share your emails with anyone else and never use them for marketing.
This website
Dioptra's pages are hosted on GitHub Pages. They set no cookies and load no scripts, fonts, images or trackers. GitHub logs the IP address of visitors to GitHub Pages sites for security purposes, under GitHub's privacy statement. I do not receive these logs.
Your rights
If you are in the EEA, the UK or a country with similar laws, you have the right to access, correct and delete personal data about you, to restrict or object to its processing, and to data portability. What Dioptra stores, such as the folders you have granted and your settings, stays on your Mac, where I cannot see it; removing Dioptra completely deletes it. For your support emails, write to me at the address under Contact and I will answer within one month. For data Apple holds about your purchase or Apple Account, contact Apple. I make no automated decisions about you and do no profiling.
You can also complain to a data protection authority. In Norway this is Datatilsynet, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (datatilsynet.no). You can also contact the authority in the country where you live or work.
Children
Dioptra is rated 4+ and is suitable for all ages. Because it collects no data at all, it collects no data from children. If a child sends me a support email, it is handled as described under If you contact support, and a parent or guardian can ask me to delete it.
Changes to this policy
If Dioptra ever starts handling data differently, this policy will be updated before the version that makes the change is released, with a new date at the top. If a change would mean anything leaves your Mac that does not leave it today, it will be described here, and in that version's App Store release notes, first. Dioptra cannot tell you about a change itself, because it has no network access, so the date at the top is the thing to check.
The policy is published at two addresses, which always carry the same text: andreasne89.github.io/dioptra/privacy.html, its permanent address, and andreasne89.github.io/dioptra/, which Dioptra 1.1 opens from Help ▸ Privacy Policy. Earlier versions remain in the public history of the GitHub repository that publishes this site, AndreasNE89/AndreasNE89.github.io.
Contact
Andreas Nelvik Engebretsen, Norway
Email: andreas.nelvik.engebretsen@gmail.com
Support: andreasne89.github.io/dioptra/support.html