The short version: nothing leaves your Mac.
Free Mac is a local desktop application. It has no account system, no backend, no analytics SDK and no crash reporter. It does not collect, transmit, sell or store personal data anywhere, because it has nowhere to send it to.
What the app reads
To draw the map, the app walks the folder you point it at and reads file and directory metadata: names, paths, sizes on disk and modification info. It does not open, read or hash file contents. All of it stays in memory for the lifetime of the window and is discarded when you quit. Nothing is written to a database, log file or cache.
What the app writes
- Items you explicitly select and confirm are moved to the macOS Trash via the system API. That is the only write the app performs.
- No scan history, no index, no telemetry file, no preferences sync.
Network access
The app makes no outbound network requests. There is no update checker, no licence check and no “anonymous usage statistics” toggle, because there is nothing behind one. If you would rather confirm that than take our word for it, watch the app with Little Snitch, LuLu or nettop while it scans. You will see nothing.
macOS permissions
macOS itself gates access to Desktop, Documents, Downloads, removable volumes and ~/Library. The app requests those permissions only when you ask it to scan such a location, and you can revoke them at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Permissions you grant apply on your machine only.
This website
The app and this website are separate things. Everything above describes the app, which still makes no network requests at all. This page you are reading is a different matter.
This site loads Google Tag Manager, which we use to understand which pages people find useful and where they give up. Tag Manager and the tags it loads may set cookies and will see your IP address, your browser and the pages you visit here. That is handled under Google's privacy policy. None of it can see anything on your disk, and none of it is present in the app you download.
Type is still set in your Mac's own system font, so no fonts are fetched from anyone. The download itself is hosted on GitHub's release storage, so requesting the installer contacts GitHub and is covered by GitHub's privacy statement.
Children
The app collects no data from anyone, of any age, so there is nothing specific to disclose here.
Changes
If any of this changes, this page changes with it, and the date at the top moves. A version that started phoning home would not be the same product, so it will not happen quietly.
Contact
Questions or a correction? Reach Prabhanjan Sharma on LinkedIn. Back to the home page.