Privacy policy

Who we are

DockBird is made by Beyond Git (beyondgit.com). Questions about this policy go to [email protected].

What DockBird collects

Two anonymous signals, plus a one-off note the first time you run the app:

• That the app started. Once per launch.
• Which protocol a connection used. When a connection succeeds, as one word from a fixed list — sftp, ftp, ftps, webdav or s3 — plus the service preset you picked, such as aws, r2 or hetzner.
• That this is a new install. Once only, the very first time DockBird runs, carrying that day’s date.

Every one of those signals also carries the same fixed set of context, which the analytics SDK attaches automatically. Nothing in it is chosen per signal, and none of it describes what you did:

• Your setup: the DockBird version and build number, your macOS version, your Mac’s model identifier (such as MacBookPro18,3) and processor architecture, screen resolution and scale factor, the version of the analytics SDK itself, and whether this build came from the App Store, TestFlight, the simulator or a debug build.
• Your regional and display preferences: language, locale, region, time zone, light or dark appearance, layout direction, and whether Reduce Motion or Invert Colours is switched on.
• When it happened: the hour of the day, the day of the week, month and year, the week, month and quarter, and whether it was a weekend — all in your time zone.
• A short usage history: the date you first ran DockBird, how many sessions you have run in total, how many separate days you have used it (in total and within the last 30), your average session length and the length of the previous session. Counts and dates only — never a record of what you did in a session.

What is never sent: server or host names, usernames, passwords, bucket names, endpoints, file names, folder paths, transfer sizes, error messages, or anything else you typed. DockBird classifies an unrecognised S3 endpoint as minio without ever transmitting the endpoint it looked at.

Each signal carries a random identifier the app generates on your Mac the first time it runs. It is not your Apple ID, not your hardware serial and not shared with any other app. It exists so that ten launches from one Mac are not counted as ten people. It is salted and hashed on your Mac before it is sent, then salted and hashed a second time on arrival, so no one — including us and TelemetryDeck — holds enough to reverse it.

There is no crash reporting of our own, no advertising identifiers and no profiling. DockBird does no tracking: nothing is combined with data from other apps, and nothing is ever sold. The App Store privacy label lists Product Interaction and a Device ID, both marked not linked to you and not used for tracking.

Switching it off

Open DockBird → Settings → Privacy and turn off Share anonymous usage statistics. DockBird tells you about this the first time it runs, and the switch takes effect immediately — nothing further is queued or sent, and anything still waiting to go out is discarded.

Who processes it, and where

Statistics are processed by TelemetryDeck, a German analytics company, acting as our processor under a data processing agreement. Signals are stored in the EU — Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Falkenstein and Nürnberg. TelemetryDeck sets no cookies and never stores IP addresses, in its database, its logs or anywhere else.

Why we collect it, and for how long

To decide which macOS versions we can still support, which of the storage services we ship presets for are actually used, and whether people keep using DockBird after the first week. We send no signals of our own beyond the two listed above; the context that rides along with them is what the analytics SDK attaches to every signal, and we have listed it in full rather than summarising it.

We consider these statistics anonymous: they contain no personal data, and neither we nor TelemetryDeck can connect them to you, your Mac or your servers. If you take the view that the random identifier makes them personal data, our lawful basis is legitimate interest in maintaining and improving the app under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, and the switch in Settings is your objection under Article 21. Aggregate counts are kept indefinitely, and TelemetryDeck does not delete the underlying signals on a fixed schedule — because they identify no one, there is nothing in them to expire.

If you have a question about any of this, or want to exercise a data protection right, write to [email protected]. Bear in mind that because the statistics identify no one, we usually have no way to find “your” data in order to export or delete it — turning the switch off is the effective remedy.

What DockBird stores on your Mac

• Connection details (name, host, port, username, bucket, endpoint and similar) in a JSON file inside the app’s sandbox container.
• Secrets (passwords, key passphrases, S3 secret keys, app passwords) in the macOS Keychain under the service name app.dockbird.mac. They are never written to a plain file.
• Trust decisions: SSH host keys and TLS certificate fingerprints you accepted, so that a changed key can be flagged.
• Folder bookmarks for local folders you opened, so DockBird can reopen them under the App Sandbox.
• Preferences such as sort order, column layout and conflict policy, in the app’s defaults.
• A temporary cache of remote files you preview with Quick Look, cleared by macOS as needed.

Deleting the app removes the container and its files. Keychain items can be removed with Keychain Access.

What DockBird sends over the network

Only the traffic needed to talk to servers you configure: your credentials to authenticate, and the files you choose to transfer. DockBird reads AWS profiles from ~/.aws only when you select that option, and only for the profile you name.

SFTP, FTPS and HTTPS connections are encrypted. Plain FTP and http:// WebDAV are supported for compatibility and the connection sheet warns that they are unencrypted.

Purchases

DockBird is sold through the Mac App Store. Apple processes the payment and tells the app only whether a purchase exists. We never see your payment details. Apple’s handling of that data is covered by Apple’s privacy policy.

This website

dockbird.app is a static site. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics scripts. Your hosting provider’s standard server logs (IP address, requested page, user agent) may be retained briefly for security and are not used to identify you.

Children

DockBird is a general utility and is not directed at children. The statistics described above are anonymous and identify no one, child or adult.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will appear here with a new date. If we ever want to collect something beyond what is listed above, this page will say so before the version that does it ships, and the switch in Settings will still be there.