Privacy policy
The short version: Homing does not collect your data. It has no way to send anything off your Mac, and we never see what it remembers.
What Homing remembers, and where it stays
To let you search and ask questions, Homing keeps a private history on your Mac of:
- text you copy to the clipboard (skipping anything that looks like a password, key, card number or one-time code, and anything copied from a password manager);
- text it reads from the box you drag when you use the screen reader (the picture is discarded straight away; only the text is kept);
- the title of the front window, only if you turn on "Remember Window Titles" (windows that browsers mark as private are skipped);
- the text of the documents in the folders you choose in Settings. Your documents themselves are never copied, moved or changed.
Each memory is saved with the time it was made and, where Homing can tell, the name of the app it came from. All of this is stored in an encrypted file inside Homing's own protected container on your Mac. The encryption key is kept in your Keychain. By default Homing forgets memories after 90 days; you can choose a different time or "forever" in Settings.
Nothing leaves your Mac
Homing runs in the macOS App Sandbox without the network permission, so macOS itself refuses every connection the app tries to make. It contains no analytics, no crash reporting of its own, no advertising and no account. If you have allowed Mac analytics to be shared with app developers, Apple may send us crash reports from macOS; Homing does not create or send them, and Apple decides what they contain. The Settings window shows the app's own permissions so you can check this yourself. Because we never receive your data, we cannot read it, share it, sell it or hand it over.
The "Ask" feature uses Apple's on-device language model, which runs on your Mac. How Apple handles Apple Intelligence is described in Apple's own privacy information.
Permissions
- Screen Recording: used only to read the text inside the box you drag, and, if you turn it on, the title of the front window. Homing does not record your screen in the background.
- Folder access: read-only, only for folders you pick yourself.
Your control
- Pause remembering, or exclude any app, from the menu bar icon and Settings.
- Delete a single memory, or choose "Forget Everything" in the menu to erase every memory and the text read from your documents.
- Deleting Homing and its data folder removes everything (see the support page).
This website and the waitlist
This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party fonts or scripts. If you join the waitlist, we store your email address and the time you asked in a database on Cloudflare, and Resend (an email service) sends you one message to confirm your address. We only keep addresses that were confirmed by clicking the link; unconfirmed ones are deleted automatically after 14 days. To limit abuse the sign-up service keeps a one-way scrambled form of your IP address for up to an hour; it cannot be turned back into the address. When Homing is available we send one launch email, then delete your address. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing deletes your address at once. We do not share the list or use it for anything else. Cloudflare and Resend process this data for us and may keep their own technical logs; see their privacy notices. To have your address deleted sooner, email us at the address below.
Buying Homing
Homing is sold through the Mac App Store. Apple handles your payment and purchase records under Apple's own policies; we do not receive your payment details.
Children
Homing is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, the new version will appear on this page with a new date. Questions: support@hellohoming.com.