The short version
MacWriteBuddy doesn’t collect your writing. There’s no account, no analytics, and no server of ours that receives what you write. This website sets no cookies and runs no trackers.
Your writing
MacWriteBuddy reads the text you select, only when you press one of its shortcuts. It never logs your keystrokes or watches what you type in the background, and it always skips password fields.
With a model on your Mac (a downloaded open model, or Apple Intelligence), your text never leaves your Mac. With your own Ollama or LM Studio server, it goes only to that server. With a cloud provider, it goes straight from your Mac to the provider you chose, using your own API key, under that provider’s terms and privacy policy. It never passes through us.
What stays on your Mac
Your settings, memories, recent fixes, downloaded models, and API keys are stored on your Mac, in ~/Library/Application Support/MacWriteBuddy. API keys are encrypted. None of it is synced.
Recent fixes are kept for 7 days by default, and you can keep them for a day, a month, or not at all in Settings › Privacy.
Before each request, MacWriteBuddy searches your memories on your Mac and picks the few that fit your text. With a cloud provider, only those go along with your text, straight to your provider. We never receive your memories.
When the app goes online
MacWriteBuddy connects to the internet only:
- To download the models you choose, from Hugging Face.
- To check for updates, by reading macwritebuddy.com/updates.json and asking our license server (api.mactodoapp.com) for the latest version. These requests carry the app’s version and nothing about you.
- With Pro, about once a day, to check your license key with our license server. It sends your license key, a random id MacWriteBuddy makes for your Mac, your Mac’s name, and the app and macOS versions, so a key isn’t shared beyond its Mac limit. Never your writing.
- When you send a message with Contact Support: what you type (your email, an optional name and subject, and your message), plus, if you leave “Include app and Mac details” on, the app version and build, macOS version, Mac model (like “Mac15,3”, not a serial number), language and region, Free or Pro, and your license ID (never the key).
- To reach the AI provider or server you set up, as described above.
Buying MacWriteBuddy Pro
MacWriteBuddy Pro is sold through Dodo Payments, which handles your payment details. We never see your card number.
To send and look after your license, we keep your name, email address, license key, and payment reference. We use your email only to send your license and to answer you. When you activate a license we also keep which Macs use it (the details above), so you can free a seat with Remove License on a Mac you no longer use.
This website
macwritebuddy.com is a static website. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics or third-party scripts, and its fonts and images are served from the site itself. When you choose Get MacWriteBuddy Pro, your browser asks our license server to start a Dodo Payments checkout.
On the support page, the contact form sends what you type (your email, an optional name, the kind of request, and your message) to our support inbox, and the license form asks our license server to email any MacWriteBuddy Pro license for the address you enter to that address. We use these only to answer you.
Like any website, our hosting provider may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses and the pages requested, to keep the site secure and running. We don’t use them to identify or track you.
Questions and changes
Questions about privacy? Write to us from macwritebuddy.com/support, choose Support at the foot of the Settings sidebar in MacWriteBuddy, or reply to your license email.
If this policy changes, we’ll update it here and change the date at the top of the page.