DossiersPrivacy Policy
Your library stays on your Mac.
This is the long version of that promise.
The short version. Dossiers does not collect, transmit, or store your library on any server. Your records, snapshots, statements, reports, and attached files live on your Mac. Dossiers has no account, no advertising, and no analytics. The app contacts the outside world in a few specific cases, listed below: AI features you trigger with your own OpenRouter key, update checks, licence verification with Gumroad, and a free-trial signup. Purchases are handled by Gumroad or, for the Mac App Store edition, by Apple.
Who we are
Dossiers is built and sold by James Forrest, a sole proprietor based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In this policy, “we” and “our” refer to James Forrest; “you” refers to the person using the Dossiers macOS app or visiting dossiers-app.com.
Dossiers is sold in two editions: a direct-download edition bought through Gumroad, and a Mac App Store edition bought through Apple. Where they differ, this policy says so.
What the app does with your data
Local storage only
Dossiers stores your library on your Mac: the records you collect and curate, their snapshots, review cycles, report definitions, saved statements, and the files you attach as evidence. The library lives in the app’s container inside your user Library folder. We do not have access to it. We do not back it up. We do not synchronise it. If you delete the app and its data, your library is gone, and we cannot recover it for you.
Your profile
The name, email, and affiliation you enter in Dossiers’ Settings stay on your Mac. Your affiliation is copied into a new report’s Institution field when that field is empty. None of these are sent anywhere by themselves.
What we do not collect
- The contents of your records, statements, or reports
- Your profile, students’ names, collaborators, or any other people you record
- The files you attach to records
- Your API keys
- Any usage telemetry, analytics, or crash data from the app itself
What the app does send out
AI features, only when you ask. Import and Generate call OpenRouter using an API key you provide, stored in your macOS Keychain. Requests go directly from your Mac to OpenRouter. We do not proxy, log, or intercept them. See AI & Data Handling for exactly what is sent.
Update checks (direct-download edition). Dossiers can check dossiers-app.com for a new version. The check is a standard web request that identifies the version you are running. It does not include your library, profile, or API key. You can turn automatic checks off in Settings → Updates. The Mac App Store edition is updated by Apple instead.
Licence verification (direct-download edition). When you activate Dossiers, and periodically afterward, the app sends your licence key and Dossiers’ product identifier to Gumroad (api.gumroad.com) to confirm the licence is valid. Nothing else is sent.
Free trial (direct-download edition). Starting the 14-day trial sends your email address, a hardware identifier for your Mac, and the app version to dossiers-app.com. If you later activate a licence on that Mac, the app sends the same email and identifier with a one-way SHA-256 hash of your licence key, never the key itself. This tells us whether a trial became a sale, limits each Mac to one trial, and lets us follow up about your trial. The hardware identifier is the one macOS assigns to your Mac. It does not reveal your name, but it is stored next to the email you gave, so we treat it as personal information.
On our server, each trial or conversion event records the time, the details above, and, when our network provider supplies it, the country the request came from. Your IP address is used briefly in memory to prevent abuse and is not written to the record. We do not send these events to advertising networks or analytics vendors, and we do not add you to a mailing list.
What the website collects
Server logs
When you visit dossiers-app.com, our hosting and network providers may record standard web request information: IP address, user agent string, the page requested, and the time of the request. These logs are used for security and reliability, and are retained for no longer than 30 days.
Cookies and analytics
The website does not set cookies and does not use analytics or advertising scripts.
If you write to us at [email protected], we will receive your email address and the contents of your message. We use this only to reply to you and to keep a record of support conversations. We do not add you to any mailing list.
What our payment processors collect
Direct-download edition. Dossiers is sold through Gumroad. When you buy a licence, Gumroad collects your name, email address, billing country (and any tax information required by your jurisdiction), and payment details. Gumroad shares with us your name, email, country, and the fact of your purchase. We do not see your full payment details. Gumroad’s handling of your data is governed by its own privacy policy, available at gumroad.com/privacy.
Mac App Store edition. Apple handles the purchase and does not share your identity with us. Apple’s handling of your data is governed by Apple’s privacy policy. The Mac App Store edition does not contact Gumroad and has no trial signup.
Licence records
After you buy the direct-download edition, Gumroad emails you a licence key and keeps a record of it. We can look that record up through our Gumroad account to verify activations, help you recover a lost key, and handle refund requests. Our own trial records hold only a hash of the key. We do not use purchase records for marketing.
Your rights
Under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and BC’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), you have the right to:
- Ask us what personal information we hold about you
- Ask us to correct any personal information that is inaccurate or out of date
- Ask us to delete your personal information from our records
- Withdraw consent for any processing we are doing
To exercise any of these rights, write to us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days. Some information (for example, purchase records required for tax purposes) we may need to retain to meet legal obligations, and we will tell you if that is the case.
Children
Dossiers is intended for adult researchers and academic professionals. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
International users
Dossiers is sold worldwide. The website and our records are hosted in Canada and the United States. By buying or using the app, you consent to your information being processed in those jurisdictions. Where applicable law (such as the GDPR for EU residents) provides additional rights, those rights also apply.
Changes to this policy
If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the version and date at the top of this page, and (where we have your email from a purchase) we will email registered customers to flag the change. Continued use of the app or website after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.