FingerKeys
日本語
Privacy
Last updated: not decided
FingerKeys turns trackpad gestures into keyboard shortcuts. This page explains what it sends over the internet, what it keeps on your Mac, and why it asks for the Accessibility permission.
In short
- FingerKeys goes online in two situations only: checking your license (or trial) and checking for updates.
- It never sends what you do on the trackpad, the shortcuts you set, which apps you use, or what you type.
- Everything else stays on your Mac.
1. What is sent
FingerKeys has no analytics, tracking, advertising or crash-reporting code. The only network connections it makes are the two below.
Checking your license or trial
Sent to the license server (fingerkeys.app). Who runs it is stated in the legal notice.
| What | When | Details |
|---|---|---|
| A code that tells your Mac apart | Every check | Made from your Mac's hardware ID: the ID is mixed with a string only FingerKeys uses and run through SHA-256, giving a 64-character code. The hardware ID itself is not sent, and it cannot be worked back out of the code. (Someone who already knows your Mac's hardware ID could calculate the same code, but the code does not reveal the ID.) |
| The app's version | Every check | For example 0.1.0 |
| Your license key | Only once you have entered one | The key itself |
Not sent: your email address, your name, which apps you use, your gestures, your shortcuts, your Mac's model.
Like any request on the internet, it also reaches the server with your IP address, your language settings, and the name and version of the app (FingerKeys/0.1.0). not decided: whether the server logs these, and for how long.
When it checks
- With no key (trial): when FingerKeys starts for the first time it asks the server for your trial, then about once a day while you are online.
- With a key: about once a day while you are online.
- When you enter a key (or open a
fingerkeys://link from the purchase page and press "Activate"), and when you choose "Remove This Mac". - If your Mac cannot reach the server, FingerKeys tries again later. A license keeps working for up to 14 days after the last successful check.
What the server records (as designed): for each license key, the codes of the Macs registered with it (up to 3), and, for trials, the date each Mac's code first asked for a trial. not decided: how long this is kept, and what happens to it after a refund or when you remove a Mac.
Your email address. FingerKeys never sends it. You give it when you buy, and it is handled by the payment service (Stripe) and the license server (not decided: what is stored and for how long). To email you the license key, the address and the email carrying the key are also passed to the service that sends the email (Resend). If the server includes that address in its reply, FingerKeys shows it on the License page and keeps it in your keychain, inside the signed pass it received.
Checking for updates
FingerKeys uses Sparkle, an open-source update framework, to fetch a list of versions from https://fingerkeys.app/updates/appcast.xml.
- When: about once a day if you allow automatic checks (FingerKeys asks the second time you open it; you can change it under General), or any time you choose "Check for Updates…".
- What is sent: the app's name and version, and, as with any request, your IP address and language settings. Nothing about your Mac is sent (Sparkle's option to send a system profile is switched off).
- Installing: a new version is downloaded only after you choose to install it, unless you choose automatic installs in the update window. The list and the download are both checked against a digital signature before FingerKeys uses them.
The purchase page
"Buy…" opens the purchase page in your web browser. That is an ordinary visit to a web page, handled by the page and not by the app. not decided: who runs the page, and where its own privacy notice is.
This website (fingerkeys.app)
This website uses analytics that set no cookies (Cloudflare Web Analytics) to count things such as page views, referrers, which pages were viewed, visitors’ countries and how fast pages load. The FingerKeys app contains no analytics code.
2. What FingerKeys reads on your Mac, and what it does not
- The trackpad. While your fingers are on the trackpad, it reads where they are and the gesture events macOS reports (swipe, tap, pinch, rotate), to recognize your gestures. This is handled in memory; it is not saved (unless you press "Save Recent Touches" in Touch Check, see section 4) and never sent.
- Which app is in front. Each time a gesture is recognized, it looks at which app is in front, to choose which of your shortcuts applies. The app's name is used on your Mac only and appears in History (the last 20 gestures), which lives in memory only.
- The keyboard. FingerKeys does not watch what you type in other apps; it does not receive key-press events. The one exception: while you record a shortcut in FingerKeys's own window, it reads the key you press, only to record that shortcut, and only keys pressed in its own window.
- Keys it sends. Only the shortcuts you set.
- macOS settings. It reads your trackpad and Dock settings, read-only, to tell you which gestures macOS already uses. It never changes them, and never sends them.
- Not used: camera, microphone, location, contacts, screen recording. It does not read the contents of other apps' windows.
3. Why it needs the Accessibility permission
FingerKeys uses the permission for these three things, and nothing else:
- To receive gesture events from the trackpad.
- To hold back the scrolling made by the fingers of a gesture you assigned (three or more fingers), so that the app in front does not also scroll.
- To send the shortcuts you set to the app in front.
It does not need Input Monitoring. You can turn the permission off at any time in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Accessibility; without it FingerKeys cannot work.
4. What stays on your Mac
| Where | What |
|---|---|
~/Library/Application Support/FingerKeys/settings.json | Your assignments (gesture, shortcut, name, and the apps they apply to, by app identifier), sensitivity, the shapes you drew, language, appearance, and whether the welcome guide has been shown. Readable only by your account. |
| Your login keychain (items named "FingerKeys") | Your license key (if you entered one), the signed passes received from the license server (which may include your email address), the latest time FingerKeys has seen, and the reason if a license was stopped. FingerKeys does not ask for them to be synced. |
macOS preferences for FingerKeys (~/Library/Preferences) | Where its windows were last placed, and the update component's settings (such as whether to check automatically, and when it last checked). |
~/Library/Caches | Updates downloaded by the update component. |
| Touch Check (open it from the menu bar, or under General › Advanced) | While the Touch Check window is open, a log file probe.log in the FingerKeys folder: versions, permission status, gesture names, a summary of each touch (number of fingers, duration, movement), and sleep and wake times. Only if you press "Save Recent Touches": a file with the last 15 seconds of finger positions. Neither is ever sent. |
| In memory only | History (the last 20 gestures and the name of the app in front). Gone when you quit FingerKeys. |
Removing everything. Before you uninstall, press "Remove This Mac" on the License page if you want to free the slot for another Mac. Then quit FingerKeys, delete the app, delete the FingerKeys folder in ~/Library/Application Support, delete the items named "FingerKeys" in Keychain Access, and delete FingerKeys's file in ~/Library/Preferences.
5. Contact and changes
- Contact: support@fingerkeys.app
- How changes to this page are announced: not decided
- Legal wording (who is responsible, which laws apply, your rights to see, correct or delete data, how long data is kept): not decided