Your privacy.

Who we are

Polite Owl is an independent studio that makes apps, games and books. In this policy, “we” and “us” means Polite Owl. For anything to do with your data, email hello@politeowl.com.

This website

• No cookies, no analytics, no ads and no tracking of any kind.
• If you pick light or dark mode, your choice is saved in your own browser so the site remembers it. It never leaves your device.
• The site is hosted on GitHub Pages. Like any web host, GitHub receives your IP address and basic browser details when you visit, so it can deliver the pages and keep them secure. See GitHub’s privacy statement.
• Our fonts come from Google Fonts and one script comes from cdnjs, which is run by Cloudflare. These services also receive your IP address and browser details when they send those files. See Google’s privacy policy and Cloudflare’s privacy policy.

When you email us

If you write to hello@politeowl.com, we receive your email address and whatever you send. We use it only to reply and help you, keep it only as long as we need to, and delete it if you ask.

When you buy something

Our apps are sold through Dodo Payments, our merchant of record. Dodo runs the checkout and handles payment, sales tax and receipts, and collects what it needs for that, such as your name, email address, billing country and card details. Dodo’s privacy policy explains how it handles them.

From Dodo, we receive your name, email address, country and order details, so we can deliver what you bought, help you and handle refunds. We never see or store your card details. Order records are kept for as long as tax and accounting rules require.

In our apps

• No accounts, no analytics, no crash reports and no ads. What you do in our apps stays on your computer.
• Our apps can check for their own updates. In Paws Off this stays off until you switch it on; it then checks GitHub, where its downloads live. The server that answers sees your IP address and which version you have, as with any download.
• Burnish keeps your other apps up to date. To do that, it asks their update sources, such as each app’s own update feed, GitHub, Homebrew and Apple’s App Store, whether newer versions exist, and downloads updates from them. Those sources see these requests. We never receive the list of your apps.
• Paws Off works with your keyboard entirely on your computer. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. Once a week it downloads a public list of cancelled license keys, to check that yours is still valid. It never sends your key or anything about you.
• DupeTabs, in alpha, has an optional help assistant. It stays off unless you add your own Anthropic API key. If you do, what you type into the assistant is sent from your Mac to Anthropic to get an answer, under Anthropic’s terms.

Your rights

You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, by emailing hello@politeowl.com. We’ll reply within 30 days. Depending on where you live, for example in the EU, the UK, Canada or California, these are also your rights by law, and you can complain to your local data protection authority.

We don’t sell or share your personal information, and we don’t use it for advertising.

Children

Our website and apps aren’t aimed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information.

Where your data is handled

The services named above may store data in other countries, including the United States, and protect it under their own policies.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top.