This Privacy Policy explains what Chordio, Inc. (“Chordio”, “we”, “us”) collects when you visit https://wakey.ai (the “Site”), download and run the Wakey app on your Mac (the “App”), or buy a license key for it, and what we do with it. It also explains the choices you have. If you only download and use the App, we learn nothing about you at all; the App has no account and no sign-up.
The short version. Wakey runs entirely on your Mac. It has no accounts, no analytics, no crash reporting and no telemetry, and it never uploads your tabs, files or settings. Its network requests are a once-a-day check of our update feed, which you can turn off (the same request may carry a short note from us that the App shows once; it sends nothing extra), and, only if you buy and enter a license key, a check of that key with Polar. We learn who you are only when you buy (through Polar, our checkout provider) or email us.
1. Who we are
Chordio, Inc. is the developer of Wakey and the data controller for the personal data described in this policy, except for the payment data that Polar processes as an independent controller (section 3). You can reach us at support@wakey.ai.
2. The App on your Mac
What the App stores, and where
Everything the App writes lives on your Mac in ~/Library/Application Support/Wakey. Settings has a “Show my data” button that opens that folder. It holds:
- Restore parcels: the URLs and titles of tabs a clean parked, the Desktop files it moved (byte for byte), and a snapshot of your Dock, widgets and wallpaper from before the clean, so that Restore can put them back. This is the most sensitive data the App keeps, and it never leaves your Mac.
- Run history: dates, counts and durations of cleans.
- Your settings, including the schedule and the list of apps to leave running.
- The trial and your license key: the dates of the free clean-up days you have used, and, once you enter one, your license key with the date it was issued, activated and last checked. The key is stored in plain text in your settings file, readable only by your user account.
- A per-launch session token for the App’s own windows, a lock file, a log for the login item, and a record of what the last Minimize did.
We do not have access to any of this. Removing the App leaves the folder in place, on purpose: the parcels hold files you may not remember are there. You can delete the folder yourself at any time.
What the App reads, and does not keep
To park and restore browser tabs correctly, the App reads the tab list from Chrome and Safari through macOS Automation, reads Chrome’s session file for the “pinned” flag, and queries a temporary copy of Chrome’s history for visit counts so that restored tabs open in the right profile. Only the counts survive that call; the copy is deleted. The App also reads the widget preferences, the login-items list and process memory use to show you what is on your Mac. It does not read passwords, cookies, form data, bookmarks or the content of any page. None of this is transmitted anywhere.
macOS permissions
The App asks for Automation (Chrome, Safari, Finder, System Events, Terminal), Accessibility, access to the Desktop folder and access to Chrome’s app data. Each is requested by macOS with an explanation, and the App’s setup screens say what each grant is used for. The permissions are used only for the functions described above and can be revoked in System Settings → Privacy & Security at any time.
The update check
With “Check for updates” on (the default), the App sends one request a day to https://wakey.ai/api/update to ask whether a newer version exists. That request carries no identifier, account, license key or device ID: it is a plain web request whose user agent names the App and its version, such as “Wakey/1.0.4”. Like any web request, it exposes your IP address to the server that answers it, which is operated for us by Vercel (section 5). We keep two numbers from these requests, both totals for the day: how many checks came from each version of the App, and roughly how many different Macs checked in. The second is computed by hashing your IP address together with the date and a secret key we hold, then adding the result to a counting sketch (a HyperLogLog), which keeps only enough information to estimate how many different values it has seen. Neither the address nor the hash is stored, the sketch cannot be turned back into either, and nothing links one day’s checks to the next. The totals live in a database operated for us by Upstash (section 8). You can turn the check off in Settings; the App then makes no network requests at all.
The license key
If you buy the App and enter your license key, the App sends the key and your Mac’s computer name (the name shown in System Settings) to Polar once to activate it, and thereafter re-checks the key with Polar at most once every seven days. Polar records the activation against your purchase so the key’s Mac limit can be enforced, and answers with the date the key was issued, which the App keeps so that it can word any upgrade offer for a later major version. If the App declines a key because it is for an older major version than the one you are running, it sends one more request to Polar to release the activation it just made, and when you choose Remove this Mac in Settings it sends the key to Polar to release this Mac’s activation. No other data travels with any of these requests. If Polar cannot be reached, the App keeps working; it only returns to the post-trial state if Polar reports the key as refunded or revoked. Until you enter a key, the App never contacts Polar.
Those are the App’s only network destinations. It makes no AI or large-language-model calls, holds no API keys, and contains no analytics, advertising or crash-reporting code. The source of these claims is described, function by function, in the project’s security notes.
3. Buying a license key
The App is free to try, and buying is optional: after the free trial, the App offers a one-time purchase of a license key that turns cleaning back on. Restore and your data never need one. Checkout is run by Polar Software Inc. (“Polar”) as merchant of record, and opens in your web browser from inside the App. When you buy, Polar collects your name, email address, billing country and payment details, and any tax identifier you enter. Polar uses Stripe to process the card payment; we never see your full card number. Polar is an independent controller of this data, and its privacy policy at polar.sh governs what it does with it.
From Polar we receive your name, email address, the country you bought from, the amount, the date, the order identifier, and the license key issued to you together with the computer names of the Macs it has been activated on. We use this to support your key, answer support requests, process refunds, detect fraud and abuse, keep the records that tax and accounting law require, and, if we need to, send you an important notice about the App (for example a withdrawn build or a security issue). We do not use your purchase details for marketing unless you have separately agreed to that.
Upgrading to a new major version. When you upgrade at https://wakey.ai/upgrade, the license key you enter (or the App passes to that page) is sent to our server, which checks it with Polar and opens a checkout with your upgrade price. We keep a one-way hash of the key, never the key itself, with the checkout’s identifier and whether the upgrade was completed, so that each key upgrades once. The checkout carries that hash to Polar as a reference. To stop abuse, the page also counts tries per network address for one minute, under a salted one-way hash of the address that is deleted after two minutes. Both are stored in a database operated for us by Upstash (section 8).
4. Email and support
If you email us, we keep the correspondence, including your email address and anything you include, for as long as we need it to help you and to keep a record of what was agreed. Do not send us passwords or the contents of your restore parcels; we will not ask for them.
5. The Site
The Site is hosted by Vercel Inc. When you load a page, Vercel’s servers receive the technical information any web request carries: your IP address, browser user agent, the page requested, the referring page, and the time. Vercel keeps these in short-lived request logs to operate and secure the service. The Site sets no cookies, loads no advertising scripts and does not track you across other sites. The one script it loads beyond its own is Vercel Web Analytics, below. The promo video is served from the Site itself, not from a third-party player. Nothing on the Site takes payment; the App opens Polar’s checkout in your browser when you choose to buy, and Polar’s cookies and privacy policy apply there.
We keep a few daily totals of our own, counted by the Site’s server rather than by a script in your browser. When the home page loads, the Site adds one to the day’s count of visits and one to the day’s count for the site that referred you (its domain only, and only if your browser sends one; otherwise the visit counts as “direct”). The Download button goes through a short redirect on the Site that adds one to the day’s count of downloads, by whether the download started on the Site or from an installed copy of the App, before sending your browser to the disk image. These totals contain nothing about you: no IP address, cookie, identifier, page path or time of day is stored with them. Requests from crawlers and other automated clients are left out. The totals live in a database operated for us by Upstash (section 8).
The Site also uses Vercel Web Analytics, which shows us which pages are read and where visitors come from. For each page you view, it records the time, the page’s path (we cut off anything after it, such as a query string, before it leaves your browser), the referring page, your approximate location (country, region and city, worked out from your IP address), your operating system, browser and device type. It uses no cookies, and it does not store your IP address with what it records. To count visitors rather than page views, Vercel tells one visitor from another by a hash of the request, which it discards after 24 hours, so nothing links one day’s visit to the next. Vercel’s own description is at vercel.com/docs/analytics/privacy-policy.
6. What we collect, in one table
| When | Data | Why | Who handles it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Running the App | Nothing leaves your Mac | — | You |
| Daily update check | IP address, user agent “Wakey/version” | Answer whether a newer version exists; count the day’s checks per version and, through a secret-keyed daily hash, roughly how many Macs checked | Vercel (processor); Upstash holds the totals only |
| Visiting the Site | IP address, user agent, page, referrer, time | Serve and secure the Site; count the day’s visits, referring domains and download starts; see which pages are read, from where and on what devices (Vercel Web Analytics) | Vercel (processor); Upstash holds the totals only |
| Activating a license key | Your license key, your Mac’s computer name | Activate the key, enforce its Mac limit, re-check it weekly, release a Mac you remove | Polar (independent controller) |
| Buying a license key | Name, email, billing country, payment details, tax ID | Take payment, issue the license key, tax and invoicing | Polar (independent controller), Stripe |
| Upgrading to a new major version | Your license key (checked with Polar, not kept); a one-way hash of it, the checkout ID, whether it completed; a hashed count of tries per address, for two minutes | Price the upgrade, let each key upgrade once | Chordio; Upstash holds the hash; Polar |
| After buying | Name, email, country, amount, date, order ID, license key and activations | Support, refunds, records, important notices | Chordio |
| Emailing us | Your address and what you write | Help you, keep a record | Chordio, our email provider |
7. Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)
Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on: performance of a contract to deliver, support and refund your purchase; legal obligation to keep tax and accounting records; and legitimate interests to run and secure the Site and update feed, prevent fraud, and send important product notices. We do not rely on consent for anything described above, and we do not do automated decision-making that has legal or similarly significant effects on you.
8. Sharing
We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for targeted advertising. We share data only with:
- Service providers who process it for us under contract: Vercel (hosting and the Site’s analytics), Upstash, Inc. (the daily totals described in sections 2 and 5, which contain no personal data, and the upgrade records described in section 3), Polar (checkout, license keys and activation, as merchant of record), Stripe (payments, via Polar), and the provider of our email;
- authorities when the law requires it, or to protect our rights, safety or property or those of others;
- a successor if Chordio is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, in which case this policy continues to apply to your data until it is changed under section 13.
9. International transfers
Chordio is in the United States and our providers process data there. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, your data is transferred to the United States. Our providers rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. DPF where they are certified, and otherwise on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. You can ask us at support@wakey.ai for details of the safeguard that applies.
10. Retention
- Order records: for as long as tax and accounting law requires, typically seven years from the transaction.
- Support email: for as long as needed to resolve your request and for a reasonable period afterwards so we can refer back to it, generally not more than three years after the last message.
- Server logs for the Site and update feed: kept by Vercel for a short period and then discarded; we do not export them.
- Daily totals (visits, referring domains, download starts, update checks): kept indefinitely. They are counts, not records of anyone, and contain no personal data.
- Upgrade records (the hash of a key, its checkout, whether it completed): for as long as that key can be upgraded, so that it upgrades once. The per-address count of upgrade tries: two minutes.
- Data on your Mac: as long as you keep it. It is yours to delete.
11. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, to receive a copy in a portable form, to object to or restrict our processing, and to withdraw a consent you have given. Residents of California and other U.S. states with privacy laws may have similar rights, including the right to know what we collect and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. We do not sell or “share” personal data as those terms are defined in California law, and we do not process sensitive personal data to infer characteristics about you.
To exercise any of these rights, email support@wakey.ai from the address on your receipt, or tell us the order ID; we will need to verify that the request comes from you. We respond within the period the law requires, and in any case within 30 days for most requests. You may authorize an agent to act for you if they provide proof of that authority. If you are in the EEA or UK and are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to your data-protection authority; UK residents can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Note that some data cannot be deleted while a legal obligation to keep it (such as tax records) is in force, and that we cannot delete data stored only on your own Mac, because we do not have it.
12. Security
The App keeps its data under your user account with the file permissions macOS gives it, and its own local control connection is bound to your Mac and protected by a per-launch token. Data we hold about purchases lives in Polar’s and our email provider’s systems, which are protected by industry-standard measures, and access is limited to the people who need it. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you believe you have found a security issue in the App or the Site, email support@wakey.ai.
13. Children
Wakey is sold to adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
14. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Because the Site does not track you across sites and we do not sell or share personal data, there is nothing for a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal to switch off. We treat every visitor as if the signal were on.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always at https://wakey.ai/privacy, with the effective date at the top. If a change materially reduces your rights or expands what we collect, we will notify buyers at the email address on their receipt before it takes effect, and, where the App itself starts collecting anything new, that will require a new version of the App and be described in its release notes.
16. Contact
Chordio, Inc.
support@wakey.ai