Privacy Policy

Your files

Everything you do with File Acture happens on your device. Your files, their names and their folder paths are never uploaded, sent to us or shared with anyone.

Originals are never modified. Results are saved as new files in the folder you choose.

The free online tools on this website (fileacture.com/tools) work the same way: your files are processed by your browser, on your device, and are never uploaded to us or to anyone else. Only the tools’ code is downloaded from our website, like any page.

Your account

You need an account only to buy Pro and to manage your licenses. It is created the first time you sign in on fileacture.com with your email address: we email you a 6-digit code, which expires after 10 minutes and is stored only in a hashed form. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your email address and an account identifier from them, and nothing else.

For your account we keep your email address, your name if you add one, your language, when you signed up and last signed in, and a sign-in session for each browser you use (30 days, kept in a cookie).

We use your email address to send you sign-in codes, your license keys after a purchase and, occasionally, a single personal discount offer, for example after a purchase you didn’t finish. We don’t sell or share it, and we don’t send newsletters.

Information the app sends

The app connects to our server only for the purposes below, and never includes file names, paths or contents.

License activation (Pro): when you activate a license, the app sends the license key, a random installation ID created by the app, the platform, the app version and the name of your device as shown in its system settings to our server. The server checks the key and records the activation in your account, where you can see it and remove the device. The app renews its license about once a week when you’re online.

Free runs: to count the daily free runs on each device, the app sends a device key, the installation ID, the platform, the app version, the tool you used and whether the run produced a result. The device key is created on your device from its hardware identifier with a one-way function. The identifier itself never leaves your device, and our server stores the key only in a further hashed form.

Update checks: the app asks our server for the latest version for its platform. You can turn off automatic checks in Settings › Updates. When you install an update, the app downloads it through our server, which records the download as described under “This website”.

Anonymous usage statistics (off by default): if you turn on “Share anonymous usage statistics” in Settings › Privacy, the app sends, at most once a day, the installation ID, the app and operating system versions, your language and region setting, and how many times the app was opened, each tool was used and the Pro window was shown.

Support messages: when you write to us from the app or from the website, we receive your message, the topic you picked, the email address you give (or your account address when you are signed in), and the app and operating system versions. We use it only to answer you.

Crash and error reports (on by default): if the app stops unexpectedly or a tool fails, it sends us the error, the name of the screen or tool it happened on, the app and operating system versions and the installation ID. A crash is written to your device first and sent the next time you open the app. Reports never contain file names, paths or anything from your documents, and you can turn them off in Settings › Privacy.

What we don't collect

We don't collect your files, your location or your contacts, we don't use advertising identifiers, and the app contains no advertising or third-party analytics code.

This website

Like any web server, ours processes technical data such as your IP address, the time and the page requested in order to deliver the site and keep it secure. We don't use this data to identify you.

Downloads: when you download the app from this website, or the app downloads an update, our server records the time, the platform and version, where the download started (this website, the app’s Download button or an update), your operating system and browser family (read from the information your browser sends about itself), the website that sent you (its domain only) and whether the download finished. Your IP address is not stored: to count unique downloads we keep a one-way code made from it and that browser information, which changes every day.

The purchase confirmation page sends the checkout reference from its link to our server so that it can show your license keys. Nothing is stored in your browser.

Cookies and browser storage

Strictly necessary, and set only when you sign in: fa_session keeps your sign-in session for up to 30 days (scripts on the page can’t read it), and fa_signed_in only tells the page header that you are signed in, with the same lifetime. While you sign in with Google or Apple, fa_oauth protects the sign-in against forgery and expires after 10 minutes.

Kept in your browser and never sent to us: fa-consent remembers your cookie choice for 6 months, after which we ask again. Two notes that last only until you close the tab remember that you hid the download bar on a guide or a discount banner.

Only if you choose “Allow”: Google Analytics sets _ga and _ga_<ID> to count visits, for up to 13 months, and Google processes your IP address and information about your browser (Google’s privacy policy). On the online tools it also counts that a tool was used: which tool, how many files and whether it worked, never file names, sizes or contents. If you choose “Don’t allow” no analytics script is loaded. You can change your choice at any time under “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page; withdrawing it stops the measurement and deletes these cookies.

Purchases

Pro licenses are paid through Polar (polar.sh), which acts as the merchant of record: Polar processes the payment, issues the receipt and handles refunds. When you start a purchase, we send Polar your email address, your account ID and the number of licenses. After the payment, Polar sends us the order details (amount, discount, taxes and status). We create your license keys and email them to you. We never see your card details. How Polar handles data is described in Polar’s privacy policy.

We record each checkout you open and whether it was completed, so we can see where purchases stop and, occasionally, offer you a personal discount.

The Mac App Store version

If you got File Acture from the Mac App Store, you buy File Acture Pro inside the app, as an in-app purchase. Apple processes the payment under its own terms and privacy policy, and the app asks the App Store on your Mac whether your Apple Account owns Pro. We receive no payment details and no information about your Apple Account.

That version has no license keys and doesn’t ask our server for updates, because the App Store updates it. To count free runs it sends the same information as the other versions, but it makes its device key from a random identifier that the app keeps in your Mac’s keychain, not from the hardware identifier.

Why we are allowed to process this information

We rely on the following legal bases of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Article 6), and on the corresponding rules of the UK GDPR and of Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK):

To provide what you asked for (performance of a contract): your account and sign-in codes, purchases and license keys, license activation and renewal, and our replies to your support messages.

Our legitimate interests: counting free runs so that the free version isn’t abused, update checks, crash and error reports (which you can turn off), download statistics, keeping the service secure, recording which checkouts were completed and, occasionally, emailing you a single personal discount. You can object to any of these at any time; for the discount email, a reply or a message to us is enough and we won’t send another.

Your consent: Google Analytics on this website and anonymous usage statistics in the app. You can withdraw it at any time, with effect for the future, under “Cookie settings” or in the app’s Settings › Privacy.

Legal obligations: keeping order records for as long as tax and accounting law requires.

Where information is kept and for how long

Our server is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany. Emails are sent through Google’s Gmail service.

Account data is kept until you delete your account. License, activation and order records are kept for as long as the license exists, and order records for as long as tax law requires. Sign-in codes stop working after 10 minutes. Free-run records are kept for as long as they are needed to count free runs. Usage statistics are kept as an installation record and daily totals per tool. Feedback is kept until it has been dealt with. Download records are kept as statistics and contain no IP address.

Transfers outside your country

Our server is in Germany. Some of the services we use may process data outside the European Economic Area and outside Turkey, in particular in the United States: Google (Gmail, which delivers our emails, and Google Analytics, only with your consent) and Polar, which handles payments. These transfers rely on the safeguards the providers offer, such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

Your choices

You can use File Acture without an account and without sharing usage statistics, and you can switch statistics off at any time. You can remove a device from a license in your account on fileacture.com or in Settings › License. You can delete an account that has no licenses or purchases on the Account page. To delete an account with purchases, or to see, correct or delete information we hold about you, email us. Crash and error reports can be switched off in Settings › Privacy.

Your rights

You can ask us whether we process personal data about you and get a copy of it, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to its processing, receive it in a portable format, and withdraw any consent you gave. Write to fileacture@gmail.com, preferably from the address your account uses, and we will answer within one month.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, for example the one in the country where you live or work. In Turkey this is the Personal Data Protection Authority (Kişisel Verileri Koruma Kurumu).

Children

File Acture is not directed at children under 16, and we don’t knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has given us personal data, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes

If the app starts handling information differently, we will update this policy and the date above before the change takes effect.