Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 19, 2026
AloeNotch (“the app”) is a macOS menu bar app made by Kade’s Lab (“we”, “us”). We built it to be private by default: it has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. This policy explains the small amount of data the app touches and where it goes.
The short version
Everything AloeNotch shows you — now playing, your calendar, battery, and files on the shelf — is read on your Mac and stays on your Mac. The only time any data leaves your device is to fetch the weather, and even then it’s just an approximate location sent to a weather service. We never see your data, because none of it is sent to us. We don’t operate servers that receive your information.
What the app accesses on your device
- Now playing. The app reads the title, artist, artwork, and playback state of whatever your Mac is currently playing (Apple Music, Spotify, a browser tab, etc.) so it can display it and offer play/pause controls. This is read locally and is never transmitted anywhere.
- Calendar. If you enable the calendar feature and grant access, the app reads your events for the next 24 hours to show what’s upcoming. Event data is read locally through Apple’s EventKit and never leaves your device.
- Battery. The app reads your battery level and charging state from the system. This stays on your device.
- Shelf files. When you drag a file onto the notch, the app holds a reference to that file for the current session so you can drag it back out. Files are not copied, moved, uploaded, or read beyond generating a thumbnail preview locally.
The one thing that leaves your device: weather
If you enable the weather feature and grant location access, AloeNotch requests your approximate location from macOS (reduced-accuracy, rounded to about three decimal places of latitude and longitude — roughly neighborhood-level) and sends those coordinates to the Open-Meteo weather API to retrieve the current conditions for your area.
- No name, account, device identifier, or other personal information is sent — only the rounded coordinates.
- Open-Meteo is a third-party service with its own terms and privacy practices.
- You can turn this off entirely: leave the weather feature disabled, or deny location access. With it off, the app makes no network requests for weather and no location data leaves your Mac.
Permissions
AloeNotch only asks for permissions the features you enable actually need — Calendar access for upcoming events, and Location access for weather. Both are optional. If you deny or disable them, the related feature simply hides and the app keeps working. You can change these any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
The website
This website is a static page hosted on Cloudflare and sets no advertising or tracking cookies of its own. As with any website, our hosting provider may process standard technical request data (such as IP address and browser type) to deliver and secure the page; see Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
The site also loads a Buy Me a Coffee support widget from Buy Me a Coffee’s servers. When it loads, that widget may set its own cookies or process data under Buy Me a Coffee’s privacy policy. It exists only for optional donations and plays no part in the app.
Downloading the app transfers the installer file to your computer; we don’t attach any identifier to it.
Your rights
Because AloeNotch has no accounts and sends us no personal data, we hold nothing about you — there is no profile to access, correct, export, or delete, and nothing for us to sell.
- GDPR / UK GDPR. If you are in the EU or UK, you have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection over personal data a company holds about you. We hold none, so there is nothing for us to return or erase. Data you send directly to third parties — the weather API, or Buy Me a Coffee if you donate — is governed by their own policies, linked above.
- California (CCPA/CPRA). We do not collect, sell, or share personal information, and have not done so in the preceding twelve months. There is no “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” action to take, because there is nothing to sell or share.
- Questions or requests. Reach us on GitHub and we will respond.
Children
AloeNotch is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children under 13.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the app handles data, we’ll update this page and the “last updated” date above. Material changes will be reflected in a new release of the app.
Contact
Questions about privacy? The best way to reach us is on GitHub.