Privacy policy
Short version: what you do in WinPlug stays on your Mac. The app has no account, no telemetry and no ads. Our website sets no cookies today; if we add statistics and advertising cookies, they will load only if you say yes.
Last updated:
Who we are
WinPlug is made by Bien Joue Joe Ltd, a private limited company registered in England and Wales, whose registered office is at 82A James Carter Road, Mildenhall, IP28 7DE, United Kingdom (“we”, “us”). We decide how the personal data described here is used, which makes us its controller under UK and EU data protection law. Where another company decides for itself, we say so.
For any question or request about your data, write to [email protected].
The app
WinPlug works on your Mac. To do its job, it reads the titles and positions of your windows, moves them, and notices your shortcuts as you press them. It doesn’t store or send what you type.
If you allow it in macOS, it also captures window thumbnails, screenshots and screen recordings. If you turn them on, WinPlug Capture can record your microphone and your camera, and make captions with the speech recognition built into macOS, which works on your Mac without going online. WinPlug Explorer works with the files and drives you open in it.
Your clipboard history is encrypted on your disk. Your settings, your recent notifications and a small diagnostic log also stay on your Mac.
WinPlug never sends any of this to us or to anyone else, so we can’t see it. It only leaves your Mac if you share it yourself, for example by sending a screenshot. You can turn each permission off in System Settings > Privacy & Security, and delete this data from your Mac at any time.
There is no account, no telemetry and no advertising in the app.
When the app goes online. WinPlug connects to the internet for two things only:
- Checking your license: it sends your license key, an anonymous identifier for this Mac, your Mac’s name (as set in System Settings, which often includes your first name) and which WinPlug app is activating to Polar’s license service, to confirm your license and keep track of the Macs it’s used on. The Mac’s name is shown to you in Polar’s customer portal, so you can tell your Macs apart and free one when you change computers. Legal basis: providing the license you bought (contract).
- Checking for updates: it asks our update server whether a newer version exists. Like any request on the internet, this shows the server your IP address. Legal basis: our legitimate interest, and yours, in keeping WinPlug working and secure.
Our website
winplug.app is a static website hosted by Cloudflare. Today, it sets no cookies and loads nothing from other companies: even its fonts are hosted on the site itself.
To deliver pages and protect the site from attacks, Cloudflare processes technical data such as your IP address, your browser type and the pages you request. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a fast and secure website.
We plan to add three services. They will load only if you accept them in our cookie banner:
- Microsoft Clarity (statistics): the pages you view, where you click and scroll, and how you move the mouse, which we see as statistics, heatmaps and session recordings, along with your browser, device and approximate location. Clarity is set to mask sensitive text, and masked text is never sent to Microsoft.
- Google Ads (advertising): measuring what people do on our site after clicking one of our ads, and showing our ads to people who visited our site (remarketing).
- Meta Pixel (advertising): the same, for our ads on Instagram and Facebook.
Legal basis: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time with “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page; this doesn’t affect what happened before. Microsoft, Google and Meta also use this data for their own purposes, as their privacy policies explain: for that, each one is responsible in its own right (an independent controller). For the Meta Pixel, Meta and we are jointly responsible for collecting the data and sending it to Meta.
Cookies and your consent
When you answer our cookie banner, your choice is saved in your browser’s local storage under the name winplug-consent. It stays in your browser: we don’t receive it. It expires after 12 months, and then we ask again. It is strictly necessary to respect your choice, so it needs no consent.
Our Cookie policy lists every cookie, what it does and how long it lasts.
Buying WinPlug
Polar sells WinPlug licenses for us as our merchant of record: it is the seller on your receipt. To take your payment, prevent fraud, charge the right tax and send your receipt and license key, it collects data such as your name, email address, billing country, payment details and IP address. Card payments go through its payment processor, Stripe. Polar decides how it uses that data, under its own privacy policy. We never see your full card details.
Polar shares your order details with us: your name, email address, country, what you bought, and your license key and its activations. We use them to deliver your license, help you with it and keep our accounts. Legal basis: the contract with you, and our legal obligation to keep tax and accounting records.
You don’t need to give us any personal data to try WinPlug. To buy it, you need to give Polar what its checkout asks for.
Emails
If you write to [email protected], we use your email address, your name and what you send us to answer you. If you paste the diagnostic report from WinPlug’s settings, it contains technical details about your Mac and WinPlug, such as versions, settings and recent log lines, with personal details like file paths and your account name removed. You see all of it before you send it.
Legal basis: our legitimate interest in answering you or, if you’re a customer asking for help, the contract with you.
We don’t send newsletters or marketing emails. Receipts and license keys come from Polar.
Who receives personal data
- Cloudflare, Inc. (United States) hosts and protects our website, on our instructions (processor).
- Google (Google Workspace) hosts our mailbox, on our instructions (processor).
- Polar Software, Inc. (United States), with its payment processor Stripe, sells licenses, takes payments, handles tax, sends receipts and license keys, and checks licenses. It is responsible for its own use of the data (independent controller).
- Once we add them, and only with your consent: Microsoft (Clarity), Google (Google Ads) and Meta (Meta Pixel), as described above.
- Authorities or courts, if the law requires it.
International transfers
Some of these companies are based in the United States or handle data there. When personal data leaves the UK or the European Economic Area, we rely on:
- the UK-US data bridge and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for companies certified under them;
- otherwise, the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses with the UK addendum, or the UK’s international data transfer agreement.
Write to us for a copy of the safeguards that apply.
How long we keep it
- Emails with us: 24 months after our last message.
- Order records: as long as UK tax and accounting rules require (usually about 6 years).
- Your license key and its activations: as long as your license is valid, so it keeps working.
- Microsoft Clarity: session recordings for 30 days; statistics and heatmaps for up to 13 months.
- Google and Meta: as their own policies say. Our Cookie policy gives the lifetime of each cookie.
- Your cookie choice: 12 months, in your browser.
- Cloudflare’s technical logs: as Cloudflare’s own policies say.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- tell you what personal data we hold about you, and give you a copy;
- correct it;
- delete it;
- limit how we use it, or object to a use based on our legitimate interests;
- send it to you, or to another company, in a format you can reuse.
Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. We don’t make decisions about you by automated means alone.
To use these rights, write to [email protected], wherever you live. It’s free, and we answer within one month (longer only for complex requests, and we’d tell you why). We may ask you to confirm who you are. What WinPlug keeps on your Mac never reaches us, so you can delete it yourself at any time.
If you’re unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first: we acknowledge every complaint within 30 days and keep you informed. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113). If you live in the European Union, you can complain to the data protection authority in your country.
Children
WinPlug and this website are not directed at children under 16, and we don’t knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has sent us personal data, write to us and we’ll delete it.
Security
The safest data is data we never collect, so we keep it to a minimum. What WinPlug handles stays on your Mac, and your clipboard history is encrypted there. Our website is served over HTTPS, and only we can access our mailbox and our payment provider account. If a data breach put you at risk, we would tell you and the regulator, as the law requires.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters, for example a new company receiving your data, we’ll say so on our website before it applies, and ask for your consent again where it’s needed.