Privacy

What LinkLite does not send

Updated 14 November 2026. Applies to the Mac app and to this website.

The Mac app has no account, analytics SDK, advertising, crash reporter, or telemetry. Its only network connections are update checks and downloads from GitHub. It does not send settings, display information, usage statistics, or screen contents to its maintainer or to anyone else. This website sets no cookies and loads no analytics script.

The Mac app

Update checks use Sparkle. On launch, and once a day after that, LinkLite downloads https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matthewrball/linklite/main/appcast.xml. If a newer version is listed, it downloads that release’s disk image from GitHub, checks the signature, and asks before installing. The download URL has to be an HTTPS GitHub release asset for this repository.

Those are ordinary HTTPS requests. GitHub sees your IP address, and the User-Agent identifies the app as LinkLite, with the app version and the Sparkle version. LinkLite does not send Sparkle’s optional system profile: no Mac model, no macOS version, no CPU. The maintainer does not receive the request. GitHub serves the files. You can turn automatic checks off in the menu-bar panel. Check for Updates still works on demand.

Many docks contain an Ethernet adapter. LinkLite sends no traffic through it.

Screen Recording is used to read the virtual displays LinkLite created for the dock. Captured pixels are compressed in memory and sent to the dock over USB. They are not written to disk and not sent anywhere else. The permission itself is broader than that use. See how capture is limited.

Settings stay in UserDefaults under com.ball.linklite: monitor identities so a chosen resolution is not overwritten, dock-socket records when two monitors report the same identity, and Sparkle’s local update state. None of that is uploaded. Downloaded updates sit in ~/Library/Caches/com.ball.linklite until they are installed. Diagnostic logs stay in the macOS unified log under com.ball.linklite and are shared only if you attach them to a report.

To remove the app, quit it and move it to the Trash. To remove settings, run defaults delete com.ball.linklite. Withdraw Screen Recording in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Screen & System Audio Recording. The repository copy of this policy is PRIVACY.md.

This website

linklite.app is a static site served by Cloudflare. Loading a page does not set a cookie, run an analytics script, or create an account. Cloudflare, as the host, sees the IP address and request that are required to deliver the page, and keeps its own connection logs. This site does not add a tracker on top of that. There is no signup form.

Questions can be opened as an issue on GitHub. Sensitive privacy concerns can use private vulnerability reporting.