Privacy Policy
Last updated November 1, 2026
In short: Mac TV has no account and no servers of its own, and it never records what you watch. If you agree, it shares anonymous usage (which features you use) to help improve it; if you don't, it sends nothing. It doesn't sell or share your data. What it stores stays on your Mac. The streaming services you use in it have their own privacy policies.
Who this covers
This policy covers the Mac TV app for macOS, the phone remote page it serves from your Mac, and this website. Mac TV is made by Arunprakaash ("I") as a free, open-source project. Its source code is public on GitHub, so anyone can check what it does.
What Mac TV doesn't do
- It has no sign-up and no Mac TV account.
- It sends no usage data unless you agree (see below), and never advertising identifiers.
- It has no servers of its own.
- It doesn't record what you watch or listen to in streaming apps. For your own movie files, it remembers where you stopped, on your Mac only.
What stays on your Mac
- Sign-ins and website data. Streaming services run in Apple's WebKit engine. Their cookies and sign-ins are stored by WebKit in your Mac user account's Library, like Safari's, and only those services can read them.
- Your apps. The apps you add and their icons are kept in
~/Library/Application Support/Mac TV. - Movies. The Movies app reads the video files in the folders you choose. Their list, posters, and where you stopped each one are kept in
~/Library/Application Support/Mac TV/Movies. - Settings. Options such as the sleep timer, playback and power settings, the remote's pairing code, and your answer about anonymous usage are kept in Mac TV's preferences on your Mac.
Deleting Mac TV and those folders removes all of it.
When Mac TV goes online
- Streaming services you open. Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and the others load directly from their own websites. What they collect is covered by their own privacy policies, exactly as when you use them in Safari.
- Finding icons for apps you add. When you add an app, Mac TV looks up its name on Apple's App Store search (iTunes Search API), with your country, to find its official icon. It may also download the icon from the website you added.
- Movie posters. For each movie file, Mac TV searches Apple's public catalogue (iTunes Search API) for the title it reads from the file name, with your country, and downloads the poster when one matches. Nothing else about the file is sent. When there's no match, the poster is a frame from the film, made on your Mac.
- Steam games you add. Mac TV reads which games are installed from Steam's files on your Mac, and downloads the game's artwork from Steam's servers to make its tile. Games open through the Steam app.
- Top Shelf shows. The home screen shows the latest shows on each streaming app. Once a day Mac TV asks TVmaze's public schedule which shows have new episodes, and Apple's public music charts which albums are most played in your country. It downloads their pictures and keeps them on your Mac. These are the same for everyone and have nothing to do with what you watch. Nothing else is sent.
Anonymous usage, only if you agree
Mac TV asks once, during setup or after an update: Help improve Mac TV? Nothing is sent unless you choose Share, and you can turn it off any time in Settings › About. Turning it off stops sending at once.
If you share, Mac TV sends anonymous events to TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service based in the EU:
- Features you use: opening Control Center and which controls you use, which Settings sections you open, the screen saver's wallpaper type, creating a profile, finishing setup.
- Which built-in apps you open, such as Netflix or YouTube. Apps you added are counted only by kind (a website, a Mac app or a Steam game), never by name or address.
- How you control Mac TV: phone remote, game controller, keyboard, trackpad or mouse.
- Your settings and counts: how many profiles and added apps you have, and whether options like sounds, keep awake or skip intros are on.
- Movies: the kind of file (for example MKV) and whether it played in Mac TV or another app, never its name.
- Basics: Mac TV and macOS versions, Mac model, and your language and region settings.
It never sends what you watch or listen to, titles, web addresses, file or folder names, profile names, or anything from inside the apps you open. You're identified only by a random ID that Mac TV creates and keeps in its own settings, hashed before it's sent, so the data can't be tied to you. TelemetryDeck doesn't store IP addresses. Every event Mac TV can send is listed in one file in its source code, Analytics.swift.
The phone remote
The remote is a web page served by Mac TV from your Mac, on your own network or your Tailscale network. It doesn't pass through the internet or any server of mine. Only phones that enter the 6-digit pairing code shown on your TV can control Mac TV. The phone remembers that code in its browser so you don't have to enter it again.
On your home network the remote uses plain HTTP, so it's meant for networks you trust. Tailscale encrypts the connection itself.
Permissions on your Mac
- Local network: so your phone can reach the remote.
- Accessibility (optional): only to send remote presses to Mac apps you open from Mac TV.
- Power settings: keeping the Mac awake, and staying awake with the lid closed when you turn that on, change power behaviour on your Mac only. They're undone when Mac TV quits.
This website
This site is hosted by GitHub Pages. It uses no cookies, analytics or trackers of its own. GitHub may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses, under GitHub's privacy statement.
Children
Mac TV doesn't collect personal information from anyone, including children. Anonymous usage, if shared, can't identify anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date. Earlier versions stay visible in the project's history on GitHub.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Open an issue on GitHub, or message me on LinkedIn.