Privacy.

Short, because there is not much to say.

What is sent

A report, to a paste service, only when you press Share and confirm — and you see the exact text first. Nothing else, ever.

What is never sent

Your media files. Your file names or paths. Anything about you, your Mac, or how you use the app. There is no account, no telemetry and no analytics of any kind.

That is the whole of it. The rest of this page explains the details for anyone who wants them, and every claim on it can be checked against the source.

The one thing that leaves.

SwiftMediaInfo can upload a report and give you a link to it, so you can send someone the details of a file without sending the file. It is the only feature that touches the network.

You press Share

Nothing happens automatically. There is no background sync and no upload you did not start.

You are shown what will go

The full text of the report, before it is sent. If it contains file paths — and a path often carries your username, sometimes a good deal more — the app offers to strip them and shows you the result with them gone.

It is uploaded, and you get a link

Reports go to pb.plz.ac, or to up.sb when the report is large enough to need an archive. Both are third-party paste services: once a report is there, its retention and its terms are theirs, not mine.

Anyone with the link can read it. These are public paste services, not private storage — the link is unguessable but it is not protected. Share reports the way you would share any link, and strip the paths if there is anything in them you would not put in a message.

What stays on your Mac.

Your files

  • Read to extract metadata, never modified
  • Never copied, moved or uploaded
  • Renaming and moving to the Trash happen only when you ask

What the app stores

  • A cache of analysis results, so reopening a file is instant
  • Computed checksums, so a file is never hashed twice
  • Your recent files list, your settings and your colours
  • All of it inside the app's own preferences, all of it local

What does not exist

  • No account and no sign-in
  • No usage tracking, crash reporting or analytics
  • No update check that phones home
  • No advertising, and nothing sold to anyone

Deleting the app with --zap, or dragging it to the Trash and removing its preferences, leaves nothing behind. The download page has both commands.

Everyone else involved.

Four other parties can be involved in using this app. Here is each of them, and exactly when.

Third parties and when they are involved
Who When
MediaInfo (MediaArea) Runs on your Mac to read each file. It is a local program, not a service, and sends nothing anywhere.
Homebrew Only if you install through it, or let the app install MediaInfo for you. Their servers see a download request, as any package manager would.
pb.plz.ac and up.sb Only when you share a report. They receive the text you were shown and nothing else.
GitHub If you download a release, open an issue, or read the source. Their privacy terms apply on their site, not in the app.

This website is served as static files and sets no cookies. Your theme choice is remembered in your browser and never leaves it.

Do not take my word for it.

Every claim above is a statement about code you can read. If you want to check rather than trust, the two useful ways are opening the source and watching what the app actually does.

Little Snitch, LuLu or macOS's own firewall will show you every connection the app makes. Open a hundred files, export a dozen reports, and you should see nothing at all until the moment you press Share.

SwiftMediaInfo

Beyond the File.