Privacy policy

This policy covers the mk-drive iPhone app and the mk-drive web app. It is written so that the App Store privacy label and this page say the same thing: the app collects nothing for the author.

Who runs the drive

mk-drive is software you, or someone you trust, install on your own machine. The person who runs that machine is the operator of your drive and holds your files and your account. This policy describes what the software does; the operator's own rules apply on top of it. If you are the operator, you are the only party involved.

The author of the software has no access to any drive, any account or any file. There is no central service.

What the iPhone app stores on your phone

• The address of your drive, your email, and an app password, kept in the iOS Keychain. The app password is a token your drive issued to this phone; you can revoke it on the drive at any time under Settings, Devices. Your real password is never stored on the phone.
• Files you open or download, in the app's own storage, so they open again without a network. Deleting the app deletes them.
• Uploads waiting to be sent, until they are sent.
• A cache of the folders you visited, so they open instantly and are still readable offline.

The Files app extension shares the same storage and the same Keychain entry, and nothing else.

What the app sends, and where

Every request goes to your own drive, over HTTPS unless you chose a plain address on your home network. There are no analytics, no advertising identifiers, no crash-reporting service and no third-party servers. The app does not use your location, contacts, microphone or camera. It reads a photo or a file only when you choose to upload it, and only that one.

Crash reports reach the author only if you have turned on sharing them with app developers in iOS Settings, and then only through Apple, in the form Apple provides. They contain no file names and no account details.

What the drive keeps

The drive keeps, on the machine it runs on:

• Your account: email, display name, a hash of your password, your role.
• Sessions and app passwords: which devices are signed in, when they were last seen, from which address.
• An activity log: sign-ins, uploads, deletions, share links made and removed, with the time and the address they came from. The operator sees it under Settings, Activity.
• Your files, exactly where they were. The drive does not copy or index them into a database. Thumbnails it renders are a cache and can be deleted at any time.
• Stars, recent files and share links, so they are there on your next visit.

Files you delete go to the drive's trash first and can be restored; emptying the trash removes them for good. A public share link stays public until it expires or is removed.

Removing your data

• A phone you no longer have: revoke it under Settings, Devices on the drive and it can no longer reach anything.
• The app: delete it and everything it kept on the phone goes with it.
• Your account and files: the app creates no accounts of its own; accounts are made by the operator on the drive, and the operator removes them under Settings, People. If you are the operator, the drive's data lives in the data directory you mounted and in the folders you pointed it at; remove those and nothing remains.

The App Store privacy label

The listing says Data Not Collected. That is the label for the developer, and it is accurate: the author receives nothing. The data the app handles goes only to a server you chose, run by you or by someone you know. Apple's own processing of the purchase and of any crash report you opted into is covered by Apple's privacy policy.

Changes and contact

When this policy changes, the date above changes with it. Questions about the software go to its author at the address below. Questions about your files and your account go to the operator of your drive.