Privacy Policy

PowerMode counts keystrokes; it never reads what you type.

What we collect

Nothing. PowerMode has no account system, no sign-up, no user ID, no analytics, no crash reporting of ours, and no server of ours to send anything to. It sends nothing about you anywhere. We do not know that you installed it, and we cannot tell how you use it.

What PowerMode does on each key

• It learns that a key was pressed and what kind it was— a character, a delete, a newline, or something else like a shortcut or an arrow. For the sounds it also learns whether the key was Space, Return or Delete and which of the five keyboard rows an ordinary key sits on, so a recorded set can play that row's own stroke. The key code and the character are classified inside the event handler and never stored, logged, or passed anywhere. It also learns which app the key went to, so that only keys going to the app in front count.
• To place the burst it asks macOS Accessibility where the cursor is — the focused element's role and the rectangle of its cursor, plus the position of the focused window, which names the display the whole-screen effect belongs on. It reads positions, never the text around them; the text of the field is never requested. The colour trail is drawn from the same cursor rectangles.
• With a sound set on, it also learns when a key is released, classified the same way. Samples are played; nothing is recorded, and the microphone is never touched.
• To have the burst ready before the first key in a new field, it listens for the app in front changing its focused element and for mouse clicks. It learns that a click happened, not where, and never what is under it.
• It draws in its own transparent, click-through windowabove the app. It never posts input to other apps and never moves their windows.

When PowerMode draws nothing and plays nothing

• While another app keeps keyboard input private: a password field in Safari, a sudo prompt in Terminal, a password manager. The menu bar caret falls asleep and says why.
• When the focused element is a secure text field, even when the rest of the system is not in private mode.
• While the screen is locked.
• In apps you paused from the menu bar, listed under Advanced in Settings.
• When the key goes to a process other than the app in front: Spotlight, a launcher, a floating panel, or an automation tool typing into a hidden app.

An app that hides its cursor (a terminal, Sublime Text) gets no burst and no trail, but its keys still count for the milestones, the whole-screen effect and the sounds; nothing about those keys is read beyond their kind.

Chrome and other Chromium browsers

Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi and Arc report no cursor position until their full accessibility tree is switched on. With "Follow my typing in Chrome" on (the default, under Advanced in Settings), PowerMode turns that switch on for those apps while it is on, and turns it off again when you switch PowerMode off, turn the setting off, or quit. It is the same switch assistive apps use; it makes the browser describe its pages to Accessibility, which can make some pages slightly slower to render. Off, those browsers report no cursor and nothing is drawn in them.

Permissions

One: Accessibility, asked for once during onboarding. It is what lets PowerMode see where you type and count keys in other apps. No separate Input Monitoring, no screen recording, no location, no contacts, no calendar, and no microphone or camera.

The license and the network

PowerMode is sold as a one-time license through Gumroad. Gumroad's own privacy policy covers your purchase. The app itself makes no network connection today; if a future version checks for updates or verifies a license online, this page will say exactly what is sent, in the same release.

This website

The stage on the front page runs in your browser. What you type there is drawn on the page and never sent anywhere. The look, whole-screen effect, sound set and volume you pick are remembered in your browser's local storage so they are there when you come back; nothing else is stored, and there are no analytics or cookies. The host that serves the site may keep ordinary request logs.

Children

PowerMode is a general-purpose utility that collects no personal data from anyone, of any age.

Changes

If a future version changes what the app reads, writes, or sends, this page changes in the same release and the date at the top moves.

Contact

Questions about this policy: get in touch.