Privacy Policy

This policy covers Brink (on the Mac App Store as “Brink Bar”), Brink Terminal Helper, and this website, brinkbar.com. They are made by Cynaptic Technologies LLC (“we”, “us”), which is responsible for the little personal information this policy describes.

Brink, the app

Your notes stay on your Mac

Notes, task lists, workspaces, saved clipboard items, plugins’ data and settings are stored only on your Mac, in Brink’s App Sandbox container. Time Machine backs them up along with the rest of your Mac. Nothing syncs to other devices or to any server, ours included, and we have no way to read them.

No data collection

Brink has no analytics, no tracking, no advertising, no crash-reporting SDK and no accounts. Its only network requests of its own go to brinkbar.com, for its list of plugins and the plugins you get (see Plugins), and they send nothing about you. We don’t collect, sell or share personal information, because Brink doesn’t send us any.

Rendered notes and links

When Brink shows a note formatted, it loads nothing from the network: an image from the web appears as a link instead, so opening a note never tells a server you read it. Links you click in a note open in your browser (or the app they belong to).

Spotlight

Your notes and task lists appear in your Mac’s own Spotlight index, so you can find them from Spotlight. That index is on your Mac.

Clipboard tabs

Brink never records your clipboard. A clipboard tab (Brink Pro) keeps only what you save on purpose, in one of two ways: ⌘C ⌘C in any app (holding ⌘, press C twice; off until you turn it on in Settings), or ⌘V in the tab. Brink reads what’s on the clipboard only then. (With ⌘C ⌘C on, Brink also checks the clipboard’s change counter, a number that goes up with each copy, to tell whether the first ⌘C copied anything; that isn’t a read of what’s on it.)

A copy that its app marks as private or temporary, as password managers’ apps do, isn’t saved. Some copies aren’t marked, such as a password copied from a browser extension; if you save one, it’s kept like any text until you delete it. If macOS is set to ask before apps read the clipboard, it asks at ⌘C ⌘C; if it’s set to deny Brink, Brink reads nothing.

Saved items stay on your Mac until you delete them. They’re never sent anywhere.

Plugins

Brink can add tabs from plugins listed on this site. When it opens and once a day after that, Brink asks brinkbar.com for the list of plugins, and it downloads the plugins you get, and their updates, from here. It checks the list whether or not you use plugins; there’s no setting to turn the check off. These requests carry what any web request does, your IP address, plus Brink’s version. Brink keeps no cookies from them, and they send nothing about you, your Mac or your notes.

We review every plugin before it’s listed. The rules forbid tracking, and a plugin’s data has to stay in Brink, on your Mac. A plugin runs inside Brink and can’t read your notes or other plugins’ data.

Some plugins use the network, and say so in Settings › Plugins and on their page here. They reach only the sites you give them: the RSS plugin reads the feeds you subscribe to, and the bookmarks plugin gets the titles and icons of the pages you save. A plugin’s tab can also show pictures from the web, such as a feed’s images. Those sites see an ordinary web request from your Mac, with your IP address, and for what a plugin asks Brink to fetch, Brink’s version and the plugin’s ID. Brink sends them no cookies, and keeps none once the plugin’s tab closes. Brink makes these requests only over HTTPS, never plain HTTP.

Report Plugin… starts an email to us (brinkbar-support@cynaptic.tech) in your mail app, with the plugin’s ID and version. Nothing is sent unless you send it.

A plugin’s page on this site can open in Brink instead of your browser. For that, your Mac gets a small file from this site through Apple, as it does for any app’s links; Brink itself sends nothing.

Permissions Brink asks for

Each of these is asked for only when you use the feature that needs it. Input Monitoring, Calendars and Reminders can be turned off in System Settings › Privacy & Security at any time. Brink keeps access to a folder or file you pick only while a tab uses it.

• Input Monitoring, for opening Brink with a double-tap of ⌘, and for ⌘C ⌘C in clipboard tabs. Brink’s listener notes when a modifier key goes down or up, and whether any other key or mouse button was pressed in between, without looking at which. With ⌘C ⌘C on, it also notes whether a key pressed while ⌘ alone is held is C. It never records, stores or sends your keystrokes. A keyboard shortcut opens Brink without this permission.
• Calendars, for calendar tabs, and Reminders, for reminders tabs (Brink Pro). Brink reads your calendars, and reads and changes your reminders, through Apple’s EventKit on your Mac, only after you grant access. Brink sends that data nowhere; changes you make to reminders go into your Reminders, which your Mac syncs with your accounts as usual.
• Folders, for folder tabs (Brink Pro). Brink shows only the folders you pick, and doesn’t change their contents.
• Files, for tail and shelf tabs (Brink Pro). A tail tab reads only the file you pick. A shelf keeps a reference to the files you drop on it, and makes files of its own only for text, links and pictures dropped on it, and for files another app hands over in a drag, such as a Mail attachment. Removing an item never deletes your files.

Purchases and the free trial

Brink Pro and its free trial go through Apple’s App Store. We never receive your payment details. Apple tells us what was sold, never who bought it.

Crash reports and usage statistics

Brink sends no crash reports itself. If you choose, in your Mac’s settings, to share analytics with app developers, Apple may share crash reports and usage statistics with us. That’s Apple’s feature and your choice; it’s off unless you turn it on.

Brink Terminal Helper

Brink Terminal Helper runs the shells for Brink’s terminal tabs, on your Mac. It talks to Brink locally. Its one network request of its own is to keep itself up to date: while it runs, about once a day, it asks brinkbar.com whether a newer version is out, and downloads and installs it if so (with Sparkle, an open-source updater). That request carries what any web request does, your IP address, plus the helper’s name and version; it sends nothing about you, your Mac or your shells. What your shell itself does (the commands you run) is up to you, as in any terminal.

This website

brinkbar.com is hosted by Cloudflare. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads no third-party scripts or fonts. Cloudflare’s servers keep standard logs of requests to the site, such as your IP address, the time and the page or file requested; those include Brink’s plugin checks and the helper’s update checks. We use them, if at all, only to keep the site and those services working, never to identify or follow anyone. Cloudflare keeps them as its privacy policy describes. Cloudflare also asks some browsers (Chrome and others built on it) to tell it when a request to the site fails, to keep the site working; those reports go to Cloudflare, not to us.

If you email us

When you write to our support addresses (brinkbar@cynaptic.tech, and brinkbar-support@cynaptic.tech for plugin reports), we receive your email address and whatever you send, and use them only to answer you. We keep messages for two years after our last exchange, then delete them; write to us to have yours deleted sooner. We don’t add you to a mailing list or share your message.

Your data and your choices

• Everything Brink keeps is on your Mac. Delete notes, items and plugins in Brink; to remove it all, delete Brink and its data (its folder in your Library’s Containers folder).
• Turn off Input Monitoring, Calendars or Reminders in System Settings › Privacy & Security at any time.
• Others who handle anything about you: Apple, for the App Store and purchases (Apple’s privacy policy), and Cloudflare, which hosts this site (Cloudflare’s privacy policy).

Your rights

We handle the little personal information described here (your IP address in the site’s logs, and anything you send us by email) because it’s needed to give you what you asked for (the site, plugins, updates, an answer), or for our legitimate interest in running the site and keeping plugins safe. We, Cloudflare and Apple are in the United States, so it may be handled there.

Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of what we have about you, to correct or delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, or to have it in a portable form: write to us. If you’re in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you can also complain to your data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office). We don’t sell or share personal information, as California law defines those words.

Children

Brink isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them; Brink collects none from anyone. If a child has emailed us, a parent can ask us to delete the message.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we’ll post the new version on this page with a new effective date. If Brink ever starts sending any data anywhere (for example, if sync is added), this policy will say so before that version ships.

Contact

Cynaptic Technologies LLC
120 Everleigh Drive
Royersford, PA 19468
United States
Privacy questions and requests: brinkbar@cynaptic.tech