Legal
Privacy
What the VisualASO app and this website send, to whom, and why. Plain words; every sentence is meant to be true of the version you can download.
Last updated 28 October 2026
The app
What stays on your Mac
- Your apps, keywords, ranks, listings, history and settings live in one database on your Mac. There is no VisualASO account.
- Your App Store Connect key, your Apple Ads sign-in and any API keys live in the macOS Keychain. They are never written to the database or the log.
- The log removes keys, tokens and cookies before it writes. Help → Copy Diagnostics copies versions, counts and recent log lines, with no keys or passwords, only when you ask.
What leaves your Mac, and where it goes
| What | Goes to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Store searches and listing reads | Apple (App Store pages, search API, search suggestions) and Google Play's public pages | To read ranks, demand and listings. These are the same requests a browser makes. |
| App Store Connect and Apple Ads requests | Apple, signed with your own key or sign-in | To read your keyword field, fill a version you confirm, and read popularity. |
| Prompts | The AI tool you chose (Claude Code, Codex or Ollama), which sends them to its maker unless it runs on your Mac | To write listing options and translations. That maker's terms apply. |
| Anonymous usage counts and crash reports | Google Firebase (Analytics and Crashlytics) | To see which features people use and fix crashes. See below. |
| Update check | visualaso.com | To offer new versions. |
| Licence activation | visualaso.com | To check a Pro licence. See below. |
Usage counts and crash reports
The app uses two Google Firebase services, in a Firebase project of our own (visualaso). Google processes the data for us.
- Settings → Privacy → "Share anonymous usage counts and crash reports" turns both on or off. It is on unless you turn it off, the first window says so, and a change takes effect at once. Turning it off also deletes crash reports not yet sent.
- Usage counts (Firebase Analytics). These events, and nothing else of ours:
| Event | What it carries |
|---|---|
app_open |
Free or Pro |
first_run_step_done |
which first-run step: apps, App Store Connect or AI |
app_added |
the kind: your app, a competitor or a brainstorm |
check_run |
how many cells, as a range (0, 1-10, 11-50, 51-200, 201-1000, over 1000) |
map_opened |
nothing |
optimize_options_written |
the AI route: Claude Code, Codex, Ollama or your own API key |
version_created |
nothing |
upgrade_sheet_shown, buy_clicked |
which Pro feature the sheet was about |
licence_activated |
nothing |
update_installed |
nothing |
Firebase adds what it records for every app: a random app-instance ID, the app version, macOS version, Mac model, language, when a session starts and how long it lasts, and a country it works out from the connection's IP address. The ID is not linked to your name, email or licence.
- Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics): where in VisualASO's code the crash happened (the stack trace), the app version, macOS version, Mac model, free memory and disk space at the time, and a random install ID.
- Never sent: a keyword, an app you track or its store ID, a listing, a key, an email address or a file path from your Mac. No advertising ID, no tracking prompt, no ad personalisation; the app does not include Google's advertising libraries.
- Google keeps crash reports for 90 days and the usage counts for 2 months.
Updates
VisualASO asks visualaso.com for the list of versions now and then. The request carries the app version and macOS version, like any download. It does not send a profile of your Mac.
Licence
When you activate Pro, the app sends your licence key, a one-way hash of your Mac's hardware ID and the Mac's name, so a licence can work on 3 Macs and you can see which ones. Restore licence sends the email you type. The licence is then checked on your Mac, with an occasional check-in.
This website
- Google Analytics 4 counts visits and a few clicks (download, buy, the demos, the theme switch). It sets cookies (
_ga) and sees your IP address, from which Google derives an approximate location; Google is told not to keep the full IP address. We use it to see which pages help people. - Buying Pro happens on Stripe Checkout. Stripe is the merchant of record: it takes your payment details, charges any tax, and tells us your email, country and order, so we can send your licence key. Stripe's privacy policy applies to what you enter there.
- "Email me the download link" (for visitors on a phone) sends the address you type to our server, which emails you the download link once. We keep no list of addresses: the server keeps only a keyed one-way hash of the address and the time, to stop abuse (a few sends per address per hour and per day).
- Server logs of the IP address, browser and page asked for are kept to run and protect the site.
- Fonts load from Google Fonts, so your browser asks Google for them and Google sees your IP address.
- No other trackers, ads or social buttons.
Who handles data for us
Our server (visualaso.com: licences, downloads, update checks) runs on DigitalOcean. Licence and download-link emails go out through Mailtrap. Google runs Firebase and Google Analytics, and Stripe runs checkout, as described above. Some of these companies are in the United States.
Who we are and your rights
Must Have Apps SIA, Valguma iela 18 - 16, Rīga, LV-1048, Latvia (registration number 40203701346) is the controller of the data above. Write to hello@musthaveappscorp.com to see, correct or delete what we hold about you (your email and licence keys), or with any question. You can also complain to the Data State Inspectorate of Latvia or your own data protection authority.
Changes
- 2026-10-27: first version.
- 2026-10-27: the exact list of usage events, what Firebase adds, the Privacy switch, retention.
- 2026-10-27: "Email me the download link".
- 2026-10-28: Google Fonts, and who handles data for us.