Privacy policy
Last updated October 11, 2026
Someone Was Here is a Mac app that takes a photo when someone uses your Mac while you're away and tells you if it wasn't you. This page explains what it stores, where that data goes, and how to delete it.
The short version: everything stays on your Mac. We, the makers of Someone Was Here, never receive your photos, your face data or anything about how you use the app. Photos leave your Mac only when you set up an alert service, and then they go straight to that service.
What the app stores on your Mac
- Photos of visits. When someone uses your Mac after it's been idle, at the lock screen, or when it's unlocked, the app takes a short burst of photos with your Mac's camera and keeps one photo per visit, with the time, what started it, and whether the face matched yours.
- Your reference photos and face data. During setup you take photos of yourself. The app keeps them and a numeric description of each face (a "feature print") so it can recognise you. It is used only to compare later photos with you.
- Settings, such as how long to keep visits and which alert services are on.
- Credentials for alert services (for example your Pushover keys or ntfy access token) are stored in the macOS Keychain.
Visitors' faces are never turned into stored face data. For other people, the app keeps only the photo and a match score. All of this lives in the app's private container on your Mac. It is not synced to iCloud or anywhere else.
The camera
The app uses the camera only to learn your face during setup, to test recognition when you ask, and to take a photo when someone uses your Mac while you're away. Your Mac's camera light turns on every time. You can turn camera access off in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Camera.
When data leaves your Mac
Only if you set up an alert service. When a visit needs your attention, the app sends a short message and the photo directly from your Mac to the services you turned on:
- Pushover (pushover.net)
- ntfy (ntfy.sh, or your own ntfy server)
- Telegram (through your own bot)
- A webhook you enter (for example Home Assistant)
Those services handle the message under their own privacy policies. The app does not send data to us or to anyone else, and it contains no analytics, advertising or tracking.
If you turn on automation in Settings › Automation (off by default), apps and agents on your own Mac can read status and visits, and only with the access you allow. The app's local automation server listens on your Mac only and is not reachable from the internet.
How long data is kept
Visits are deleted automatically after the period you choose in Settings › Privacy (1 week, 30 days, 90 days or 1 year; 30 days by default). Reference photos stay until you remove them.
Deleting your data
- One visit: open it and choose Delete.
- All visits: Settings › Privacy › Delete All Visits.
- Your face data: Settings › Recognize Me › Reset Recognize Me.
- Everything: delete the app. macOS removes its container with all photos and settings.
This website
If you leave your email on someonewashere.app, we store that address, the time you left it and your country (as reported by our host, Cloudflare) so we can send one email when the app is available. We don't share it or use it for anything else, and we delete the list after the launch email goes out. To be removed sooner, email us. The site uses no cookies, analytics or trackers.
People who use your Mac
Someone Was Here is meant for protecting your own Mac. Please respect the law where you live about photographing people in your home or workplace, and let people who share your space know you use it.
Children
Someone Was Here is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.
Contact
Questions about privacy: support@someonewashere.app