Privacy Policy

Last updated 12 October 2026

Zipgeist is made by Made on Sofa (“we”, “us”). We collect as little as possible: only what we need to sell you a licence and let you use it. We don’t use analytics or advertising, and we don’t sell or share your data for marketing.

Your files

Zipgeist opens, extracts and creates archives entirely on your Mac. Your archives, files, file names and passwords are never sent to us or anyone else.

Using Zipgeist without a licence

Zipgeist Free and the trial don’t send anything about you. The trial’s start date is stored on your Mac only. To check for updates, Zipgeist downloads a list of versions from zipgeist.app once a day; like any web request, this shows our web host your IP address and Zipgeist’s version.

When you buy a licence

Purchases are handled by Paddle, our reseller and Merchant of Record. Paddle collects your payment details and billing information under its own privacy policy; we never see your card details. From Paddle we receive your email address, your name if you gave one, and the order’s details. We use them to:

• create your licence and email you your licence key;
• send you your key again if you ask for it;
• answer your questions and handle refunds.

We don’t send newsletters or marketing email unless you ask for them.

Activating Zipgeist on a Mac

When you activate a licence, and about once a day after that, Zipgeist contacts our licence server with your licence key and an anonymous ID for your Mac. That ID is derived from your Mac’s hardware ID with a one-way function, so it can’t be traced back to your Mac or to you; it only lets us count the Macs a licence is used on. We store it with the date it was first and last seen. No name, location or other information about your Mac is sent.

Who processes your data

• Paddle: payments, taxes, invoices and refunds.
• Fly.io: hosts our licence server, in Amsterdam, and its backups.
• Mailgun: sends licence emails, from its EU region.
• Vercel: hosts this website and the downloads.

The website uses no cookies and no tracking. The buy page loads Paddle’s checkout, which may use cookies of its own to complete your purchase.

How long we keep it

We keep your licence record (email address, licence key, order ID and your Macs’ anonymous IDs) for as long as the licence exists, so you can recover your key and move it between Macs. Paddle keeps order records as tax law requires.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of the data we have about you, to correct it, or to delete it, by emailing support@zipgeist.app. If we delete your licence record, we can no longer resend your key or move your licence; Paddle keeps its order records separately. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

Changes

If we change how we handle your data, we update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

Email support@zipgeist.app.