The short version
The app reads your browsers’ files on your Mac or Windows PC to decide where a link goes, and what it reads never leaves it. Online we keep only what a license needs: your license, an ID for each computer it’s activated on that can’t be traced back to it, and your email address if you buy a license or write to us. There’s no account, no cookies and no outside trackers. We never sell your data and never train AI on it.
What it reads, on your computer
To pick the right profile for a link, the app reads these from your browsers' own files. On a Mac it needs Full Disk Access to do that. You grant it in System Settings and can turn it off there at any time. Windows lets it read them without asking.
- History and visit counts: which sites you visit in each profile, and how often.
- Bookmarks, their names and addresses, only while “Search pages you visited” is on, so the panel can find them.
- Cookie names, to tell which profiles are signed in to a site. Never the cookie values.
- The site names of saved passwords. Never the passwords.
- Browser profile names and the email each profile is signed in with.
- The app a link came from, such as Slack, Mail or Terminal.
Your picks and per-site rules are stored on this computer too. None of this is uploaded.
Chrome on Windows keeps its cookies to itself while it runs, so there the app reads them while Chrome is closed and keeps, for each cookie, its site, name, dates and length (never its value) in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ProfilePorter\Cookies for the times Chrome is running.
On a Mac, so you can open them from Spotlight, the sites you use most in each profile and your profile names are added to this Mac's Spotlight index. That index stays on your Mac. To turn it off and remove them, go to Settings › Privacy › Show your sites in Spotlight.
What goes online, and why
The app does go online, for these things only. Each says what it sends.
- License activation and a weekly check. The app sends your license key, your computer's name and an ID for this computer to profileporter.com, which checks the license with Creem. The ID is a one-way hash of the computer's hardware ID (on Windows, of Windows' own ID for the PC), so it can't be traced back to the computer; it keeps one activation from being copied to other computers.
- Update checks. The app reads profileporter.com/appcast.xml (on Windows, profileporter.com/windows/appcast.json) to see if there's a new version.
- Public lists, each at most once a week:
- the public suffix list (publicsuffix.org), to tell a site's name from endings like .co.uk;
- Finicky's list of browsers (on GitHub), to recognise browser apps;
- ClearURLs' link-cleaning rules (clearurls.xyz), to know which parts of a link are tracking, only while "Remove tracking" is on (it is by default);
- a list of short-link sites (on GitHub), to know which links are short links, only while "Expand short links" is on.
- Short-link expansion, only if you turn it on. When you click a short link, the app requests it from its service to see where it leads. That service sees the request, as it would if you opened the link yourself.
- Which of your apps open a site's pages, while "Look up apps for your sites" is on (it is by default). For a site you use that has an app on this computer named like it, the app reads that site's own list of apps (its apple-app-site-association file, and on Windows its windows-app-web-link file too) to see which pages its app opens. The request goes to the site itself, without cookies, so no one else learns which sites you use. If the list names the app on your computer, the app then requests one to three pages you visited on that site, without cookies, as a link preview does, to read the app link written in them. That site sees a request for a page you already opened there. Each site at most once a week. Turn it off in Settings › Links › Desktop apps.
Like any request on the internet, each of these shows your IP address to the server that answers it.
Buying a license
Creem processes the payment as merchant of record, so their privacy policy applies to checkout. We receive your email address and your license from Creem, so we can send you the key and help you with it. We never see your card details.
This website
No cookies. We count visits with Umami, on our own server: for each page it records the page, the site that sent you there, your browser, operating system, device type, screen size, language and country. Your IP address is used to find the country and is never stored. If you switch between light and dark, your choice is saved in your browser's local storage and stays there.
What we keep about you
- Your license, at Creem: your email address, your name, what you bought, your license key, and for each computer it’s activated on, its name and its ID.
- A refunded license, on our server: the license’s ID, with the ID of the refund or chargeback, the order and the checkout, and the date, so the app can turn it off.
- Emails you send us, at mailbox.org, with your address, so we can answer and help you with your license.
- Visit counts for this website, as above. They hold no IP address and nothing that says who you are.
Cloudflare, which runs this website and our server, sees each request’s IP address, as any web host does.
Why we keep it
To give you the license you bought and help you with it (the contract with you), and to turn off refunded licenses, keep the service safe and count visits without cookies (our legitimate interest). We email you only about your license and your questions.
Where it is kept, and who helps
These companies handle some of it for us, each only for its part:
| Company | What it does for Profile Porter | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Runs this website, the downloads and the updates, and the license server, with its store of refunded licenses. Every request to profileporter.com passes through it. | United States, with servers around the world |
| Creem (Armitage Labs OÜ) | Sells the licenses as merchant of record. It gets your email address, name, billing address and card, and keeps your license key and the computers it’s activated on (each one’s name and ID). We never see your card. | Estonia |
| mailbox.org | Our email, when you write to support@profileporter.com. | Germany |
| Hetzner Online | The server our visit counts (Umami) run on. It keeps no IP addresses and no cookies. | Germany |
The same list, on its own page: subprocessors.
Outside the EU
Cloudflare is a company in the United States. What of your data reaches it is protected under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or the EU’s standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
- Your license and its computers: as long as the license exists. Deactivating one in Settings › License ends its activation.
- A refunded license: as long as its key exists, so it stays off.
- Your purchase: Creem keeps the payment, receipt and invoice as long as tax law requires.
- Emails: as long as we need them to help you. Ask, and we delete them.
- On your computer: until you remove it. The data deletion page says how.
Your rights
You can see, correct, export and delete your data. Write to support@profileporter.com and we answer within 30 days. You may also object to how we use your data, or ask us to limit it.
If you think we handle your data wrongly, tell us first; you can always complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.
Children
Profile Porter isn’t meant for children under 16, and we don’t knowingly keep anything about anyone younger.
Changes
When this page changes in a way that matters, we say so here before the change takes effect. The date at the top says when it last changed.