privacy
The short version is the whole version.
First Ink collects nothing. There is no account, no analytics, no telemetry and no server of ours for anything to be sent to.
Your notes
Everything you write stays on your Mac, inside the app's own sandboxed container. First Ink has no server, so there is nowhere else for a note to go.
Nobody at First Ink can read your notes. Not because we promise not to — because no copy of them ever reaches us.
iCloud, if you turn it on
Backup and sync are off by default. Switch them on and First Ink writes your notes to your own iCloud Drive, in a folder called First Ink, using Apple's iCloud container for the app.
That is your iCloud account and Apple's infrastructure. Your notes travel between your own Macs and never touch a system belonging to us. Switching sync off stops new writes; anything already in iCloud stays until you delete it, which you can do in Finder like any other folder.
What the app asks macOS for
First Ink runs in Apple's App Sandbox and asks for as little as it can:
- A file you pick. "Export a copy" writes wherever you point the save panel, one file at a time.
- Its iCloud container, only if you turn sync on.
- A global shortcut for ⌥Space. This needs no Accessibility permission and First Ink has never asked for one — it cannot see what you type anywhere else.
It asks for no camera, no microphone, no contacts, no calendars, no location, no Accessibility and no automation.
The network permission, and why it is there
If you inspect the app you will find it declares a network client entitlement, and we would rather explain that than have you find it and wonder.
macOS requires it before WKWebView — the component First Ink draws its page with — will render anything at all, including files built into the app itself. Without it the app opens an empty window. It is not evidence of a network call, and First Ink makes none: the app's content policy permits loading from the app itself and nothing else.
Diagnostics
First Ink keeps a plain-text log of what the app did — the shortcut firing, windows opening, backups being written. It lives on your Mac, it is never sent anywhere, and you can read it yourself under Settings › The app › Logs. It only leaves your machine if you export it and send it to us on purpose.
Children
First Ink is rated 4+ and is safe for any age, because there is nothing in it to collect and nothing to connect to.
Changes
If this policy ever changes, the date at the top changes with it. Should First Ink ever collect anything — it does not today, and there is no plan for it to — we would say so here and in the app before it happened, not afterwards.
Getting in touch
Questions about any of this, or anything else about the app: send them through the support form.