ClearBar Privacy Policy

Effective Date: September 26, 2026

Webspace IN Private Limited ("we," "us," or "our") built ClearBar as a fast, keyboard-driven app launcher/switcher for Mac. ClearBar is not a menu-bar icon organizer -- it never reads, moves, hides, or redraws any other application's menu-bar status item. It only ever searches for and activates, launches, or quits whole applications by name.

In one paragraph: ClearBar sends nothing anywhere except the App Store's own purchase/subscription check. There is no analytics, no telemetry, and no ClearBar-operated server of any kind. Your quick-launch profiles, context rules, and settings are stored locally on your own Mac. If you subscribe to the optional Unlimited Profiles & Sync add-on, that data syncs only through your own iCloud Drive account -- never through a server we operate, because none exists. The only information ClearBar ever reads about another application is its display name, bundle identifier, and whether it is currently running or in front -- never its window contents, documents, or any other data.

What is recorded, specifically

Installed and running application names -- ClearBar scans /Applications and ~/Applications for installed apps (reading each app's own bundle identifier, display name, and file path from its standard Info.plist) and asks macOS which applications are currently running and which one is in front. This is used only to power search and activation, and is never written anywhere other than your own device's local search index while ClearBar is running.
Quick-launch profiles and context rules -- the named, ordered lists of apps you create, and any "activate this profile when a certain app is frontmost or at a certain time" rules you configure. This is configuration you enter directly, not data collected about your behavior.
A local activation log -- a capped, local-only record of which apps you've activated, launched, or quit through ClearBar and when, used solely to power the "readable local diagnostics" export you can generate for your own troubleshooting. It is never transmitted anywhere.
Local settings -- whether you've acknowledged the permission explainer, whether the palette hotkey is currently suspended, and whether Safe Mode is queued for the next launch. These are device-specific and are never synced or transmitted.

What ClearBar never collects, under any configuration

Any other application's window titles, document contents, or on-screen content
Any other application's menu-bar status item, its position, or its visibility -- ClearBar has no such capability at all
Keystrokes, clipboard contents, browsing history, or network traffic of any kind
Screenshots or recordings of the screen
Any analytics, advertising, or tracking identifier

Where this data is stored

By default, everything above is stored locally in ClearBar's own sandboxed application data folder on your Mac -- never on a server we operate, because none exists.

If you subscribe to the optional Unlimited Profiles & Sync add-on, a snapshot of your quick-launch profiles and context rules is written into this app's own iCloud Drive container. From that point on, Apple's own iCloud service -- already signed into your own Apple ID -- replicates that file to your other Macs, the same way iCloud Drive syncs any other file kept in it. This snapshot is plain JSON, not encrypted, since app names and schedule preferences are not sensitive. Your device-local settings (hotkey state, Safe Mode flag, permission acknowledgement) are never included in what's synced. Turning the subscription off simply stops ClearBar from reading or writing that file; everything already on each device stays fully intact and local.

Automation permissions

Opening or switching to an app uses macOS's plain open command and needs no special permission. Listing currently-running applications, detecting which app is frontmost (used by the optional context-rule subscription feature), and quitting an app from the palette ask macOS's System Events for that information, which prompts for an Automation permission the first time it happens. ClearBar shows its own plain-language explainer before that system prompt ever appears. Through this permission, ClearBar can only ever learn a whole application's name and running/frontmost state -- never its window contents or any other data.

Purchases

The one-time base unlock and the optional Unlimited Profiles & Sync subscription are both handled entirely by Apple through the App Store's standard in-app purchase system (StoreKit). ClearBar asks Apple whether a purchase or subscription is active and receives a yes/no answer; we do not receive or store payment information, which is handled exclusively by Apple under Apple's own privacy policy.

What ClearBar does not do

It does not use analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs of any kind
It does not require or support any ClearBar user account or sign-in
It does not organize, hide, reorder, or otherwise touch any other application's menu-bar status item
It does not transmit profile, rule, or usage data anywhere, with the single exception of a subscribing user's own iCloud sync snapshot described above
It does not share any information with third parties

Changes to this policy

If ClearBar's data practices ever change, we will update this policy and revise the effective date above.

Contact us

Questions about this policy can be sent to: com.webspacein@gmail.com