Privacy

Short version: your colors stay on your Mac. Here is the long version.

Last updated

What Dabbit stores, and where

Your picks, palettes, custom formats and settings are kept on your Mac, as plain files in ~/Library/Application Support/app.dabbit/ and in the app’s preferences. There is no account, no cloud copy and no sync. Deleting the app and that folder removes everything.

Recent picks record the color, the time, and the name of the app it was picked from, so you can find a color again. Nothing about the content of your screen is kept beyond the color you chose.

What leaves your Mac

Dabbit makes a network request in exactly five situations:

  • First launch. The first time Dabbit opens on a Mac, it tells dl.dabbit.app once that it was installed: the app version and the macOS version, nothing else. No identifier is sent; the request’s IP address gives a rough location (city and country) and isn’t kept. It never happens again on that Mac, including after updates. It’s how we know how many people actually install Dabbit.
  • Update checks. Once a day (if enabled) the app fetches dabbit.app/appcast.xml to see whether a newer version exists. Sparkle, the updater, sends the app version and macOS version with that request and nothing else. Updates themselves download from dl.dabbit.app.
  • License activation and checks. When you enter a license key, it is sent to Polar, our payment provider, together with a device identifier and your Mac’s name (so you can tell your Macs apart when managing seats). The key is re-checked periodically. Your colors are never part of these requests.
  • New Palette from Website. When you type a URL into the website extractor, the app fetches that page and its stylesheets, from your Mac, the way a browser would. Only the address you enter is contacted.
  • Links you click (documentation, support, buy) open in your browser.

Beyond that one install notice there are no analytics, no crash reports, no telemetry, and no third-party SDKs that talk to anyone.

Payments

Purchases are handled entirely by Polar, the merchant of record. Dabbit never sees your card details. Polar’s privacy policy covers the checkout, receipts and the email that carries your key. We can see the orders and license keys for Dabbit in Polar’s dashboard, which is how support works.

The Figma plugin talks to the Dabbit app over localhost:48123, on your own machine. No server sits in between, and Figma’s network permission for the plugin is limited to that address. Colors you send from Figma go into your local library and nowhere else.

Shortcuts and any dabbit:// link simply open URLs that the app handles locally.

macOS permissions

Screen Recording. The magnifier reads pixels from your screen while you pick, which macOS gates behind this permission. Dabbit reads only while the picker is open and keeps nothing but the color you choose. If you prefer, choose Apple’s built-in sampler in Settings → Picker, which needs no permission.

Camera. Asked for only if you use New Palette from Camera. The photo is used to extract colors and is not saved.

Support email

If you write to us, your message is handled like any email: read to help you, kept in the mailbox, shared with no one.

Changes

If any of this changes, the change will be described here with the date, and in the changelog of the version that introduces it.

Contact

hello (at) dabbit.app, or the support page.