Privacy Policy

Who we are

Apara Limited provides Guise and is responsible for the personal information it processes to operate the product and its services. References to we, us, or our mean Apara Limited. This policy does not replace the policies of websites, sign-in providers, or other services you choose to use through Guise.

For privacy questions or requests, email jayasurya@apara.design. You can also use Contact on this page to copy that address. Describe your request without sending passwords, login tokens, payment-card numbers, or confidential screenshots unless they are needed for the issue you want us to investigate.

Accounts and purchases

Accounts. Guise uses Supabase for authentication and account services. If you sign in with Apple or Google, the provider and Supabase process the sign-in, and Guise receives information such as an account identifier, email address, available profile name or image, and account/sign-in timestamps. What is available depends on your provider and sign-in choices. Guise also stores local sign-in state, session credentials, preferences, and your chosen display name or profile image to support the app experience.

Purchases. Guise opens Stripe-hosted checkout for paid access. The checkout request includes your Guise account identifier, product, and account email where available. Stripe handles payment details and may collect billing, payment-method, fraud-prevention, and transaction information under its own privacy notice. Guise’s payment integration does not receive your full payment-card number or security code.

Paid access. The backend links the account to its product entitlement, active status, checkout/payment references, and purchase/update timestamps. This allows Guise to confirm a completed payment, restore access when you sign in, and respond to payment reversals. A checkout-return URL alone is not proof that a payment succeeded.

Work stored on your Mac

Guise saves captured screenshot files in session folders under Pictures/My Guise Shots. It also keeps local session indexes, preview images, file locations, timestamps, titles, and ownership metadata to display and restore Recents. Editor work and exported images or PDFs are processed locally. Guise’s account and payment backend is not a screenshot-storage or cloud-sync service.

Recents is filtered using the signed-in Guise account’s ownership metadata. This is separation within the app, not a separate macOS account, an encrypted vault, or a restriction on Finder access. Someone using the same macOS user account may still access the local files. Your own backup, sync, export, or sharing tools may copy those files elsewhere under their own settings.

macOS permissions

Screen Recording. macOS uses this permission name for access to screen images. Guise uses it for screenshots during your presentation workflow, including a ScreenCaptureKit fallback when needed. Full-screen captures can include other visible windows or sensitive information on the display; review the screen before capturing and check exports before sharing. The screenshot capture path disables audio capture and does not create a continuous audio or video recording.

Input Monitoring. While a presentation session is active, Guise uses a listen-only event listener to recognise screenshot shortcuts and mouse events used to select a capture area or window. It inspects shortcut key codes and modifiers; it does not use that listener to collect typed text or maintain a record of ordinary keystrokes. Local troubleshooting logs can include event counts, recognised capture actions, permission results, and errors.

Files and Finder. Guise reads files you select and writes screenshot/session files and exports. When you ask to reveal a screenshot or its folder, it may request Finder Automation permission to open a dedicated column-view window and select the item. If Automation is denied or fails, it falls back to standard file reveal. That action does not change Finder’s global view preferences.

You control macOS permissions in System Settings. You may decline or revoke them, although the corresponding capture, file, or reveal features may not work. Permission to access the screen or input events is not permission to use your content for unrelated purposes.

Websites and thumbnails

Opening a website or Figma prototype connects your Mac to that service and to resources it loads. Guise also fetches page metadata, social images, and Figma thumbnails, and uses WebKit or macOS LinkPresentation to prepare previews. These requests can happen while preparing a source, before you start presenting. Destinations can receive the requested URL, IP address, browser/user-agent information, and relevant cookies or other request headers. Third-party scripts and resources on the page have their own privacy practices.

Some social-image and thumbnail requests explicitly send the source page URL in a Referer header to the image host. A URL may itself contain private identifiers or access parameters. Use links you are authorised to share with the destination services, and avoid putting secrets into URLs. A localhost page stays on your local server unless that page or its resources make external requests.

Guise can fetch a decorative nature image from Picsum when preparing preview thumbnails. That request uses a fixed image address and does not attach the source page URL, Figma link, or Guise account identifier. The image service and its delivery hosts still receive ordinary network-request information, including your IP address. Guise is therefore not entirely offline, even though screenshot editing and storage are local.

Why information is used

Account and transaction information is used to authenticate you, associate paid access with the correct account, validate purchases, handle account actions, troubleshoot access, and address payment issues. Local session metadata and usage counters organise your work and apply the Starter allowance. Technical request information supports delivery, error investigation, and protection of the services.

If you submit the website’s waitlist form, the name and email you provide are sent to Loops with a waitlist-signup event to manage the signup and related communications. Messages you send to support are used to respond and investigate your request. If you choose to send a screenshot or diagnostic file, that material leaves your Mac and may contain personal or confidential information; remove unnecessary details first.

Required information

You can browse the website without submitting a waitlist or support request. Account identifiers and authentication information are needed for the app’s signed-in features; payment and entitlement records are needed to provide and verify paid access. If you do not provide information needed for a requested feature, we may be unable to provide that feature.

The rules that permit or require processing depend on the purpose and the law that applies to you and to Apara Limited. Where separate consent is required, such as for optional marketing or non-essential tracking, that requirement is separate from accepting product terms or granting a macOS permission. You can ask about the processing grounds applicable to your information at jayasurya@apara.design.

Services and recipients

Guise uses Supabase for authentication, account-related functions, and entitlement records; Stripe for hosted checkout and payment events; Vercel for website hosting, delivery, and website analytics; and Loops for the waitlist and related email delivery. Apple or Google participates when you choose its sign-in option. The data a provider receives depends on the feature you use; opening a local image does not by itself send that image to the payment service.

Website, Figma, profile-image, thumbnail, and decorative-image hosts receive the external-content requests described above. Update-feed and download hosts receive update requests. Support correspondence is handled through the email services used by you and by the support mailbox. Providers may also process information for their own security, fraud prevention, or legal purposes under their notices.

Information may also need to be disclosed to satisfy a valid legal requirement, address fraud or a security incident, or establish or defend legal rights. If a business transfer affects who handles your information, any required notice and protections remain applicable. This policy does not authorise unrestricted use of your local content.

Updates and diagnostics

Guise uses Sparkle to check the hosted update feed, including background availability checks while the app runs, and to download an update when you choose that action. Feed and download hosts receive ordinary request information such as IP address, request time, requested file, and user-agent information that can identify the app and updater version. The app’s update-permission response disables optional Sparkle system-profile submission; this does not eliminate information carried by the network request itself.

The app writes local diagnostics about events such as permission checks, capture success or failure, and session persistence errors. These are distinct from a remote analytics service. Hosting, authentication, email, and payment providers can also keep operational or security logs. This policy does not promise that no technical logging occurs or that a local error log is automatically sent to support.

Cookies and local storage

After a successful waitlist signup, the website stores the submitted name in browser local storage to remember the signup experience. You can clear it in your browser. Doing so does not remove the separate signup record held by Loops or unsubscribe you.

The website uses Vercel Web Analytics to measure visits, page views, referral sources, and clicks on the Guise DMG download links. This analytics service does not use tracking cookies. It processes technical request information to derive traffic statistics, such as device/browser category and approximate location. Custom download-click events include the website page path and button location, not your Guise account, email, screenshots, or payment details. We remove query strings and fragments from page URLs sent through the analytics component. A download click does not establish that a file transfer completed or that the app was installed. Website delivery and security request logs are separate from these analytics.

In the app, some preview webviews use temporary website storage, while the interactive website presentation webview uses persistent WebKit storage. Sites you visit may store cookies, local storage, cache, and login state, or use their own analytics. Use Guise’s browsing-data controls for the listed sites and the external sites’ own privacy controls. Signing out of Guise is not the same as signing out of every external website, and account deletion is not a promise to clear every webview’s data.

Retention and local deletion

The app’s default screenshot-session retention is 30 days. Settings also offers 10 days or keeping sessions until you delete them. When cleanup runs, eligible older session folders owned by the active account are moved to macOS Trash. Unknown or differently owned folders are not automatically claimed and removed. Cleanup depends on the app running and filesystem access; it is not a promise that every file disappears at an exact deadline.

Trash is recoverable until emptied. Exported copies, source files, backups, browser data, and files copied by other apps are separate from the session-retention setting. Guise is not a secure-erasure tool. Choose retention and backup settings appropriate for the sensitivity of your work.

Backend account information supports an active account and its access to the service. Purchase, support, email, and technical records have separate purposes and retention requirements, including transaction handling, security, disputes, and legal recordkeeping. Their retention is not controlled by the local 10- or 30-day setting. You can ask about records held for your account or request deletion; account deletion does not promise immediate erasure of all provider logs, transaction records, or backups.

Signing out and deletion

Signing out removes the active Guise sign-in state on that Mac and stops displaying that account’s Recents. It does not automatically delete screenshot files. Delete your account makes an authenticated request to delete the Guise authentication account. On success, the app clears selected local profile, usage, and account metadata and signs out on that Mac. The entitlement table is designed to remove the account’s linked entitlement when the authentication account is deleted.

Screenshot files saved in Finder remain on the Mac. Session indexes or caches, exports, backups, external-site logins, support correspondence, and payment-provider records may also remain outside that action. Delete unwanted local files and copies separately. Account deletion can remove the identity used to restore paid access; contact support before deleting an account if you need help with a purchase or retained records. We do not promise automatic transfer of a purchase to a new account.

International processing

Guise is offered internationally. Online services and external content may involve processing in countries other than your own, whose privacy laws may differ. Local screenshot storage on your Mac is separate from the location of account, payment, website-delivery, and email processing.

For information about locations and transfer arrangements applicable to your account or a service, contact jayasurya@apara.design. Any protections or restrictions required by applicable law remain applicable; this policy does not itself establish a data-residency commitment or replace a required transfer agreement.

Your choices and rights

You can control macOS permissions, local retention, local files, and selected website browsing data. For waitlist or marketing messages, use an unsubscribe option where provided or ask us to stop at jayasurya@apara.design. Necessary account, security, or transaction messages are different from optional marketing.

Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access or obtain a copy of personal information, correct it, request deletion, restrict processing, or receive a portable copy. You may also have a right to object to processing, including direct marketing, and to withdraw consent where processing depends on consent. Withdrawal does not invalidate processing already lawfully carried out. Rights can have conditions or exceptions, including legal recordkeeping requirements.

To make a request, email jayasurya@apara.design or use Contact. We may need proportionate information to verify that you are entitled to make it, but do not send passwords or full payment details. You can also complain to the data-protection authority competent for your circumstances. Nothing here limits rights or response obligations imposed by applicable law.

Security and younger users

Guise is not a secure vault or a substitute for your Mac’s account security, disk encryption, backup, and access controls. Local session credentials and preferences are stored on the Mac; switching Guise accounts does not encrypt local data or protect it from someone using the same macOS account. Networked services also carry security risks. No software, storage system, or transmission can be guaranteed completely secure.

Guise is a general-purpose productivity app, not a product designed specifically for young children. We do not impose a fixed numeric age cutoff, but this does not override laws about children’s personal information, legal capacity, parental permission, or provider requirements. If you are a parent or guardian concerned that a child has provided personal information, contact us so we can assess the request and applicable obligations.

Policy changes

We may revise this policy when the product, services, or applicable requirements change. The date on this page identifies the revision. Where additional notice or consent is required, updating this page does not replace that requirement. Contact jayasurya@apara.design with questions about a change or how your information is handled.