artbip privacy policy
Last updated: 28 October 2026. Applies from artbip 0.1.0.
artbip is a free, open-source Mac app made by Alexander McGinn. This policy explains what it does with information about you. The short version: artbip does not collect, store or share any personal information. There is no artbip account, no artbip server, no analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting and no tracking of any kind.
Everything below can be checked against the source code on GitHub.
What artbip collects
Nothing. artbip does not send the developer, or anyone else, any information about you, your Mac, or how you use the app. It asks for no special permissions: not your location, contacts, photos, camera, microphone or files.
Network connections
artbip connects to the internet for two things only.
1. Downloading artwork images
To show a painting, artbip downloads its image directly from the server that hosts it:
- Wikimedia Commons (
commons.wikimedia.organd its image servers) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(
images.metmuseum.org) - National Gallery of Art, Washington (
api.nga.gov) - Rijksmuseum, through its image service
(
iiif.micr.io) - Art Institute of Chicago (
www.artic.edu) - Cleveland Museum of Art
(
openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org)
It downloads the work being shown, the next three in the queue, and thumbnails for the works you scroll past in the gallery. Requests identify themselves as artbip with a link to the artbip GitHub repository (the User-Agent header), except for the Met and the Art Institute of Chicago, whose servers block non-browser requests, so artbip sends a standard browser User-Agent there (and, for the Art Institute, an extra header naming artbip, as that museum asks). artbip keeps no cookies from these servers, and the requests contain no information about you beyond what every internet request carries: your IP address and basic request headers.
Like any web server, these hosts can see that IP address and which image was requested. Their own privacy policies govern what they do with that.
2. Checking for a new version
When artbip starts, at most once every 24 hours, it asks GitHub's
public API (api.github.com) whether a newer release of
artbip exists. The request contains no information about you or your
usage, only what any HTTPS request carries (your IP address and a
User-Agent naming artbip). If there is a new version, artbip shows a
link to its release page; it never downloads or installs anything by
itself.
You can turn this off in Settings → Updates → Check for new
versions. It is on by default so that corrections to the
collection reach you. Check Now checks immediately, and
the command-line artbip update checks whenever you run it,
whatever the setting.
A version of artbip distributed through the Mac App Store would not perform this check; updates there come through the App Store.
Links you choose to open
Some menu items open a page in your web browser: the work's page at its museum, the GitHub release page, GitHub Sponsors, and the GitHub issue forms described under Reporting a problem. Those pages are visited by your browser, under the website's own privacy policy, just as if you had typed the address.
Reporting a problem or requesting a feature
Report a Problem… and Request a Feature… open a GitHub issue form in your browser, pre-filled with details to help fix the problem. For an artwork report these are the work's id, title, artist, holding collection, source link and Wikidata id, plus your artbip version and macOS version. A feature request is pre-filled with your artbip version only.
Nothing is sent when you choose the menu item. You can read and edit the form, and nothing leaves your Mac unless you submit it on GitHub. If you do, the issue is posted publicly under your GitHub account, and GitHub's privacy statement applies.
Information stored on your Mac
artbip keeps its data in
~/Library/Application Support/artbip. None of it is sent
anywhere.
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
settings.json |
Your settings: schedule, background, label, margin, shortcuts, storage limit and so on. |
state.json |
Your favourites, blocked works and collections, and the last 500 works shown with the time each appeared. |
original-wallpaper.json |
The file paths of the wallpaper you had before artbip, so it can be restored. These paths may include your macOS user name. |
scheduler.json |
Timings and errors from recent rotations, used for troubleshooting. |
cache/ |
Downloaded images and thumbnails, limited to 2 GB by default. Clear it in Settings → Clear Downloads. |
wallpapers/ |
The composed wallpaper images set on your desktop. |
artbip also writes routine diagnostic messages to macOS's own system log on your Mac. These are not sent anywhere by artbip.
Launch at Login is off until you turn it on.
To remove everything, quit artbip, delete the app, and delete the folder above.
Sponsorship
The Sponsor artbip link opens GitHub Sponsors. Sponsorship is handled entirely by GitHub under its own privacy statement, unlocks nothing in the app, and is never linked to your copy of artbip.
Children
artbip collects no information from anyone, including children.
Security
The direct download is signed with a Developer ID, notarized by Apple and runs with the hardened runtime.
Changes to this policy
If artbip's handling of information changes, this policy will be updated before the release that makes the change, and the date at the top will change. The history of this policy is public.
Contact
Questions about privacy can be sent privately to contact@artbip.app, or asked in public by opening an issue on GitHub. Issues are public, so please don't include anything you want to keep private there.