In short. Espresso has no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting and no tracking. It doesn't collect data about you, your files or how you use it. Your index, your searches and everything Espresso learns about your disks stay on your Mac. Espresso talks to a server only to check for updates and, when you ask, to handle a trial or a licence — and none of those requests contains anything from your files.
This page completes our Privacy Policy, which explains who we are, legal bases, retention and your rights.
What stays on your Mac
Espresso keeps its data in ~/Library/Application Support/Espresso and its preferences in the usual
macOS preferences file. We never receive any of it.
| Data | What it is for |
|---|---|
| The index of your disks: names, paths, sizes, dates, Finder tags, and details such as image size, duration, pages, camera, lens, location, codecs, author, title | Instant search. Extended details can be turned off in Settings › Metadata. |
| Offline catalogs of disconnected disks, with the label, photo and free space you record | Searching disks that aren't connected. |
| Text read from inside documents and descriptions of what photos show (Pro, if you turn them on) | Search by content and "photos of…", computed on your Mac with Apple frameworks. |
| Timeline of added, changed and deleted items (Pro) | Seeing what changed on a disk since a date. |
| Search statistics shown in the Receipt window, saved searches, Blends, macros, settings | Features you use. |
| Your licence token (Pro or trial) | Proving the licence offline. |
To remove everything, quit Espresso, delete the folder above and move the app to the Trash. To forget a single disk, Control-click it in the sidebar and choose Remove Index… (no files are deleted).
When Espresso connects to a server
These are all the network connections Espresso makes by itself. None of them contains file names, paths, content or anything from your index.
| When | Where | What is sent | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checking for updates — once a day by default, can be turned off in Settings | Our update server | The request for the update feed: your IP address and the app's version (in the user agent), as in any download | To offer updates and security fixes |
| You request a Pro trial | Our licence server (api.espressoformac.com) |
Your email, whether you ticked the separate newsletter box, the anonymous device ID, the app's language | To email you the code; one trial per person and per Mac |
| You activate a licence key or trial code | Our licence server; for Pro keys, also Creem's licence system through our server | The key or code, the anonymous device ID, your Mac's name (as set in System Settings) | To activate it and show your Macs in the list of activations |
| About once a month while Pro or a trial is active | Our licence server | The signed licence token | To keep the licence valid and stop refunded or published keys |
| You click Manage License or Deactivate This Mac | Our licence server | The signed licence token | To open your personal Creem page, or free this Mac's slot |
The anonymous device ID is a one-way hash of your Mac's hardware identifier, computed on the Mac: it lets the server count your activations without ever learning the identifier itself.
Other things open outside Espresso, only when you choose them: Buy opens Creem's checkout in your browser; Help › Espresso Guide opens the guide website; Help › Contact Support opens your mail app. Those websites don't receive anything from Espresso beyond what your browser sends to any website.
Features that stay on your Mac
- Ask the Barista uses Apple's on-device language model (Apple Intelligence). Your question and the results never leave the Mac through Espresso.
- Photo search by content uses Apple's Vision framework on your Mac.
- Search inside documents reads text with macOS frameworks on your Mac.
- The index is built and updated on your Mac, using macOS file system events.
Integrations you set up
With Espresso Pro you can connect Espresso to other apps. They are all off until you set them up, and they run on your Mac:
- the command-line tool, Shortcuts, Raycast and Alfred receive the results of the searches they run;
- AI assistants connected through the MCP server receive the names and paths of files matching the searches they make. If the assistant runs in the cloud (as most do), that information goes to its provider under the provider's privacy policy. Connect an assistant only if you are comfortable with that, and remove it any time in its settings.
Data on our servers
For trials and licences, our server stores what is listed in the table above (email for trials and purchases, licence key or trial code, device ID, Mac name, dates). How long we keep it and how to have it deleted is explained in the Privacy Policy. To see or delete your data, write to support@mokasolutions.dev.
Permissions Espresso may ask for
- Full Disk Access (optional): to index folders macOS protects. Espresso reads them only to build your local index.
- Photos, Contacts, Location, Camera, Microphone: Espresso never asks for them.
- Network volumes: indexed only if you enable them in Settings › Disks.