Hey MacHey Mac recognizes your face on your Mac. It does not save photos of your face or upload your face data. This policy explains that local processing and how the Hey Mac website, downloads, and support links relate to your privacy.
Who this policy covers
Hey Mac is a free, open-source macOS app developed by Harshit Maurya. This policy covers the Hey Mac app and this website, heymacapp.com.
External services linked from this website operate under their own privacy policies. Hey Mac is an independent project.
Camera access and face data
Hey Mac requests camera access during setup so you can enroll your face and use face recognition. It uses your Mac’s camera to recognize you when unlocking the lock screen or a protected app.
Face recognition runs locally through Core ML and the Apple Neural Engine. Hey Mac does not save face photos. Instead, it creates a numeric representation of your face, called an embedding, and stores that face data encrypted in the macOS Keychain.
Your face data stays on your Mac. It is not uploaded to the developer’s servers, sold, or shared with advertisers.
The app includes a liveness check that helps reject photos and screens. It uses a regular camera rather than the depth sensor used by iPhone Face ID. Keep a strong Mac password; Hey Mac does not replace your password or Touch ID.
Local storage and your choices
Face enrollment data is stored locally in your Mac’s Keychain for recognition. The developer does not receive a copy and cannot retrieve it from a server.
You control Hey Mac’s camera permission in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera. Revoking access prevents camera-based face recognition. Changing a camera permission does not itself remove previously stored enrollment data.
For help managing or removing your face enrollment data, use the contact options below.
The face-data storage described here is separate from login credentials used for lock-screen unlocking. Hey Mac has not published details of how those credentials are stored.
Website privacy
You can read this website without creating an account or submitting personal information. The website does not use advertising trackers, analytics scripts, or tracking cookies set by the website’s application.
Like other websites, requests to load a page or media can expose technical information to the hosting infrastructure, such as an IP address, browser information, requested URL, and request time. Hosting providers may process technical logs to deliver and secure the website. This policy does not specify a retention period for those provider logs.
Videos and article images displayed on this website are served from the website. Community posts link to external platforms rather than loading embedded social players. Following links to GitHub, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Medium, LinkedIn, or X takes you to services with their own data practices.
The mobile “Get it on your Mac” link opens your email app with a prepared download link. The website does not send the email or collect the recipient’s address.
Downloads and updates
Hey Mac downloads are hosted on GitHub. You can also install the app with Homebrew. Those services may process information about your requests under their own policies.
Hey Mac checks for new versions and installs updates automatically. Requests to check for or download updates are separate from the app’s on-device face recognition. Download and update providers may receive technical connection information.
For information about GitHub’s handling of data, read the GitHub General Privacy Statement.
Contact and support
For questions about this policy or help with local face data, open an issue in the Hey Mac repository. GitHub issues are public, so keep your question general and do not include face photos, face data, passwords, or other private information.
For a security vulnerability, use the private security reporting channel instead of a public issue.
If you contact the project, the information you choose to provide is available through the service you use to contact us and is used to respond to your request. That service’s privacy and retention policies also apply.
Changes to this policy
This policy may be updated as Hey Mac or the website changes. The effective and last-updated date at the top identifies the current version.
Hey Mac’s source code is available under the MIT license. You can inspect the project on GitHub and read the release notes.