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DropBench — Privacy

Last updated: 15 September 2026

The short version: DropBench runs on your Mac. It does not have a server, it does not collect telemetry, and the developer cannot see anything you capture.

This document says exactly what the app does, so that the claims it makes in its own interface can be checked against something written down.

What the app says, and what it means

The panel says "Everything here stays on this Mac." That is literal. With no AI provider configured, DropBench makes no network requests at all as part of capturing, recognising, or acting on content.

Once you configure an AI provider, that line changes to "Stays on this Mac until you pick an action that uses <model>." That is also literal: actions marked with an arrow (↗) are the only ones that send anything, and they are the only ones that can.

What runs locally

Everything that recognises content:

• Text extraction from files and PDFs
• Optical character recognition on images and screenshots
• Every detector — links, addresses, dates, invoices, receipts, flights, code and errors, JWTs, JSON, timestamps
• Ranking which actions apply

None of this involves the network. Decoding a JWT, in particular, happens entirely on your Mac — the token is never sent anywhere.

The clipboard

DropBench reads your clipboard only when you press Use Clipboard (⌘V) in the panel. There is no background monitoring, no polling timer, and no clipboard history. The absence of that code is the guarantee; there is nothing to disable.

What is stored, and where

Captured items and images are kept in a local database that only DropBench reads:

~/Library/Containers/app.dropbench/Data/Library/Application Support/DropBench/
    history.sqlite
    Images/

Items are kept for 30 days by default, and you can change or shorten that in Settings. Older items are removed automatically.

Your AI provider API key, if you set one, is stored in the macOS Keychain — never in a file, never in the app's settings, never in this database.

DropBench is sandboxed. It can read a file you drop on it or choose yourself, and write to folders you have explicitly picked. It has no other access to your disk.

When something leaves your Mac

Three cases, all of which you initiate:

• AI actions. If you configure an AI provider, actions marked ↗ send that item's text to the provider you chose, at the address you chose. You are asked before the first one, and the request is not made if you decline. Images are not sent; where an image is involved, only text recovered by local OCR is sent.

• Send to Agent. Hands the captured file to another application on your Mac — Claude or ChatGPT — which attaches it to a new conversation. Nothing is transmitted by DropBench; what happens next is that application's business and governed by its terms.

• Checking for updates. Only when you ask. DropBench requests a small file describing the latest version — the same file for everybody. It sends no account, no licence key, and no identifier of you or your Mac, and it does not tell the server which version you are running: the comparison happens here, after the file arrives.

Being precise, because a privacy document that overstates is worth less than one that doesn't: like any HTTPS request, this one reveals your IP address to whoever hosts the file, and carries the standard user-agent that macOS attaches to every request. If you would rather make no such request, don't press Check for Updates — nothing else in the app will.

Actions that open a web search or a map open your browser or Maps in the normal way, and are subject to those services' own policies.

What the developer receives

Nothing. There is no analytics, no crash reporting, no account, no licence phone-home, and no server operated by the developer that the app contacts.

Third-party AI providers

If you configure an AI provider, your relationship with that provider is governed by their terms and privacy policy. What they retain, and for how long, is their decision and not something DropBench controls. Choose accordingly, and prefer a provider whose retention policy you have read if the content is sensitive.

System permissions

DropBench asks for these only at the moment an action needs them, and each prompt names the action that triggered it:

• Reminders — when you choose Add Reminder.
• Calendar — when you choose Add to Calendar. Requested as write-only; DropBench cannot read your existing events.
• Folder access — when you choose a destination folder for Move to Folder.

It does not ask for Accessibility, Screen Recording, Full Disk Access, or Contacts, and does not need them.

Changes

If this document changes in a way that affects what leaves your Mac, the change will be noted in the release that makes it.

Contact

support@dropbench.app