Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective 25 October 2026 · iOPCPlayer for macOS · Mac App Store

The short version: iOPCPlayer collects nothing. No telemetry, no analytics, no tracking, no ads, no accounts. Everything you do stays on your Mac. And because iOPCPlayer is open source under the MIT License, you don't have to take my word for it: you can read the code.

1. No data collection

The developer does not collect, store, transmit, sell, or share any personal data from this app. There is no usage tracking, no crash/analytics SDK, no advertising identifier, and no background "phone-home" of any kind. Apart from what you send yourself (a support email, or an issue or merge request on GitLab, see section 5), the developer receives no personal data from you.

Apple runs the Mac App Store, not the developer: if you write a rating or review there, Apple publishes it under your nickname, and Apple passes crash reports to developers only if you have turned on Share with app developers under System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Analytics & Improvements. Both are governed by Apple's privacy policy.

2. What stays on your device

iOPCPlayer saves the data you create so the app is useful between launches. All of it lives locally on your Mac and is never sent to the developer:

Connection settings & favourites: server URLs, security choices and bookmarks, stored in the app's local container.
Passwords & certificate paths: server passwords and the file paths of client certificates you select are stored in the macOS Keychain, never in the app's database or in plain text. A password is kept for later connections only if you choose Remember password in Keychain, and only after a successful login. The login password you set for the built-in simulation server is kept in the Keychain as well.
Logged user names: kept only as a one-way SHA-256 hash for local connection history, not as readable text.
Trusted server certificates: certificates you approve (trust-on-first-use) are saved as files inside the app's sandbox container, named by their SHA-256 fingerprint (Application Support/iOPCPlayer/pki/trusted/<sha256>.der). They are not stored in the Keychain. The app's own client certificate and private key, created automatically for secure connections, live in the same pki folder.
Local history & session recordings: while recording is on, each connection is kept as a session in a local SQLite database on your Mac: data changes, events, values you write, method calls and connection messages, plus notes you add. Recording can be switched off, and sessions can be deleted in the app.
Exports & backups: CSV/JSON exports of a session and copies of the database are written only to files you choose; the app never sends them anywhere.
Marked nodes & view settings: nodes you mark for change logging (stored per server address) and layout preferences live in the app's local preferences.
Workspaces: the subscriptions, monitored items and event monitor of each server are saved as files inside the app's sandbox container (Application Support/OPC_player/Workspaces), so they can be restored on the next connect. Workspace files you save (.iopcworkspace) and exported item lists are written only to files you choose. Workspaces include server addresses and user names, but never passwords.

You can remove all of it at any time by deleting the app's data or the app itself.

3. Network connections

iOPCPlayer only connects to the OPC UA servers you explicitly configure (and, optionally, the simulation server it runs locally on your own machine). It does not connect to any server operated by the developer. Any data exchanged with your OPC UA servers travels directly between your Mac and those servers. The developer never sees it.

If you switch on PubSub in the built-in simulation server, the app also sends and receives OPC UA PubSub messages (UADP) as UDP multicast on your local network (by default to the group opc.udp://224.0.0.22:4840/). This happens only while PubSub publishing or subscribing is enabled, and the messages are addressed to your local network, never to the developer.

To help you find servers, Find Servers asks a discovery server whose address you enter, or browses Bonjour (mDNS) on your local network for OPC UA servers that announce themselves. Both happen only when you start a search, and the results are used only to fill in the connection dialog.

Two features let other machines connect to your Mac, and both are off until you use them: with reverse connect, the app listens on a port you choose (4844 by default) while it waits for the server you configured; and the built-in simulation server accepts connections from your local network only if you turn that on, which requires encryption and a user login. Otherwise the simulation server listens on this Mac only.

Because iOPCPlayer talks to devices on your local network, macOS asks for the Local Network permission the first time it is needed. You can grant or revoke it at any time under System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Local Network. Without it, connections to servers on your local network, Bonjour discovery and PubSub multicast do not work; connections to localhost are not affected.

4. This website

This site is a plain static page hosted on GitLab Pages. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics or trackers, and loads no third-party resources: every asset comes from this site itself. Visiting it does not profile you. (Your network may reach GitLab's infrastructure to serve the page; that is governed by GitLab's own privacy policy.)

5. Support, issues & contributions

iOPCPlayer is open source, and support runs through email and GitLab Issues. If you choose to open an issue or submit a merge request, you do so on GitLab, and anything you post there is public and controlled by you. Share only what you're comfortable making public (please don't paste passwords, private endpoints or certificates). Issues and merge requests are subject to GitLab's privacy policy. Contributions are welcome: I review every submission personally and merge what fits.

If you write to the support address, your email address, your message and anything you attach reach the developer through Gmail, so they are also processed by Google under Google's privacy policy. They are used only to answer you, are not shared with anyone else and are kept only as long as needed to handle your request. You can ask for your messages to be deleted at any time by replying to the same address. Please don't send passwords, private endpoints or certificates by email either.

6. Third-party services & sharing

The app integrates no third-party analytics, advertising, or data brokers. Because the app collects nothing, it shares nothing with anyone. Support emails, issues and merge requests are handled as described in section 5.

7. Children

iOPCPlayer is a professional engineering tool and is not directed at children. It collects no personal data from anyone, regardless of age.

8. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published here with a new effective date. Because the site and app are open source, the full history of changes is also visible in the project's repository.

9. Contact

Questions about privacy? Open an issue on GitLab to keep answers public and searchable, or contact the developer by email via the support page.

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