Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 18, 2026

This policy explains what the Broadsheet app for macOS ("Broadsheet", "the app") and its optional Chrome extension, Broadsheet for Chrome ("the extension"), read, what they store, and what they never do. Both are made by Victor Shammas, an independent developer ("I", "me").

1. What Broadsheet reads

Broadsheet runs in Apple's App Sandbox. It reads only what you give it:

Source	What is read	Why
Links you add	The links you paste, drop, type or import, and the text around them while finding the links	To know which pages to read. The clipboard is read only when you paste.
Files you import or open	Bookmark exports, link files, feeds lists and .broadsheet packets you choose	To find their links, or to open the packet.
The pages themselves	Each linked page and its pictures, fetched from its own site	To make the book. Only the article's text, pictures and details (title, author, date) are kept.

2. What Broadsheet stores on your Mac

• Your packet: the links you've added and the articles as read, so it's there when you reopen the app; the last 20 packets you've made books from, for File › Open Recent; and the feeds you've saved.
• Pictures: a cache of the articles' pictures, so a book doesn't download them twice.
• Sign-ins and site checks: when you sign in to a site in Broadsheet's sign-in window, or a site's bot check is passed, the site's cookies are kept in Broadsheet's own web storage, as a browser keeps them, so the site's other articles can be read. Broadsheet never sees or stores your passwords: you type them into the site's own page.
• The connection code for Broadsheet for Chrome, and your settings.

All of this is kept in Broadsheet's sandbox container on your Mac. None of it is sent to me. Packets you save as files and books you make are saved where you choose.

3. Network use

• The sites you link to. Broadsheet fetches each page, and its pictures, directly from its site, as a browser would. Those sites see an ordinary visit: your IP address, your preferred languages, and the cookies of any sign-in you made in Broadsheet. When a site turns a plain request away, Broadsheet loads the page in a hidden browser view, in the same way.
• Feeds you look up are fetched from their sites.
• A local connection for the Chrome extension. Broadsheet listens on your Mac's own loopback address (127.0.0.1), which can't be reached from other computers. It answers only the extension, and only when the extension proves it has the connection code. It stops when you quit Broadsheet.

Broadsheet makes no other connections: no analytics, no update checks, no servers of mine.

4. Broadsheet for Chrome

The extension is optional and free. It reads a page in Chrome only when you click its button or choose Add to Broadsheet, or when Broadsheet asks for an article it couldn't read itself, and then only on sites you have allowed it to open. It sends that page to Broadsheet on the same Mac, and nowhere else. It stores the connection code and one preference in Chrome's storage for the extension. It doesn't read your Chrome history, passwords or cookies.

5. What Broadsheet never does

• No accounts or sign-up.
• No analytics, telemetry, crash-reporting services, advertising or tracking SDKs.
• No servers run by me. Nothing is uploaded to me or to any third party on my behalf.
• No selling or sharing of data, because I don't have any of your data.
• No tracking across apps or websites.
• No getting around paywalls: Broadsheet reads only what your own sign-ins allow.

6. Apple

You buy and download Broadsheet through the Mac App Store. Apple processes your purchase under Apple's Privacy Policy. Apple may share anonymous sales and, if you opt in to sharing with developers, crash statistics with me. These never include your links, articles or books.

7. Removing your data

• To empty the list of recent packets, use File › Open Recent › Clear Menu.
• To disconnect Chrome, choose New Code in Broadsheet › Settings › Chrome, or remove the extension in Chrome.
• To remove everything, sign-ins included, quit Broadsheet, delete it from Applications, then delete its container folder ~/Library/Containers/com.victorshammas.broadsheet. macOS keeps this folder when you delete an app.

8. Children

Broadsheet collects no personal information from anyone, including children. It opens whatever web pages you link to, so its App Store age rating reflects unrestricted web access.

9. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date. If a change ever adds data collection, it will be announced in the app's release notes before it takes effect.

10. Contact

Questions about privacy? Email contact+broadsheet@victorshammas.com.