Macto Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 27, 2026

Macto copies photos and videos from your Android phone to your own Mac over your local network. It is built so that your photos never pass through anyone else's computer, including ours.

What Macto does with your data

Photos and videos. The Android app reads the photos and videos in the folders you choose and sends them directly to the Mac you paired it with. The Mac app saves them to Apple Photos or to a folder you choose. Files are encrypted in transit (AES-256-GCM with keys agreed between your two devices) and never leave your local network.
Location in photos. If your photos contain location (GPS) metadata, it is kept in the copies on your Mac, exactly as in the originals. Macto does not use your location for anything else.
Device names and keys. To pair, each device stores the other's name and public key. This stays on your devices.
Sync history. Both apps keep a local list of what was synced, so nothing is sent twice. It stays on your devices and is deleted when you uninstall the app.

Update checks. About once a day, each app downloads a small file from macto.app to see whether a newer version exists (the Mac app via Sparkle, the Android app only when installed from macto.app — Google Play installs are updated by Play). The request carries nothing about you or your photos, just what any web request does: your IP address and the app's version. The server keeps no logs of these requests. You can turn automatic checks off in the Mac app's settings.

What Macto does not do

No accounts, no sign-in.
No servers for your data: Macto has no cloud component and nothing is uploaded to us or to third parties. The only thing the apps fetch from macto.app is the update check above.
No analytics, advertising, tracking or crash-reporting SDKs.
Macto does not sell or share any data, because it never receives any.

Permissions

Permission	Why
Photos and videos (Android)	To find and send your photos and videos to your Mac.
Photo location (Android)	To keep the location metadata in the copies on your Mac.
Camera (Android)	Only to scan the pairing QR code shown by the Mac app. Nothing is recorded.
Notifications (Android)	To show sync progress.
Local network	To find your Mac on your Wi-Fi network and connect to it.
Background activity (Android)	To sync new photos automatically and, if you turn on "Stay connected", to respond to "Sync Now" from your Mac.
Photos library (Mac)	To add received photos and videos to Apple Photos.
Local network (Mac)	To receive photos from your phone.

Deleting your data

Unpairing or uninstalling either app deletes its keys and sync history. Photos already copied to your Mac stay there until you delete them yourself; deleting a photo on the phone never deletes it on the Mac.

Children

Macto is not directed at children and collects no personal information from anyone.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published at this address with a new date.

Contact

Questions: hello@macto.app