Privacy policy: Showglass

Showglass is a Mac app by VPO Labs that shows previews of your files in Quick Look and Finder. This policy says what Showglass does with your information. The short version: your files never leave your Mac; the Quick Look extensions have no network access; the app sends anonymous usage counts you can turn off.

In short

Your files are read on your Mac to draw a preview. They are never copied, uploaded or shared, and their names, paths and contents are never sent.
The two Quick Look extensions, the parts that open your files, have no network access. They cannot send anything anywhere.
The Showglass app sends VPO Labs anonymous usage counts, hang and error reports, and crash reports when you choose to send them. None of it is linked to you, and there is no tracking and no advertising.
You can turn usage counts and hang and error reports off, choose whether crash reports are sent, reset the identifiers, and export or delete your data in Settings › Privacy.
If you email us for support, we receive what you choose to send, and only that.

Who we are

VPO Labs ("we", "us") is the developer of Showglass and the controller of the data described here. Contact: support@vpolabs.com.

What Showglass does with your files

When you press Space on a file in Finder, Quick Look asks Showglass to draw the preview, and Finder asks it for thumbnails of some file types. Showglass reads that file on your Mac, draws the preview, and forgets it. The two Quick Look extensions:

have no network permission, so they cannot send anything anywhere;
never run code from your files and never load remote content;
do not keep a copy of your files or of the previews, and do not keep a list of what you previewed;
do not write file names, paths or contents to the system log.

Each time an extension draws a preview or a thumbnail, it adds 1 to a counter for that kind of file (for example "code" or "fonts") in Showglass's own storage on your Mac. The counter is a number; it never holds a file name, path, content or file type. The app reads these counters and includes them in the usage counts below.

What the Showglass app sends

The Showglass app (not the extensions) sends the following to VPO Labs, over HTTPS, using VPO Labs' own support software (VPOCoreKit) and VPO Labs' own servers. None of it contains your name, email address, account, IP address, your Mac's name or serial number, or anything from your files.

What	When	Contents	Your choice
Usage counts	About once a day, while the app is open	Per day: app version and build, macOS version, Mac architecture, number of app sessions and active minutes, launch time, how many previews and thumbnails each kind of file got, whether the two extensions are on, whether Pro is free, purchased or unlocked for TestFlight, whether the welcome was finished, and how often the Pro sheet was shown, a purchase completed or a purchase was restored	On by default. Turn off in Settings › Privacy; the extensions then stop counting and anything queued is deleted
Hang and error reports	When the app freezes for several seconds or hits an error, at most a few a day	Where in Showglass's code it happened (code addresses and the app's own binary names), the app and macOS versions, the Mac model identifier (such as `Mac16,5`), the language, and the last steps the app took (never file names, paths or contents)	On by default. Turn off in Settings › Privacy
Crash reports	After the app crashes	Like a hang report, plus the reason the app stopped and the app's recent diagnostic log, and a note and email address only if you type them	Ask Every Time by default: a window shows the report and you choose to send it or not. Choose Always Send or Never Send in Settings › Privacy

The app keeps two random identifiers, made on your Mac and not derived from your hardware, your account or you: one for reports and one for usage counts. They are never sent together, so reports and usage counts cannot be joined. Reset Identifiers in Settings › Privacy makes new ones.

Usage counts carry no time of day, only the date. The server uses your IP address only for the moment of the request, to limit abuse, and never stores it.

The app does not fetch remote settings, messages or ads. It does not use the App Tracking Transparency framework because it does not track you.

Why, and on what legal basis

We use this information to find and fix crashes and hangs, to see which kinds of files people preview so we know what to improve, and to see whether the extensions are turned on and the Pro purchase works. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in keeping Showglass working and improving it, balanced by keeping the data anonymous, minimal and switchable. Crash reports you send when asked are also covered by your choice to send them.

Who processes it, and for how long

VPO Labs processes this data itself, on servers it runs for its own apps (VPO Core). No analytics company, advertiser or data broker receives it, and we do not sell it or use it for marketing.

Hang, error and crash reports: kept for 18 months.
Usage counts: kept for 400 days.
After that, only totals per day with no identifiers remain.

Export and delete

In Settings › Privacy:

Export… downloads everything the server holds under your Mac's identifiers, as a JSON file you save where you choose.
Delete… deletes everything the server holds under those identifiers and everything the app keeps for reporting on your Mac, then makes new identifiers.

The server records only that a request happened, not what it returned. If you uninstall Showglass without using Delete, the data expires after the periods above; you can also email support@vpolabs.com.

What Showglass stores on your Mac

Showglass stores a small amount of data in its own space on your Mac:

Your settings, such as theme and which kinds of preview are switched on.
The preview and thumbnail counters described above, and the counts the app has already reported.
Reporting data: your privacy choices, the two random identifiers, reports waiting to be sent, and a short diagnostic log of what the app did (no file names, paths or contents).
Your Pro purchase record, if you buy Pro. It contains the details of the App Store transaction that Apple verified, and a one-way hash of your Mac's hardware identifier, which ties the record to this Mac. The hash cannot be turned back into the identifier and is never sent anywhere.
Sample files only if you choose "Export Sample Files…". They are written to the folder you pick.

Deleting Showglass and its data (for example with an app cleaner, or by removing its folders in ~/Library/Containers and ~/Library/Group Containers) removes all of this from your Mac.

Purchases

Showglass is free. Pro is an optional one-time purchase made through the App Store. Apple handles the payment, your Apple Account and your payment details, and tells Showglass on your Mac whether the purchase is valid. We receive no payment details and no personal information from your purchase. Apple may give us aggregate sales and download figures through App Store Connect; they do not identify you. Apple's handling of your data is described in Apple's Privacy Policy.

Feedback and support

Showglass has a "Send Feedback…" command. It opens a new draft in your own Mail app, addressed to support@vpolabs.com. You read it and decide whether to send it; Showglass cannot send it for you.

You may attach a short diagnostics text file, which you can read before sending. It contains: the Showglass version, the macOS version, whether the thumbnail extension is on, whether Pro is unlocked, and which preview families are switched on. It never contains file names, paths or file contents.

If you send us an email, we receive your email address and whatever you write or attach. We use it only to answer you and to fix the problem you raise. We keep it as long as needed for that, and delete it afterwards. We do not sell it, share it, or use it for marketing.

Apple's crash reports

Separately from the above, if you have turned on "Share with App Developers" in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements, macOS may send crash reports to Apple, and Apple may make them available to us through Xcode and App Store Connect. That is Apple's opt-in system, governed by Apple's policy.

Who sees your information

VPO Labs: the reports and usage counts above, on its own servers.
Apple: App Store purchases, and its own opt-in crash reports.
Our email provider: only emails you choose to send us.
Nobody else. There are no advertisers, analytics companies or data brokers.

We do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not build profiles.

The Showglass website

This policy covers the Showglass app and its Quick Look extensions. The Showglass website is separate: the app never contacts it and sends it nothing. Anything the website itself collects is described on the website.

Children

Showglass is a general utility, not directed at children, and collects nothing that identifies anyone.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you may access, correct, delete or take a copy of data about you, and object to how we use it. For the app's reports and usage counts, use Export… and Delete… in Settings › Privacy (we cannot find them without your Mac's identifiers), or turn sharing off. For emails, write to support@vpolabs.com; we respond within one month. You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority. In Romania this is the National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing (ANSPDCP, www.dataprotection.ro), and you may also contact the authority in your own country.

Changes to this policy

If Showglass changes what it does with information, we update this policy first and say so in the app's release notes. Version 1.1 (23 October 2026) added the app's anonymous usage counts and reports; version 1.0 described an app that sent nothing.

Contact

VPO Labs · support@vpolabs.com