SmartFiler organises files on your Mac. Your files, their names, and everything the app works out about them stay on your Mac. There is no account, no analytics, and no server of ours for any of it to go to.
The short version
- We do not collect, transmit, sell, or share any of your data.
- Your files are never uploaded, copied off your Mac, or read by us.
- There is no account to create and no sign-in.
- There are no analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking SDKs in the app.
- The AI features run locally. They are optional, and they only ever see filenames — never the contents of your files.
Your files
SmartFiler runs inside Apple's App Sandbox. It can only see folders you explicitly choose through the system's open panel, and macOS — not the app — controls that access. Within a folder you have chosen, the app reads file names, extensions, sizes, and dates in order to find duplicates, propose groupings, and rename in bulk.
To detect duplicate files by content, the app computes a SHA-256 checksum of a file's bytes on your Mac and compares checksums locally. The bytes are read only to produce that checksum; nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
Nothing moves until you approve it, and deletions go to the Trash rather than being erased, so a mistaken operation is recoverable.
The AI features, and what they can see
SmartFiler can use a local language model to suggest how files might be grouped or renamed. The suggestions are always shown to you as editable rules before anything is applied — the model never moves or changes a file itself.
What the model receives is a digest of filenames — the words and extensions found in the names of the files in the folder you are working on. The contents of your files are never sent to a model, on-device or otherwise.
You choose which engine performs that work:
- Apple Intelligence — Apple's on-device model. Nothing leaves your Mac.
- Ollama — a model running in a local Ollama installation you have set up yourself. The app talks to it over your Mac's own loopback interface; nothing leaves your Mac.
- A downloaded local model — you may pick a model from a built-in catalogue and download it. This is the one time the app connects to the internet. The model files are fetched from Hugging Face, a third-party service, and are then stored and run on your Mac. Only the request for the model itself is involved; none of your filenames or file data are sent as part of a download. Hugging Face's handling of that request is governed by their own privacy terms.
If you never enable the AI features, or use only the Apple Intelligence or Ollama engines, the app makes no network connections at all.
What the app stores
SmartFiler saves your settings, your saved sorting rules, bookmarks to folders you organise often, and any local models you chose to download. All of this lives in the app's own sandboxed storage on your Mac. Deleting the app removes it.
Network use
Apart from downloading a local model if you ask for one, the app makes no network requests to provide its features. It also contains ordinary links — to this website and to the help page — which open in your web browser. At that point you are on a website, subject to your browser's and that site's own terms; the app sends none of your data along with such a link.
Purchases and ratings
SmartFiler is distributed through the Mac App Store, and any purchase is handled entirely by Apple. We do not process or receive your payment details. The app may occasionally ask, through Apple's standard system prompt, whether you would like to rate it; that prompt is presented by the operating system and returns nothing to us.
Diagnostics
The app contains no analytics or crash reporting of its own. If you have opted in to sharing diagnostics with developers in your system settings, Apple may provide us with aggregated, anonymised crash statistics through App Store Connect. That is controlled by you under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements, and is governed by Apple's privacy terms rather than ours.
Your control over your data
- Revoke the app's access to any folder at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders.
- Delete downloaded models from within the app's AI settings.
- Remove the app to remove its settings, rules, bookmarks, and downloaded models.
- Your files are your own — SmartFiler only ever moves them where you told it to.
Third-party components
The app includes open-source components used to run local models on your Mac. They execute locally and do not transmit your data. The only third party the app can contact is Hugging Face, and only when you ask it to download a model, as described above.
Children's privacy
SmartFiler collects no data from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page will be updated.
Contact
Questions about privacy: support@robroy.online.