One licence on one Mac needs an online activation. What the app sends at activation, what it never sends, and how to free the seat when you change computers, as our licences write it down.
Almost any paid software has to find out, one way or another, whether you are entitled to use it. How it does so says a lot about how the user is treated: with trust or with suspicion, openly or in silence. This article describes the model we use for our macOS apps with paid features and, above all, what the licence says about the data sent.
This is not legal advice. The text that counts is each app’s licence; read it before you buy.
The model: one licence, one Mac
The principle is simple: a licence key allows the app to be used on one Mac at a time. The key is personal, and activation ties it to the computer on which you enter it.
Not every app asks for this:
- the free part of an app can be used without a key, with no time limit (for example in Vitals; the licence text says that as long as you only use the free tier, nothing of what follows happens);
- MTW Tmux is free and open source under the MIT licence: there is nothing to buy and nothing to activate.
The rest of this article is about the apps with paid features and what their licences describe.
What the app sends at activation
When you enter the key, the app makes a request to our server. The licences list exactly three things sent:
- The licence key, so the server can recognise the purchase.
- A machine identifier: a SHA-256 hash, that is a one-way fingerprint, computed from a hardware identifier of the Mac combined with a value specific to the product. The hardware identifier itself never leaves the computer, and the hash cannot be reversed. Because the value mixed in differs from one app to another, one app’s fingerprint cannot be matched with another’s for the same Mac.
- The name of the Mac, as it appears in System Settings, called the “machine label”. It has one purpose: to show you, if the key is already active on another computer, which of your machines holds it. It decides nothing and is not compared with anything. The licences also point out something worth knowing: if the name of your Mac identifies you, that name is what is sent. You can change it in System Settings before activating.
What it does not send
Just as important: the licences say the app does not send usage data, telemetry or analytics. It does not report which processes, sessions, files or projects you look at, or what its records contain. For Vitals, for example, the licence states that its records stay local and are never transmitted.
The text adds two things that we might have been forgiven for passing over in silence:
- as with any request on the internet, the connection itself carries the IP address and the name and version of the application;
- the server keeps the time of the last question from each activated copy. That is all that is recorded about use: a single timestamp per activated computer, nothing about what you did.
The four occasions on which the app contacts the server
In the apps with updated wording, the licence counts the occasions and says there are no others:
- Activation, when you enter the key.
- Removing the licence from this Mac, when you ask the app to. It sends the key and the machine identifier (not the name).
- Asking whether this Mac still holds the licence. It is asked when the app starts, only if you are online. It sends the key, the identifier and a random single-use value that stops the answer being recorded and replayed. Without it, a licence freed on your behalf could never be closed on the old copy.
- Checking for a new version, on request or on a schedule you can switch off. It sends no licence information.
In licences with older wording, the question at start-up is described in the same way: it is asked when the app starts and, if you are online, sends the key, the identifier and a random value.
What happens without internet
After activation the server returns a signed record, stored in the macOS Keychain. The licence is then checked on your computer, at every launch, and needs no internet connection. The record does not expire and does not need renewing.
What that means in practice, according to the licence texts:
- the app keeps working offline;
- if you have no network, the start-up question is simply skipped;
- a missing answer, a failed answer or one that cannot be verified leaves your licence exactly as it was. Nothing is removed from the Mac except after an explicit, signed answer saying the licence was freed.
We design it this way because we would like a downed server or a plane without wifi not to leave you without the tool you paid for.
How to move the licence to another Mac
If you try to activate a key that is already active on another computer, activation is refused and the app tells you which one it is, so you recognise it. You have two routes:
- Free the seat from the app, on the old Mac, while you still have access to it. Then activate on the new one.
- Ask us to free it, if the Mac was lost, broke or was sold and you can no longer reach the app. The licence describes this situation explicitly.
An honest detail: releasing frees the seat; it does not remotely switch off a copy already installed. Nothing the server does can reach into your Keychain. The old copy stops considering itself licensed only the next time it is online and asks the start-up question. So when you sell a Mac, release the licence first.
One trace remains: the licence says a released activation is recorded as released, not erased, so that the history of a key stays verifiable.
How long the data is kept and what it is used for
According to the Vitals licence, the data described above is kept as long as the licence exists and is used only to issue, verify, move and support the licence. It is not sold, rented, shared with third parties or used for advertising or profiling.
A list of questions for any software you buy
Our model is not the only possible one. But the questions below are worth asking any maker:
- What exactly is sent at activation and at every start-up?
- Is anything sent about what you do with the app?
- What happens if you have no internet? What happens if the maker’s server no longer exists?
- How do you move the licence to another computer? And if the old computer is lost?
- Is all of this written in the licence, or only on the marketing page?
A maker who answers these in writing treats you as an adult.
A word about consistency
A licence must describe what the published app does, not what the version from two years ago did. The texts quoted here are working drafts, not yet reviewed by a lawyer; we think it is better for them to be public and correctable than hidden. If you find a difference between what an app’s page says, its licence and the app’s behaviour, get in touch: it is an error we want to fix.
Our apps are on the products page. And if you need an app with licensing or accounts made for your company, see custom software.