Acceptable use

KeepMyBubbles is a personal archiving tool. It is designed, and built, to do one thing: let you keep a copy of the message history that is already on your own Mac.

What the app is technically incapable of

These are not policies we promise to enforce. They are limits of what the software can do:

It reads only the Messages database belonging to the macOS user account it is running under. It cannot reach another account on the same Mac, and it cannot reach another Mac.
It has no remote access, no device pairing, and no way to connect to a phone, a tablet or a cloud account. If a message has not already synced to the Mac it is running on, the app cannot see it.
It sends no message content anywhere. Exporting makes no network requests at all.
It is an ordinary windowed application. It cannot be installed silently, cannot run hidden, and appears in the Dock like any other app.
It cannot read anything until Full Disk Access is granted in System Settings — a permission macOS only accepts from someone physically at that Mac, signed in to that account, with an administrator password.

Permitted use

Use KeepMyBubbles on a Mac you own or are authorised to administer, to archive message history belonging to you — keeping a record before changing devices, producing a copy of your own conversation for your lawyer, or holding onto messages from someone you have lost.

Use that is not permitted

You may not use KeepMyBubbles:

On a Mac you do not own and are not authorised to use, or on another person’s user account.
To read, archive or export another person’s messages without their knowledge and consent — including a partner, former partner, family member, employee or child, whatever your relationship to them.
To monitor, track or build a record of another person’s communications or movements.
In any way that breaches the privacy, surveillance, interception or computer-access laws that apply where you are.

Buying a licence does not make any of the above lawful, and we will terminate a licence used that way without a refund.

If someone has access to your Mac

Because Full Disk Access can only be granted by someone using your Mac with your administrator password, anyone who has both can read your messages with or without this app. If you are worried that someone has that level of access to your computer, change your account password and review the apps listed under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access. In New Zealand, Netsafe can help; elsewhere, a local digital-safety or family-violence service can.

Reporting misuse

If you believe KeepMyBubbles is being used against you, email support@keepmybubbles.com. We will respond, and we will disable a licence found to be used this way.

This policy forms part of the terms. See also the privacy policy.