Scout — Privacy policy

Last updated August 23, 2026

Scout searches your Mac. To do that it reads your files, contacts, mail, messages, notes and reminders — and none of it goes anywhere. Scout makes no network requests at all: not to search, not to check for updates, not to report a crash, and not to us. There is no account, no advertising, no analytics, and no third-party code that phones home. This policy is short because there is very little to disclose.

What Scout reads

Only what you ask it to search, and only when a source is switched on. Files come from the same Spotlight index the Finder uses. Mail, Messages and Notes are read from the databases those apps keep on your Mac — which is why macOS asks you for Full Disk Access first. Contacts and Reminders come from Apple's own frameworks, after macOS asks your permission. Every one of these is a switch you can turn off, and refusing one has no effect on the others.

What Scout keeps

To search your mail, messages and notes quickly, Scout builds its own index of them in ~/Library/Application Support/Scout. It is a plain file on your Mac, readable only by your account, and it is never uploaded, backed up to us, or shared. Scout also remembers which result you picked for a search, so the same search puts it first next time. Delete the folder, or the app, and all of it is gone.

What Scout sends

Nothing. There is no analytics library, no crash reporter, no update check, and no advertising or tracking code of any kind in the app. If you were to watch its network traffic while searching, you would see none.

Children

Scout is not directed at children and collects no personal information from anyone, of any age.

Changes to this policy

If this ever changes — and it would take a new feature to change it — the updated policy will appear here with a new date, and the app will say so before anything is sent anywhere.

Contact

Questions about this policy: get in touch.