The sandbox and your files

What AssetScout is allowed to read, how that permission is kept between launches, and what leaves your Mac.

What leaves your Mac

AssetScout has no account, no sync and no server to talk to. It does not upload your files, your file names, or anything it reads out of them. There is no analytics in the app.

The map in the inspector comes from Apple Maps. To draw it, macOS downloads the map of the area shown from Apple, so Apple sees which area was requested. The file and its name are not sent, and nothing reaches DevNest.

The one thing the app itself can send is a message you write yourself: Help > Send Feedback… opens your mail application with a new message in it, and nothing is sent until you send it.

It reads what you hand it, and nothing else

The app is fully sandboxed. That means it starts with access to nothing at all, and gains the right to read a folder only when you choose that folder yourself — in the open panel, or by dropping it on the window.

Choosing a folder grants the folder and everything inside it. It grants nothing beside it: picking ~/Pictures says nothing about ~/Documents.

Why it does not ask twice

When you choose a folder, macOS hands the app a security-scoped bookmark — a token that stands for “this user gave me this folder”. AssetScout stores the token, so the next time you start the app the folder is still readable and you are not asked again.

The token is tied to the folder itself. Rename it, move it, or unplug the disk it was on, and the token stops resolving; the app then says so and asks you to choose the folder once more. See Messages, and what they mean.

Your files stay where they are

AssetScout builds no library of its own. It does not copy your files anywhere, and it does not write anything into them while scanning — reading a photograph's date does not even decode the picture.

Three things change a file, and each is something you chose from a menu:

• Rotating or flipping writes the turned picture back into the file.
• Move to Trash puts the file in the macOS trash, where it stays until you empty it.
• Dragging a thumbnail out to the Finder moves the file there, or copies it with ⌥ held down.