Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 5, 2026

1. Overview

Starkive (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and your rights. By using Starkive you agree to the practices described here.

2. Data we collect

We collect only the minimum data necessary to provide the service:

  • Account data: Your email address when you create an account. Used to send open notifications and authenticate your session.
  • File metadata: The filename, a unique file token (UUID), star name, recipient hint, and open count. We never store the contents of your files.
  • Open event data: Timestamp, country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2), and user agent string at the time a file is opened.
  • No IP addresses: IP addresses are used solely for the immediate derivation of a country code and are never stored in any database or log.

3. Data we do not collect

  • File contents: your files are encrypted on your device and never transmitted to our servers.
  • PDF contents: text analyzed by the on-device AI stays on your Mac (see section 6).
  • Passwords or encryption keys: these stay on your local machine.
  • IP addresses: not stored beyond the immediate country-code lookup.
  • Payment card details: purchases are handled by Apple (App Store) or Stripe (direct download); Starkive never receives or stores your card information.

4. How we use your data

  • To send you email notifications when your files are opened.
  • To maintain your file open history in the dashboard.
  • To generate PDF open certificates.
  • To improve the reliability and performance of the service.

5. Third-party services

Starkive uses the following third-party services:

6. On-device AI (PDF Studio)

PDF Studio can summarize a PDF or answer questions about it using Apple’s on-device Foundation Models, and can read scanned or image-only pages using on-device OCR (Apple Vision). All of this runs entirely on your Mac. Your document text is never sent to Starkive, to Apple, or to any third-party AI service, and it is never used to train any model. These features require an Apple silicon Mac running macOS 15 with Apple Intelligence enabled; where they are unavailable, the rest of PDF Studio still works.

7. Optional cloud backup

You may optionally connect a cloud provider to back up your encrypted Vault: Apple iCloud Drive, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive. This is off by default and entirely at your choice. When you connect a provider, Starkive authenticates through that provider’s standard OAuth flow in a secure web session; we never see your provider password. Your Vault is encrypted on your Mac before it leaves the device, so only the encrypted file is stored on the provider you pick, at your direction — Starkive never receives a copy of the unencrypted data. Your use of these providers is also governed by their own policies: Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

8. Data retention

We retain account and file metadata for as long as your account is active. Open event records are retained for 24 months. You can delete your account and all associated server-side data at any time from within the app (Settings → Delete Account), or by contacting us at support@depaloconsultingllc.com.

9. Your rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your personal data. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@depaloconsultingllc.com.

10. Security

All data in transit is encrypted via TLS 1.2+. Your Vault is encrypted locally with AES-256-GCM using a key derived from your master password via Argon2id; the key and your master password never leave your device. On macOS, credentials and OAuth tokens are stored in the system Keychain; on Windows they are protected with DPAPI. We apply the principle of least privilege to all database access policies.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify registered users by email of any material changes. Continued use of Starkive after such notice constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy? Contact us at support@depaloconsultingllc.com.