Privacy¶
Melanite keeps your data on your own computer. Files, notes, tags, links, and location data live only inside the library folder you chose. Nothing is synced to a server, and nothing is backed up anywhere else.
This page spells out, without hedging, what does leave your machine.
What is never sent¶
- No account is required. There is no sign-up, no login, and no identifier for you
- No usage data is collected. There is no analytics, telemetry, or crash reporting in the app. Which features you use, and what files you keep, are sent to no one
- No update checks. The app never contacts a server on launch to compare versions
- Your library stays put. File contents, note text, tag names, and the terms you search for are not sent anywhere (the one exception is the place search below)
The three times data leaves¶
Network requests happen in exactly three situations, and each one only follows something you did. Nothing is sent in the background.
| Situation | Goes to | What it reveals |
|---|---|---|
| Opening the map view | OpenStreetMap tile server | the map area you are looking at |
| Searching for a place | OpenStreetMap Nominatim | the text you typed |
| Importing from a URL | the URL you supplied | a download request to that server |
As with any web request, the server on the other end sees your IP address and the
time of the request. Melanite also identifies itself as Melanite/<version>,
because the OpenStreetMap terms require an app to be identifiable.
When you open the map view¶
Background images (tiles) are fetched from OpenStreetMap. What this reveals is the tile coordinates — the area you are viewing. Your pins, and the coordinates stored in your photos, are not uploaded.
Tiles you have already fetched stay on your computer, so revisiting the same area sends nothing. If you never open the map view, none of this happens.
When you search for a place¶
The text you type into the map's search box is sent to Nominatim (OpenStreetMap's place search), which returns coordinates. Your search text is passed along verbatim.
It is sent only when you press Enter. Melanite does not send keystrokes as you type, so there is no as-you-type lookup.
Searching for your home address
Search text goes to an external service. If you would not want a place name or address seen by a third party, keep that in mind before typing it here. Panning the map there by hand avoids the search entirely.
When you import from a URL¶
Importing from a URL fetches the file from the address you provide. The destination is whatever server you pointed it at.
Remote images in notes¶
If a note references an external image with , opening that note would
normally contact the remote server each time. Melanite does not load these by default.
This keeps merely opening a note from handing your IP address and reading time to someone else. You can turn loading on in the settings.
On a company or school network¶
If your computer is configured to use a proxy, all three requests above go through it. Your network administrator can see the destinations, just as with ordinary web browsing.
Working offline¶
Without a network connection, nearly everything still works — importing, tagging, searching, and editing notes included. The only differences are that map backgrounds do not appear and URL import is unavailable. Map areas you have already viewed still render while offline.
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