Privacy

Updated 2026-10-14

Textmode is a text editor, and your text stays on your Mac. There is no account, no analytics and no update check, and the app doesn't contact any server.

What stays on your Mac

• Your files, and the text of untitled windows you close, which Textmode keeps so you can bring it back.
• Your settings, syntax styles, themes and scripts.
• Checking your license. The app checks a key's signature on the Mac and never contacts a server to do it, so Textmode works with no internet at all.

When something leaves your Mac

Only when you choose it: opening a link from Textmode opens it in your browser, and the Help menu's support item starts an email to us in your mail app. New versions are on usefulcomputing.com/textmode; Cloudflare, which hosts the site and the download, sees your internet address in order to answer.

When you pay in USDC

You pay from your own wallet or exchange, so we get no card details and you make no account.

• What we get: your email, the order number, the price, and the deposit address made for your order.
• Why: to see your payment, make your license key (it carries your email), show it to you on the order page, and email it to you.
• Who handles it: Cloudflare's servers in the United States keep the order, and Postmark sends the email with your key. The payment itself sits on a public blockchain, where anyone can see its amount, its time and the address it came from.
• How long: as long as you may need your key sent again, and as long as the law requires us to keep order records. If you ask us to delete it, we can no longer send your key again; the key on your Mac keeps working.

When you pay by card

If we offer card payment, Polar sells Textmode as the seller of record. Its checkout collects your name, email, payment details and country for tax, and Polar handles those under its own privacy policy. We do not receive your card details.

• What we get: your name and email, and the order number.
• Why: to make your license key, which carries your email, show it to you after checkout, and send it again if you lose it.
• Who handles it: Polar keeps the order, as its own business and under its own policy. The key is made on Cloudflare's servers, which also keep it so the page you land on after checkout can show it to you. Both are in the United States. You give your details to Polar directly, which EU rules do not count as a transfer out of the EU; for its own transfers Polar uses the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, and Cloudflare is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
• How long: while you may need your key sent again, and as long as the law requires us to keep order records. If you ask us to delete it, we can no longer send your key again; the key on your Mac keeps working.

We use your email only for your license and replies to messages you send us. You can ask for a copy of what we hold, to correct it or to delete it, and we answer within 30 days. No newsletter unless you sign up for one. If you live in the EU or UK, the basis for this is the contract you made when you bought, and you can complain to your data protection authority.

Your choices

• Remove the app and its folders in Library to remove everything it stored.
• Ask us to delete what we hold about your purchase, or to send you a copy: support@usefulcomputing.com.

Who we are

Textmode is made by Useful Computing, a brand of Riverside Art LLC, a Wyoming company, 30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States. Questions about this page: support@usefulcomputing.com.