Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-08-17

There are two separate things covered here: the Message Album app, which runs on your Mac, and this website. They are treated very differently, because the app has no way to send data anywhere and the website is an ordinary website.

The app collects nothing

Message Album has no accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no telemetry and no crash reporting. It makes two kinds of network request, both described below, and neither ever carries any of your data. Specifically:

• The only thing the app ever sends is a licence key. When you activate or deactivate a licence, the key and a device identifier are sent to our licence server (api.keybee.app) to check the key and count how many Macs it is used on. That request contains no messages, no attachments, no contacts and no name or email address. If you never enter a licence key, the app never contacts the licence server.
• The app checks for its own updates. It asks messagealbum.com whether a newer version exists, and installs one only if you agree. That request carries nothing about you or your Mac. On first launch Message Album asks whether to check automatically; decline and it checks only when you ask it to.
• Your messages never leave your Mac. Conversations, attachments and the archives you export are read and written entirely on the local disk.
• The Messages database is opened read-only. Message Album uses SQLite’s read-only and query-only modes, which block writes at the driver level rather than relying on the app to behave.
• Contacts stay local. For one-to-one conversations, Message Album can read a name and photo from the Contacts app on this Mac and embed them in the local export. Nothing is sent anywhere to perform that lookup, and denying Contacts access simply falls back to the original phone number or email address.
• Backup passwords stay in memory. The password for an encrypted iPhone or iPad backup is used to decrypt the data in memory on this Mac and is never written to disk or transmitted.
• Full Disk Access is required, and only used to read. macOS protects ~/Library/Messages and ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup. The grant lets Message Album read those files so it can export a conversation. You can revoke it in System Settings at any time.

What this website collects

This website uses Abner, a cookieless, privacy-friendly analytics tool. It records aggregate page views and referrers. It sets no cookies and does not track individuals across sites. The website sets no advertising or third-party tracking cookies of any kind.

Buying the app

Purchases are handled by Stripe, which acts as the merchant of record and processes your payment and email address under its own privacy policy. We receive the order details needed to issue and support your licence, including your email address. We do not receive your full card details. Your email address is used to deliver your licence key and to answer support requests, and is not sold or used for unrelated marketing.

Your data rights

Because the app stores nothing about you, there is no app-side account to access, export or delete. For purchase records held by Stripe, or to ask what we hold, email [email protected] and we will respond within 30 days.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and material changes will be noted in the changelog.

Contact

Questions about this policy: [email protected]