Privacy Policy

Last updated: 30 April 2026.

HearThere is built to do one job locally on your Mac and stay out of your way. The app itself doesn't run analytics, doesn't log usage, and doesn't see your audio or video content. Three narrow exceptions — purchase, license delivery, crash reports, and update checks — are described below.

What HearThere reads from your system

To do its job — route audio to the display where your video is playing — HearThere queries macOS for three pieces of information, transiently and in-process:

• Per-process audio activity, via Apple's public CoreAudio API (kAudioProcessPropertyIsRunningOutput, available on macOS 14.2+). HearThere uses this to detect which app is currently producing audio.
• On-screen window bounds, via CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo. HearThere uses this to find the position of the audio-producing app's window, in order to decide which display it sits on.
• The list of running applications, via NSWorkspace.runningApplications. HearThere uses this to map an audio helper subprocess back to its main application (e.g., attribute Chrome's audio helper to Chrome itself).

All of the above is read into memory, used to make a routing decision, and discarded. None of it is logged, stored, or sent off-device.

What HearThere writes

HearThere changes one macOS setting on your behalf: the system default audio output device, via the public CoreAudio property kAudioHardwarePropertyDefaultOutputDevice. This is the same setting you change when you use the Sound menu in macOS to pick a different output.

Permissions

HearThere does not request Accessibility, Screen Recording, Automation, or any other privacy-sensitive permission.

If you toggle "Launch at login" on, HearThere registers itself with macOS's SMAppService so it can start with your session. That registration is local to your Mac.

Third-party services

The HearThere app does not contact any servers for its routing functionality. The following services are involved only at the time of purchase, license delivery, update checks, or in the event of a crash:

• Stripe processes payments when you buy a license. We never see or store your card details — Stripe handles checkout entirely. We receive a confirmation that includes your email and purchase amount, used only to generate and email your license. See Stripe's privacy policy.
• Resend delivers your license email after purchase. Your email address is used for that single transactional delivery and is not added to any marketing list.
• Sparkle, the auto-update system, periodically fetches https://hearthere.app/appcast.xml to check for new versions. The request includes only your current app version and macOS version. No personal identifiers.
• Sentry receives crash reports if HearThere crashes in production. Reports include the crash stack trace, app version, and macOS version. They do not include personal data, file contents, window titles, audio, or video content. You can opt out via HearThere → Diagnostics → Send crash reports.

Apart from these four narrowly-scoped touchpoints, HearThere does not communicate with any server.

Children

HearThere is not directed at children, but does not collect personal data from anyone of any age.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will appear at this URL with an updated date. Material changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions about privacy or this policy: hearthere@richardson.co.