Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective November 2, 2026 · Updated November 6, 2026

Who we are

Pathnote is made by Useful Geeks LLC ("we", "us"). We are responsible for the personal data described here. For anything about privacy, email support@usefulgeeks.com.

The Pathnote app

Your guides stay on your computer

Recordings, screenshots, guides, brands, your words-to-blur list, and settings are saved in a folder on your computer. Blurring sensitive info uses text recognition that runs on your computer. Pathnote has no cloud library and no user account, and we never receive your guides, screenshots, or anything you type while recording.

Update checks

When Pathnote starts, it asks GitHub whether a newer version is out, and downloads it if so. GitHub receives your IP address and the request, as with any web request. We don't receive or keep anything from this check. GitHub's handling of that data is covered by the GitHub Privacy Statement.

Pro license checks

If you enter a Pro license key, Pathnote checks it with Polar, our payment and licensing provider, when you enter it and then about once a day. Each check sends:

• the license key and the ID of this computer's activation;
• when you first activate on a computer, a random ID that Pathnote makes for this install, a label built from it (for example "Pathnote on Windows PC · 7f3a"), and the operating system. These let you tell your activations apart and count them against your plan's computer limit. The random ID isn't based on your computer's name, your hardware, or anything else about your PC.

No guide content is ever included. The 14-day trial runs entirely on your computer and sends nothing.

Pathnote 1.0.2 and earlier labeled activations with the computer's name (for example "Pathnote on DESKTOP-4F2K") and sent a one-way hash of that name. An activation made with one of those versions keeps its label until you remove the key in Pathnote and enter it again.

AI step descriptions (optional)

This feature is off until you add your own Anthropic API key. When you use it, Pathnote sends each step's screenshot, as it appears in the guide with its blurs and crop, along with the step's title, the previous step's title, and the guide's title, straight from your computer to Anthropic's API under your own Anthropic account. If any screenshot hasn't been scanned yet, Pathnote runs Blur sensitive info first. This data does not pass through us, and Anthropic handles it under the terms of your API account. Your API key is encrypted with your operating system's keychain and is never included in backups.

No telemetry

The app doesn't send usage statistics, crash reports, or analytics.

This website

getpathnote.com uses no cookies, analytics, or tracking scripts, and its fonts are served from this site rather than a third-party font service. Like any website, our hosting provider may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses and the pages requested, for security and to keep the site running.

The Download buttons take you to GitHub, which hosts the installer. The Buy buttons take you to Polar's checkout. Those sites have their own privacy policies.

Buying Pathnote Pro

Purchases are handled by Polar, which acts as the merchant of record. Polar collects your payment details, billing address, and email, and handles payments, sales tax, and VAT under the Polar Privacy Policy. We never see your card details. Polar shares with us your name, email address, what you bought, your license key and its activations, and your order history, so that we can provide your license and support.

Support emails

If you email us, we keep the conversation, including your email address and anything you choose to send, so that we can help you and refer back to it later.

Why we use this data

For people in the EU, UK, and similar places, these are our legal bases:

• Contract: license checks and purchase records, to provide the Pro license you bought or are trying.
• Legitimate interests: answering support emails, keeping the website secure, and preventing license misuse.
• Legal obligation: keeping purchase records for tax and accounting.

We don't sell your data, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models.

How long we keep it

• License and purchase records: for as long as your license is active, then as long as tax and accounting law requires, typically up to 7 years.
• Support emails: up to 3 years after the conversation ends, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
• Data on your computer: until you delete it. Uninstalling Pathnote leaves your guides folder in place, so you can delete it yourself.

Who else handles it

• Polar: checkout, payments, tax, and license keys.
• GitHub: hosts the installer and the update checks.
• Our email and website hosting providers: deliver support email and serve this site.
• Anthropic: only if you turn on AI step descriptions, under your own API account, as described above.

Some of these providers are in the United States. Where the law requires it, transfers are covered by safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask us to access, correct, delete, or export the personal data we hold about you, or to restrict or object to how we use it. Email support@usefulgeeks.com and we'll reply within 30 days. Deleting license records ends the license. If you're in the EU or UK and unhappy with our answer, you can complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

Pathnote is a work tool, not meant for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date above. If a change affects what the app sends, we'll say so in the release notes for that version.