Privacy Policy

How MarsDawn, the Markdown editor for macOS, handles your information.

Last updated 2026-09-17

MarsDawn does not collect any data about you. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking. Your documents and settings stay on your Mac.

What stays on your Mac

Your documents. MarsDawn reads and writes only the files and folders you open, save or choose. They are never uploaded anywhere by the app.
Your settings. Appearance, preview theme, window layout and the image preference are stored in the app's own preferences on your Mac.
Folder access you grant. When you let MarsDawn show images from a folder, or choose a notes folder, the app keeps a macOS bookmark so it can open that folder again. You can remove folders at any time in MarsDawn › Settings.

When MarsDawn uses the internet

MarsDawn works fully offline. It connects to the internet in one situation only: when you choose to load images from the web that a document refers to. Web images are blocked by default. They load only after you click Load Images in the preview, or if you turn on Load remote images automatically in Settings.

When web images load, your Mac requests them directly from the servers that host them. Like any web request, this lets those servers see your IP address and that the image was requested. MarsDawn's developer receives none of this information.

Links you click in the preview open in your default web browser, under that browser's own privacy practices.

Siri, Shortcuts and Spotlight

MarsDawn offers actions for Siri, the Shortcuts app and Spotlight, such as creating a document or adding a note. When you use them, the text you provide is passed to MarsDawn on your Mac and saved only where the action says (a new document, or the Inbox.md file in the notes folder you chose). Speech you dictate to Siri is handled by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy.

Exporting and printing

PDF export and printing happen on your Mac. The PDF is saved where you choose. Printing goes through macOS to the printer you pick.

The marsdawn command-line tool

The optional marsdawn command-line tool, distributed separately, also runs entirely on your Mac. It reads the Markdown file you name and writes the PDF you ask for. It loads web images only when you pass --allow-remote-images.

Children

MarsDawn does not collect data from anyone, including children.

Purchases

MarsDawn is sold through the Mac App Store. Apple processes the purchase under its own terms, and the developer does not receive your payment details.

Changes to this policy

If MarsDawn ever starts handling data differently, this page will be updated before that version is released, and the date at the top will change.

Contact

Questions about privacy: support@southern-light.dev