Privacy Policy

How MarsDawn, the Markdown app for Mac, iPhone and iPad, handles your information.

Last updated 2026-10-29

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

The website

The app and this website are two different things. The app collects nothing. A visit can be recorded only here, on marsdawn.southern-light.dev.

This site uses Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager. Every visitor starts with analytics denied: Google's Consent Mode sends only a cookieless ping with no analytics cookie and no persistent identifier, until you choose Accept in the banner. Choosing Decline, or making no choice at all, keeps it that way, and choosing Decline after a prior Accept turns analytics back off immediately and removes the cookies below. Change your choice at any time with the "Cookie settings" link in the footer of every page. The choice itself is stored only in your browser's local storage, never in a cookie of ours.

Once you accept, Google Analytics sets its own cookies (_ga and _ga_<measurement id>) and records:

Page views and referrer. Which page was viewed, and the referring address when the browser sends one.
Approximate location, device and browser. A coarse location derived from your IP address (city level at most), your device type, operating system and browser — none of it precise enough to identify you.
Outbound clicks and scroll depth. Google Analytics' enhanced measurement records clicks that leave the site, such as the link to the Mac App Store, and how far you scroll down a page.
IP addresses. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses.
What is not recorded. No account, because the site has none. No document, and nothing you type. No cross-site advertising, and no profile of you. Requests the app makes for theme files under /themes/ are skipped, and are not sent on. The theme simulator and gallery on /themes/new/ and /themes/gallery/ run entirely in your browser and send no theme data to Google Analytics either.
Retention. Google keeps this data for 14 months, then deletes it.
Where it's processed. Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are operated by Google; your data may be processed in the United States as well as other countries where Google operates.
The host. Cloudflare hosts the site and, like any host, sees your IP address while it answers the request. That log belongs to the host. It is not the analytics above.

Launch survey

From 26 October to 8 November 2026, MarsDawn runs a short survey on Google Forms. Filling it in is up to you, and the app itself still collects nothing.

What it collects. Your answers and the email address you type. Nothing else.
The email. It's used to send a code to the first 500 respondents. If you don't tick the update box, it's deleted within 30 days after the codes are sent. If you tick it, it's kept only to send MarsDawn version-update emails, each with a one-click unsubscribe, until you unsubscribe.
The answers. After the survey closes they're kept without the email, and they may appear anonymised and aggregated in a published summary.
Never shared or sold, and never used for anything else.
Where it's stored. Google Forms stores the responses with Google, under Google's privacy policy.
Deletion. To have your response or email deleted sooner, write to support@southern-light.dev.

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 or page files from a folder, or choose a notes folder, the app keeps a macOS bookmark so it can open that folder again. A folder you open in the sidebar stays readable and writable by MarsDawn until you remove it in Settings, not just while its window is open. You can remove folders at any time in MarsDawn › Settings.

When MarsDawn uses the internet

MarsDawn works fully offline. It connects to the internet only when you choose to: for a document that refers to the web, or for the theme gallery. For documents:

Markdown documents. 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. Nothing else a Markdown document refers to is loaded from the web.
HTML documents. An HTML document opens static: its code doesn't run and nothing is loaded from the web. If a document contains code that could run, you can choose View › Run This Document for that document. Its own code then runs until you stop it, the document reloads or you close the window. That choice is never remembered, and it isn't a setting. While it runs, the document can send data over the network, and read images, style sheets, fonts and media in its folder and the folders inside it. Code downloaded from the web never runs.

MarsDawn loads web content over https only. A plain http address is never loaded, in any setting, and MarsDawn does not rewrite it to https. In a Markdown document, the preview shows a placeholder in its place.

When web content loads, your Mac requests it directly from the servers that host it. Like any web request, this lets those servers see your IP address and what 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. Audio and video never play by themselves.

If you open Settings › Appearance › Get More Themes…, choose Check for Theme Updates, or install or update a theme, MarsDawn downloads the theme list, previews and theme files from marsdawn.southern-light.dev. Themes update automatically only during these downloads, never in the background. The request carries no account, identifier, cookie or document data; like any web request, our host Cloudflare sees your IP address and which files were requested. Report Theme… makes no request from the app: it only opens a GitHub or email link in your browser or mail app.

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

The MarsDawn app does not collect data from anyone, including children. A visit recorded on the website is not an account, and it is not used to identify anyone.

Purchases

MarsDawn is sold through the App Store, for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Apple processes the purchase under its own terms, and the developer never receives 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