The short version
- No telemetry. Atlas does not phone home about how you use it.
- No cookies, no fingerprinting. The app collects nothing. The website uses Umami, a cookieless, privacy-first analytics tool that can't identify you (details below).
- No account. No sign-up, no login, no profile.
- No cloud. Your team list, settings and calendar never leave the device.
- No file access. Atlas cannot read your documents, photos or downloads. The only thing it can read is your calendar, and only if you allow it.
Who is the data controller?
The data controller for any personal data we hold about you is:
TJH/CO LIMITED (trading as THEODORE HQ)
A company registered in England and Wales
Company number: 16589593
Registered office: Fairway House, Links Business, Fortran Rd, St. Mellons, Cardiff, CF3 0LT, United Kingdom
Email: support@theodorehq.com
Given the small scale and low-risk nature of our processing, we are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer and have not done so. For any data question, contact us at the email above.
What does Atlas collect from inside the app?
Nothing. Atlas runs on your Mac and keeps a small amount of state locally so it works between launches: the teammates, cities and rosters you add; your appearance and keyboard-shortcut preferences; your licence key and activation ID (stored in the macOS Keychain, encrypted by the operating system); and the date of your most recent licence check, used for offline grace. None of this is ever transmitted off the device.
Does Atlas make any network requests?
Yes, exactly two kinds, and neither one carries anything about your schedule or your team.
Update checks. About once a day Atlas checks
https://www.theodorehq.com/atlas/appcast.xml for a new version. The request contains your
current Atlas version and your macOS version, so we can serve the right update. It carries no
unique identifier and is verified by Apple's Sparkle framework. You can turn update checks off in
Settings.
Licence checks. Atlas talks to Polar.sh, our licensing provider, in three situations: once when you activate your licence, periodically to revalidate it (at most every seven days), and if you deactivate it to move Atlas to another Mac. Each call sends only your licence key and a device label (your Mac's local name, for example "Theodore's MacBook Pro"). After activation Atlas caches the result and runs offline.
Location and calendar
Location. If you grant Location access, Atlas uses Apple's CoreLocation once, at first launch, to detect your own time zone and pin you on the map. This happens on-device. Your coordinates are used immediately and then discarded; they are never sent to us.
Calendar. If you grant calendar access, Atlas reads your upcoming events only to grey out times when you are already busy. Atlas is strictly read-only: it never creates, edits or deletes events, and your calendar data never leaves your Mac. You can revoke access at any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Calendars.
What personal data do we hold, and on what basis?
Three categories. The law requires us to name a lawful basis under Article 6 of the UK GDPR for each.
Your purchase email and licence-key record
Held so we can deliver and verify your licence. We receive your email from Polar.sh, the Merchant of Record that processes your purchase.
Lawful basis: contractual necessity (Art 6(1)(b)).Newsletter subscription (the same email)
Used to send occasional product updates about Atlas. You opt in at checkout via an unticked box (never pre-ticked), and every email has a one-click unsubscribe.
Lawful basis: consent (Art 6(1)(a) UK GDPR), given by ticking the opt-in box at checkout.Licence-activation logs
Timestamp, country and the IP address of the activation request, kept to detect fraud and licence abuse.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests (Art 6(1)(f)).How long do we keep it?
- Purchase email and licence record: while your licence is active, plus seven years after your last purchase, to meet HMRC tax-record requirements (Schedule 11 of the VAT Act 1994 and corresponding income-tax rules).
- Newsletter subscription: until you unsubscribe, plus thirty days while we process the unsubscribe.
- Licence-activation logs: twelve months from activation, then automatically deleted by Polar.
- Support emails: two years, then deleted, unless you ask us to keep them for an open issue.
Crash reports
Atlas does not send crash reports or diagnostics automatically. Nothing about a crash leaves your Mac unless you choose to send it. If macOS itself shows a "Send to Apple" dialog, that is Apple's standard system, not us, and you control it in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.
Cookies and this website
No cookies, no third-party trackers, no advertising scripts, no fingerprinting. Our web fonts are self-hosted (served from this site), so loading a page makes no third-party requests. Website analytics is handled by Umami (see the next section), which is cookieless.
We do save one small item in your browser's local storage: a first-touch attribution record, made up of the page you first landed on, the site that referred you, any campaign tags in the link you arrived through, and a first-visit timestamp. We use it only to understand which links lead to purchases if you later buy Atlas. It is not a cookie, it stays in your own browser, it is never shared with anyone else, and it is not used to track you across other websites. You can remove it at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser, or by using any standard content blocker.
Lawful basis for the attribution record: our legitimate interests (Art 6(1)(f) UK GDPR) in understanding how people find Atlas.
Website analytics (Umami)
To understand which pages people find useful, this website uses Umami,
a privacy-friendly analytics tool we self-host on our own server at analytics.theodorehq.com.
The server is located in Manchester, United Kingdom, so this data never leaves the UK. (Atlas the
app contains no analytics of any kind; this is the website only.)
Umami records aggregate, non-identifying information: the page URL, page title and referrer, the country your visit came from (derived from your IP address, which is then immediately discarded and never stored), and your browser, operating system, device type and screen size. It sets no cookies, does not fingerprint your device, does not follow you across other websites, and shares nothing with any third party. We cannot identify you from it.
Lawful basis: under PECR (as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025), this aggregate, cookieless analytics falls within the "statistical purposes" exception, which requires us to tell you about it and to give you a simple, free way to opt out (both done here). The brief processing of your IP address to derive a country relies on our legitimate interests (Art 6(1)(f) UK GDPR) in understanding aggregate traffic without identifying you. Retention: aggregate figures indefinitely; raw event records for twelve months.
How to opt out. Use the button below and we will save a small flag that tells Umami to ignore this browser on this site permanently. Any standard content blocker (uBlock Origin, Ghostery, Brave's shields) also blocks it automatically.
Who handles your data, and international transfers
We keep suppliers to a minimum. Where one is based outside the UK, an approved UK transfer safeguard is in place:
- Polar.sh (United States) is the Merchant of Record and seller of record for your purchase. For the data it collects at its own checkout (your email, country, and payment and tax details) Polar acts as a separate, independent controller under its own terms; for anything it handles purely on our behalf it acts as our processor. Polar uses Stripe as its payment processor, and we never receive your card details. See Polar's data-processing addendum and privacy policy.
- Vercel (United States) hosts this website. Vercel is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and its data-processing agreement also incorporates the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
- Apple iCloud runs our
support@theodorehq.commailbox. For UK and EU users this is controlled by Apple Distribution International Limited in Ireland (within the EEA), with Standard Contractual Clauses for any onward transfer. - Website analytics is self-hosted on a server we control in Manchester, United Kingdom (Umami), so your analytics data never leaves the UK and is never shared with a third-party analytics company.
You can ask us for more detail on any of these safeguards at support@theodorehq.com.
Your rights under UK GDPR
To exercise any of these, email support@theodorehq.com. We respond within thirty days, free of charge.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, you have the right to complain to us directly (a right under section 164A of the Data Protection Act 2018). The easiest way is to email support@theodorehq.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, investigate it, and tell you the outcome.
You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Helpline: 0303 123 1113. ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. You can contact the ICO at any time, though we would appreciate the chance to resolve things for you first.
Children
Atlas is not directed at children under 13 (the UK age of digital consent under section 9 of the Data Protection Act 2018). We do not knowingly collect any personal data from anyone under 13. If you believe we hold such data in error, email us and we will delete it promptly.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and email anyone on the customer list a plain-English summary of what changed at least fourteen days before it takes effect. We will not quietly start collecting more from existing users.
Contact
Questions, concerns, or anything that smells off: support@theodorehq.com. A real human reads every email.
See also our Terms of Service.