Perch and your data
What Perch specifically keeps on your machine and what it sends. Every product gets its own version of this page, because the answer is different for each one — Perch drives a browser and keeps a browser profile; an agent that operates applications does not.
This is not the privacy policy
This page is technical: what this program writes to your disk. The policy covering the website, your account and payments is here, and it is a different document with a different job.
What Perch transmits#
One request, and you can enumerate it: the subscription check, about once a day.
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Device hash | a salted hash of a machine identifier, not the identifier |
| Platform | windows |
| App version | 0.18.0 |
There is no analytics, no usage counter, and nothing describing what you did. The request has no field for it.
The answer is signed, cached, and carries a 7-day grace period. Block Perch at your firewall and it keeps working for that week, because failing to reach us is never read as failing a check.
Crash reports, only if you press Send#
This page used to say "no crash reporting to a server" and it no longer can, so here is exactly what changed and what did not.
Perch drives a copy of Chrome. When that Chrome dies, macOS writes a crash report and Perch can read it — which it already did, to show you. It can now also send it, and the whole of the change is that word:
- Nothing is sent automatically. There is no background uploader, no queue and no retry. A report leaves this machine when you press a button and at no other time.
- You see the exact text first. The Settings pane shows the summary that would be sent, in full, before you decide.
- It is a summary, not the crash file. A macOS
.ipsruns to hundreds of kilobytes and carries your account name in every path, your hardware model and every library that was loaded. What goes is about a dozen lines: the exception type, the termination reason, which thread crashed, and the two process names and versions. The server refuses anything over 4 KB, so this is a rule on both ends rather than a promise on one. - Nothing about your browsing is in it, because none of it is in the crash report either.
If you would rather send nothing, press Not now, or never open the pane. Perch does not ask twice about the same crash.
What is stored, and where#
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\Perch\
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/Perch/| File | What is in it |
|---|---|
settings.json | Your preferences. Local only. |
chrome.log | The browser's own output |
perch-cdp.log | The conversation between the app and the browser |
ChromeProfile/ | The browser profile Perch drives |
The logs record protocol traffic — which methods were called and what geometry came back. They do not contain page content, form input, or anything you typed.
The browser profile is a normal browser profile and holds whatever you do in that browser. It belongs to you, it is never transmitted, and the uninstaller deliberately leaves it alone.
What the update check does#
Updates come down the same authenticated connection, because the builds are only available to subscribers: the app asks whether a newer version exists for your plan and channel, and the server answers from what your subscription covers. It carries nothing beyond the three fields above.
Automatic checking can be turned off in settings. The app works without it; you just update by hand.
What a website you share with can see#
Exactly the tab you chose, and the fact that it is receiving a screen share.
It cannot see the rest of your desktop, because the rest of your desktop was never captured. It also cannot be prevented from knowing that sharing is happening — see Limits. Perch changes what is shared, never whether the other side can tell.
If that changes#
If a future version ever sends anything, this page changes first and the change is in the release notes. A privacy claim is only worth something if it is specific enough to be caught being wrong.