Privacy and permissions
Shoji needs deep access to your Mac to arrange windows, so it asks for as little as it can and keeps everything on your Mac.
The short version
Section titled “The short version”- Everything happens on your Mac. Layouts are worked out locally and Shoji works without an internet connection. The only things it does online are checking your license key and checking for updates (see below).
- It never reads what’s inside your windows. No screenshots, no document contents.
- It doesn’t save window titles. It reads titles in memory only to tell windows apart and to label them in Tab View while it’s open, and never writes them to its logs, its preferences, or anywhere else.
- It never receives what you type. See below.
What Shoji watches, and why
Section titled “What Shoji watches, and why”| What | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Window positions, sizes, and which app they belong to | Always | To tile windows. This is what Accessibility access is for. |
| Its own keyboard shortcuts (⌃⌥ + arrows, Return, [ ], = and -, and the others; ⌥Tab for Tab View) | While shortcuts are on | Registered with macOS, which reports only these combinations and nothing else you type |
| Mouse-button releases (position only) | Always | To notice a click on a tiled window’s close or minimize button and rearrange the others straight away, and a click on a stacked tile’s grip or dots |
| Pointer position and mouse-button presses | Only while hover focus is on | To make the window under the pointer active |
| How long ago you last pressed a key (not which key) | Only while hover focus is on | So hovering doesn’t take focus away while you type |
| Pointer position | Only while quick actions above windows are on | To show the grip above the active window and open its bar |
| Whether the Dock hides itself, and which edge it’s on | Each time windows are arranged | So windows reach the edge of the screen when the Dock is hidden |
| Window titles | Only while Tab View is open | To label the windows in it. Read in memory, never stored, logged or sent |
| Whether ⌥ is held (not which keys you press) | Only while Tab View is open | To switch when you let go of ⌥, as ⌘-Tab does |
Tab View reads the arrow keys, Return and Esc only inside its own window, only while it’s open. The welcome tour likewise reads keys only inside its own window, to light up the keys it teaches.
What Shoji stores
Section titled “What Shoji stores”In its preferences on this Mac (not synced to iCloud):
- Your settings.
- The minimum sizes it has learned: app identifiers and sizes, nothing else. Settings → Apps → Apps that can’t shrink → Forget All clears them.
- Each screen’s layout and window count, if you picked one in the menu bar panel: the screen’s identifier from macOS, a layout name and a number.
- Activity counts: per day, how many windows Shoji placed, how often each of its shortcuts was used, and how many drags and quick-action clicks there were. Numbers only: no window titles, app names or times of day. Settings → Activity pauses or resets them.
Your license key
Section titled “Your license key”To check your license, Shoji sends Dodo Payments (which sold it) your license key, the ID of this Mac’s activation and the word “Mac”, never your computer’s name. It does this when you activate the key, about once a day after that, and when you deactivate it. Nothing about your windows, apps or use goes with it. The key is kept in your Mac’s Keychain. Offline, Shoji keeps working.
You pay on Dodo Payments’ checkout page in your browser: Shoji never sees your card or address.
Updates
Section titled “Updates”About once a day, Shoji checks shojimac.com for a new version. It downloads a short list of versions and sends nothing about your Mac, your windows or how you use Shoji. When there’s an update, Shoji shows what’s new and installs it only when you click Install Update; each update is signed, so Shoji only installs updates that really come from us. You can turn the daily check off in Settings → General.
Sending feedback
Section titled “Sending feedback”Send Feedback (in the menu bar panel, and Report a Problem / Suggest a Feature in Settings → About) writes a report on your Mac and opens a new email in your own email app. Shoji sends nothing itself: you read the report and press Send.
Without diagnostics, the report is just your message and the Shoji and macOS versions. With Include diagnostics it also has, anonymised: whether your Mac is Apple silicon or Intel (not its model), your screens’ sizes and layouts (not the monitors’ names), your Shoji settings, and Shoji’s own log from the last hour, with every app shown as a letter (App A, App B) instead of its name. Window titles are never in it. If Shoji crashed recently you can also tick Include Shoji’s crash report; it’s off unless you tick it. Click Show what’s included to read every line before you send it.
Accessibility access
Section titled “Accessibility access”macOS requires Accessibility access for any app that moves and resizes other apps’ windows. Shoji uses it for exactly that. See Allow Accessibility access.
Privacy Policy
Section titled “Privacy Policy”The formal version, including what Dodo Payments and the website handle, is the Privacy Policy.