TraceEagle Privacy Policy

1. Our Privacy Position

In short: captured content stays 100% on your device, out of our reach; apart from the little needed to run the free licensing service, we collect nothing.

The Software is local-first by design. All the network data you capture — packets, HTTPS plaintext, TLS keys, session records and so on — is written only to your local device. It is never uploaded, collected or accessed by us, and we never analyse, aggregate or profile its content. This is not a promise but the way the Software works: that data simply never reaches us.

To issue your license for free, understand how the product is used overall, and fix failures, the Software does send our servers a small amount of information that is entirely unrelated to what you capture. This Policy sets it out: Section 2 is everything we collect, Section 3 is what our statistics do not collect and the scope of what error reporting does, and Section 6 is the controls in your hands.

2. What We Collect

In short: one email you provide, plus seven anonymous operational/licensing items — none pointing to you, none containing captured content.

There is only one thing you actively provide to us:

Email address — entered when you claim or recover a license. We use it to issue and recover your license and, where genuinely necessary, to contact you about licensing matters. Beyond this, using the Software requires no account and no identity information.

The following is sent automatically to our servers as the Software runs; none of it is related to what you capture:

Device identifier — an irreversible string derived from this machine's network hardware, used to tell devices apart. It does not point to you, and we cannot use it to recover your hardware details or contact information.

Environment — operating system type and software version, used to judge compatibility and understand how the product runs overall.

Run identifier — a temporary value generated randomly at each launch and gone when the process ends, used only to group the events of a single run together. It is never stored and does not point to you.

Activity record — the fact that "a device used the Software on a given day", used to gauge overall activity. It contains no usage content.

Network origin information — our servers see the IP address a request comes from. Beyond retaining that address in the license verification records, we additionally store only its network prefix (not the full address), its country and its network operator number, used to detect one license being shared across many machines. We store no coordinates or any more precise location. This information is observed by the server at the connection layer; it is not sent by the Software.

License verification records — created when a license is verified; they include the device identifier above and are used to confirm the license is valid and to prevent abuse.

Feature-usage statistics — which features you used, together with limited related environment information, used to decide which features to keep and where to improve.

Error information — created only when the Software encounters an error; it comprises a fixed error identifier, the temporary run identifier above, and the failure information collected as required to fix the defect. Its use is limited to locating and fixing defects; error reporting can be adjusted under "About" in the Software (see Section 6).

The "environment information" referred to above consists of short labels drawn from a limited range of values that point to no person and no target — for example the processor architecture, a protocol type or a port number. The failure information collected by error reporting is broader in scope; see Section 3. Apart from error reporting, the items above are the minimum needed to run the free licensing service.

3. What Our Statistics Do Not Collect

In short: captured content and information that could identify you do not leave your device, and the statistics carry no file paths, network addresses, app identifiers or raw error text. Error reporting collects failure information as required to fix defects, and can be adjusted under "About".

Our statistics do not include any of the following:

the data you capture, including packet bodies, plaintext, keys and the contents of session files;

file paths, file names, or the names you assign to your sessions;

host names, URLs, IP addresses or other network addresses;

the name or identifier of the application under test;

the raw output of any command or program, or unprocessed error text;

your name, account, precise location, or other information that could identify you.

Error reporting collects failure information as required to fix defects, and its scope may extend to the file paths, network addresses, application identifiers and raw error text listed above. Such information is created only when the Software encounters an error, and its use is limited to locating and fixing defects; error reporting can be adjusted under "About" in the Software (see Section 6).

Regardless of the state of error reporting, the data you capture and information that could identify you are not uploaded.

4. How We Use This Information

In short: only to issue licenses, improve the product, fix bugs, prevent abuse and answer you — never for advertising, profiling or sale.

We use the information in Section 2 only for the following purposes:

Providing the service — issuing, verifying and recovering your license, and contacting you where necessary;

Improving the product — understanding how the product is used overall, in order to keep or drop features and decide where to improve;

Fixing defects — locating and fixing failures, and improving stability and compatibility;

Security and abuse prevention — guarding against fraud and license abuse, and revoking licenses where necessary;

Support and responses — answering the questions and requests you send us.

We do not use this information for advertising or profiling, do not sell or rent it to any third party, and do not use it to identify any individual you.

5. Legal Bases for Processing

In short: depending on your local law, we rely on contract, legitimate interests, your consent, and legal obligation.

Where laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) apply, we process the above information on one of the following bases:

Performance of a contract — processing your email and license-verification information to provide and maintain the free licensing service for you;

Legitimate interests — understanding overall product usage and fixing defects in an anonymous, aggregated way is within our legitimate interest in improving the product and does not harm your rights;

Your consent — error reporting is based on your consent, is on by default, and can be turned off at any time to withdraw that consent;

Legal obligation — retaining or providing necessary information where required by law.

6. Your Choices and Controls

In short: three real switches under "About" — usage statistics, error reports, withdraw consent; the startup configuration request cannot be turned off and we say so; automated revocation can be appealed.

Turn off usage statistics — feature-usage statistics are on by default. You can turn them off at any time under “About → Usage statistics” in the Software.

Turn off error reporting — error reporting is on by default. You can turn it off at any time under “About → Error reports”. With both switches off, the Software sends us no run report at all when it exits; other functionality is unaffected.

What cannot be turned off — on startup the Software requests its runtime configuration from our server, and that request carries the device identifier above. It is required for license verification and version control, and it is the sole source of the activity record, so no off switch is offered for it. We state this plainly rather than letting it hide behind a switch that does not actually cover it.

Withdraw consent — you can at any time untick the User Agreement under the Software's "About" screen to withdraw your acceptance of this Policy and the TraceEagle User Agreement; the Software then returns to the pre-use consent screen. Withdrawal does not affect processing carried out before it.

Other requests — for any other matter concerning your information, you can contact us at any time at the email address at the end of this Policy.

Automated abuse handling — to prevent licenses from being shared or leaked, we automatically assess the license verification records above for anomalies (for example one license appearing on many different devices, network segments or countries in a short period) and automatically revoke a license when the pattern is unambiguous. If you believe a decision was wrong, contact us at the address at the end of this policy: we review such cases by hand and restore the license once confirmed.

7. How We Share Information

In short: we do not sell or rent your information, and use no third-party analytics or ad SDK; only service necessity and legal requirements ever involve anyone outside.

We do not share the information in Section 2 with anyone outside, except in the following two cases: where necessary to provide the services above, processed by the providers listed in Section 8; or where required by law, or lawfully requested by a government or judicial authority.

The Software uses no third-party analytics or advertising SDK, and we do not sell or rent your information to any third party.

8. Providers We Rely On

In short: just two — Cloudflare for server hosting, Amazon SES for licensing email — each only within what the service requires.

To run the licensing service, we rely on the following providers. They process the information only as necessary to provide services to us, and for no other purpose:

Cloudflare — server hosting and database services;

Amazon SES — delivery of licensing-related email.

9. International Data Transfers

We and the providers above operate globally, so licensing-related information may be stored or processed in regions outside your own jurisdiction. We take reasonable measures to ensure such cross-border processing meets the requirements of applicable law.

10. How Long We Keep It

Licensing-related information (such as your email and license records) is kept for the lifetime of the corresponding license, so that we can verify and recover it for you. License verification records, feature-usage statistics and error information are kept only as long as necessary and are cleaned periodically.

11. How We Protect Your Information

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect the above information against unauthorized access, alteration or disclosure. Please understand, however, that no transmission over the internet and no form of storage can be guaranteed absolutely secure.

12. Your Rights

In short: the Software has no accounts, so all we hold is your email and license information; email us to request access, correction or deletion.

As the Software has no account system, the information we hold that relates directly to you is only your email and its corresponding license information. You may email us to request access to, correction of, or deletion of this information (deleting license information may invalidate the related license).

Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to restrict or object to processing, or to data portability. We handle your requests to the extent required by applicable law.

13. Data That Stays on Your Device

Besides captured content, the Software also stores a small amount of preferences locally on your device (such as language, layout and last-connected address). This data always stays local and is not sent to us. As for the data you capture itself, you are its controller, and how it is stored, used, shared or deleted is your decision and must comply with applicable law and the TraceEagle User Agreement.

14. Minors

The Software is intended for professional and technical users with appropriate capacity, not for children; we do not knowingly collect children's personal information.

15. Changes to this Policy and Contact

When this Policy changes, we will publish a new version in the Software and on the website and update the "Effective / updated" date at the top. For material changes, we will notify you more prominently and, where necessary, ask you to accept them again.

If you have any questions or requests regarding this Policy or your information, please contact us at admin@traceeagle.com.