Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

Overview

MacDNS applies DNS policy on your Mac. It does not send your DNS queries to MacDNS-operated servers. Public queries that need resolution are sent over encrypted DNS to the providers you enable in the app. Licensing, payments, and this website use the limited third-party services described below.

How DNS requests are handled

MacDNS receives DNS requests locally. It checks DNS overrides, blocklist and allowlist decisions, and routing rules before deciding whether an upstream request is needed. DNS rebinding protection checks public responses before they are returned to the requesting app.

  • Public requests are sent using DNS over HTTPS to one or more providers you enable: Cloudflare, Google Public DNS, or Quad9.
  • Private routes can be sent to a network-provided or custom DNS server instead of a public provider.
  • MacDNS-operated servers do not receive or log your DNS requests.
  • Each upstream provider receives the requests sent to it and related network metadata under its own privacy policy.

Provider policies are available from Cloudflare, Google Public DNS, and Quad9.

License and device data

MacDNS uses Keygen to create trials, activate licenses, enforce device limits, and validate license status. For these operations, the app may send:

  • The paid license key or trial identifier used for activation and validation
  • A one-way SHA-256 device fingerprint derived from your Mac's platform UUID, hardware serial number, and model identifier
  • Your macOS username and computer hostname, plus the localized Mac name when activating a paid license
  • Technical request data such as your IP address, which is ordinarily visible to an internet service receiving a request

The raw platform UUID, hardware serial number, and model identifier used to create the fingerprint are not sent by MacDNS. License requests use HTTPS, and the app verifies signed license responses. Keygen handles the data it receives under its Privacy Policy.

Information stored on your Mac

MacDNS stores its settings, downloaded blocklists, DNS cache, blocklist statistics, and license state on your Mac. If you enable query and reply logging, those entries are written to the macOS unified logging system. MacDNS does not automatically upload those logs or crash reports to MacDNS-operated servers. You may choose to share diagnostic information when requesting support.

Payments

Dodo Payments is the Merchant of Record for purchases through this website. It handles checkout, payment information, invoices, taxes, fraud checks, refunds, and purchase records. We receive the information needed to fulfill your license and support your purchase, including your email address and order details, but we do not receive your full card or bank details. See Dodo Payments' Buyer Terms and Privacy Policy.

Website analytics

This website uses Google Analytics and Google Ads measurement. When you visit, Google may receive information such as your IP address, browser and device details, pages viewed, referring page, interactions, and cookies or similar identifiers. Google handles that information under its Privacy Policy. The MacDNS app itself does not include product analytics or advertising telemetry.

Software and blocklist downloads

App releases and some blocklists are downloaded directly from GitHub, jsDelivr, or the list publisher. Those services may receive standard request information such as your IP address and user agent under their own policies. Downloads do not pass through MacDNS-operated infrastructure.

What we do not collect

  • Your DNS queries, query logs, or blocklist statistics on MacDNS-operated servers
  • Your personal files
  • In-app usage analytics or advertising telemetry
  • Automated uploads of crash reports
  • Your full payment card or bank details

Security

DNS requests to enabled public providers and license requests are encrypted in transit. MacDNS uses mutual authentication between its local components and fails closed when an internal connection cannot be authenticated. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, but we limit the data handled by MacDNS-operated systems and use safeguards appropriate to each data flow.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the product or its services change. The revised policy will be posted here with a new “Last updated” date.

Contact

Questions about this policy or our data practices can be sent to privacy@macdns.app.