Anarchive
Private
Your pictures, videos and libraries stay on your Mac. Here is everything Anarchive does with the internet, so you can see for yourself.
What stays on your Mac
Everything. Your pictures, videos and libraries, your edits, captions, keywords and faces, and everything Anarchive makes from them are stored and processed on your Mac. The app has no permission from macOS to open a network connection. Two small helpers can: one checks for updates, and one downloads the optional models you ask for. Export as Library and Import Library copy between folders and drives on your Mac.
AI in Anarchive
All of it runs on your Mac: Apple’s on-device models, MI-GAN for Clean Up, and any optional models you download. Pictures that are nearly identical can share one description. Anarchive only knows the names you give it. Once you name someone, faces very like theirs in that library are added to them automatically; Settings › Analysis › Add likely matches automatically turns this off, and you can remove any face from a person. Faces are never compared with anything outside the library. Generated text can be wrong, so check it.
What travels with your pictures
New libraries write sidecar files (XMP) next to the pictures. Besides your captions and keywords, a sidecar records where a picture came from, its moves between libraries, and the names of the drives it is backed up to. Anyone you give the sidecars to can read this.
The one thing it does by itself
Once a day, Anarchive asks dl.getanarchive.com whether there is a newer beta. The request carries
the app’s name and version, software version numbers, and your IP address, and nothing from your library. Nothing
downloads or installs until you say so. To stop the daily check, turn off Check for updates
automatically in Settings › General;
Anarchive › Check for Updates… still works.
Only when you ask
- Originals from iCloud. If Photos keeps your originals in iCloud, Photos may download them when Anarchive needs them. Nothing is uploaded. Turn off Download from iCloud when needed in Settings › Photos & Sharing to stop it.
- Optional models. Nothing is fetched until you press Download in Settings › Models, which shows the address first. Apple’s speech model comes from Apple the same way.
- Add to Photos and Share. What you choose goes where you send it, and Photos may sync it with iCloud.
- Agent access. Off to begin with. Turned on in Settings › Agents, an AI agent you connect can search a library and read what Anarchive knows about it, and sends what it reads to its own provider. Anarchive asks before an agent first uses a library, keeps pictures and sensitive details back unless you allow them, and logs what each agent did.
- Crash reports. Off to begin with. Turned on in Settings › General, they are kept on your Mac without file or library names, and reach the developer only if you attach them to an email from Help › Send Feedback….
Maps never go online. There is no account, no analytics and no server of Anarchive’s own.
This site
getanarchive.com and the downloads are served by Cloudflare. The site has no analytics. The pages run no scripts and set no cookies.
Who we are
Doug Cain makes Anarchive and is responsible for the personal data below (“we” on this page). Contact: feedback@getanarchive.com.
What we use, why, and for how long
| Data | Why | Lawful basis | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| IP address and browser, when you visit, download or check for updates | To deliver the site, the beta and updates, and keep them secure | Legitimate interests | We don’t keep or receive these logs. Cloudflare keeps its own under its terms |
| Feedback email: your address, what you write and attach | To answer you and fix what you report | Legitimate interests | While we deal with it; deleted when no longer needed, or sooner if you ask |
| Reports on GitHub: your GitHub name and what you post | To track problems in public | Legitimate interests | Until the report is deleted |
Our legitimate interests are running the site and the beta, keeping them secure, and answering and fixing what people report. We make no automated decisions about you, and we don’t sell data or advertise.
Who else receives it
- Cloudflare hosts the site and downloads, and its Email Routing forwards mail for feedback@getanarchive.com to the developer’s mailbox. It acts for us under its Data Processing Addendum and privacy policy.
- GitHub publishes reports made at getanarchive/feedback, under its privacy statement.
Both are US companies. Cloudflare’s terms provide for transfers from the UK under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and the UK addendum to the Standard Contractual Clauses.
Please don’t send original pictures or anything private in feedback unless asked.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of your data, and ask us to correct it, delete it or limit how we use it.
You can object to our use of your data at any time.
Email feedback@getanarchive.com. The law gives us a month to respond.
You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this page
- 15 October 2026: who we are, what we use and why, recipients, your rights, AI and sidecars. The bot check and its cookie removed.
- 14 October 2026: crash reports, agents and maps updated for beta 25.
- 13 October 2026: first version.