Private SearchWhat goes online
Private Search reads and searches your files on your own computer. It goes online only for the calls below. This page lists each one, the host it goes to, when it happens and exactly what it sends.
You can check all of this yourself with a firewall app such as Little Snitch.
| Call | Host | When | What it sends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search model download, about 120 MB. Hugging Face hands the file over from its download server. | huggingface.cous.aws.cdn.hf.co | Once, the first time you open the app | A normal download request. Nothing about you or your files. |
| OCR language packs, for scanned pages and images | cdn.jsdelivr.net | Once for each language you add | A normal download request. Nothing about you or your files. |
| License Activation | api.polar.sh | When you type in your key | Your key, a computer ID and our Polar organization ID |
| License check | api.polar.sh | Every 30 days, only on a computer with a License | Your key, a computer ID and our Polar organization ID |
| Remove this computer | api.polar.sh | When you choose it in Settings | Your key, a computer ID and our Polar organization ID |
| Update check and download | downloads.trove-app.dev | On launch and every 6 hours. Turned off in Settings, only when you click Check now. | A normal download request with the app version. Nothing about you or your files. |
Opens in your browser, not in the app
These open your own web browser. The app itself sends nothing.
| Call | Host | When |
|---|---|---|
| Buy a License: the checkout | buy.polar.sh | When you click Buy a License |
| The Polar customer portal | polar.sh | When you open it from Settings |
Never sent
- Your Documents, or any part of them
- The names of your files and folders
- Your Libraries
- Your searches and what they find
The free version never makes a License call. There is no telemetry, no analytics and no crash reporting.
How we checked
We started the app from scratch, let it download the model, added a scanned image, activated a key and checked for Updates, and logged every host it contacted. Last checked on October 27, 2026.