How your privacy works
A disk cleaner reads every corner of your machine, so where your data goes matters. This page says what stays on your device, what leaves and why, and how to check every word yourself.
What never leaves your device
All scanning and analysis happens on the machine in front of you. None of the following is ever uploaded:
- Your files and their contents. Vaulith reads names, sizes, dates, and bytes to find duplicates. All of that reading happens on your device.
- Your photos. Detecting blurry shots means looking at the image data. That happens locally too.
- Thumbnails and previews. Any thumbnail the app makes lives only on your device.
- Anything a local model sees. If you already run Ollama on your machine, Vaulith can use it to analyze files (LLaVA for images, Mistral for documents). Those models run on your machine. There is no cloud AI call.
The short version: your files, your photos, and what’s inside them never travel over the network. Any model analysis happens on your device, not in someone’s cloud.
What does leave your device, and why
The app is not fully offline — we’d rather be precise than sound perfect. Here is the complete list.
License validation
On a paid plan, the app confirms your license with our server. That request carries a license key or account identifier — nothing about your files. If you never sign in, no license check happens at all. This connection is genuinely needed, which is why we won’t claim “zero cloud contact” — it wouldn’t be true.
The web dashboard sync
No account is required to use the app. While you’re signed in, each completed scan sends a scan summary to your account. The summary is strictly limited to: files scanned, duplicates found, reclaimable gigabytes, timestamps, and a device identifier.
- It syncs counts, sizes, and timestamps — never file contents.
- It never sends file names, paths, thumbnails, photos, or document text.
The update check
On launch, Vaulith asks GitHub Releases whether a newer version exists. The check carries no account or file information, and nothing installs unless you say so.
The newsletter — only if you opt in
If you subscribe, we store the email you give us. You can unsubscribe from any email. If you don’t subscribe, we don’t have your email from the app (sign-in aside).
One more: if the app hits an internal error, it sends an anonymous crash report — the error type and a path-scrubbed message, never your files, names, or account.
How you can verify all of this
Privacy claims are only worth your ability to check them. Here’s how to check ours — step by step on verify-it-yourself.
Confirm the app is the real one
The Mac build is signed and notarized by Apple. The Windows build is Authenticode-signed as CN=Vaulith LLC. Your OS checks the signature when you launch it.
Watch its network activity yourself
The honest test isn’t “does it ever talk to the network” — it’s what it says when it does:
- On macOS, a per-app firewall like Little Snitch shows every outbound connection in real time.
- A packet capture tool like Wireshark lets you confirm there are no file or photo uploads.
Run a full scan with a monitor open. You’ll see lots of local disk work and a tiny amount of traffic that carries none of your content.
What we don’t do
- No ads. None in the app, and none of your data feeds any.
- No third-party trackers. No advertising or analytics trackers that follow you.
- No selling your data. Your data isn’t a revenue source for us — the app is.
Why we can afford to be this strict: Vaulith makes money when the software is worth paying for, not when your data is worth harvesting.
Try it — then watch it prove itself
Download Vaulith, open a network monitor, and run a scan. Signed out, the only traffic is the launch-time version check; signing in adds the license check and a counts-and-sizes summary. See it for yourself.
Download for macOS & Windows — FreeFrequently asked questions
Is Vaulith completely offline?
No, and we won’t claim it is. Signed out, the only network call is the launch-time version check (and a crash report only if you click Send on the error screen). Signed in, it validates your license and syncs a scan summary of counts and sizes. It never sends your files, photos, or their contents anywhere.
Does the Vault leave my machine?
The Vault is a folder in your Documents: one encrypted copy per file, in the open age format, with the key in your login keychain on this machine. If your Documents folder syncs to iCloud, the encrypted copies sync with it, exactly as your originals did before you locked them; the key never does. Uninstalling never touches the folder.
Does Vaulith read my files in the background?
Only if you turn Watching on, and only in the folders you allow: Downloads, Desktop, Public and, on Pro, your sync folders. It checks each new file on this machine with the same shield the scan uses, keeps an encrypted list of what it found on this device, and, signed out, makes no network call while watching. You can watch that yourself with the window closed. Turn it off in Settings and Vaulith reads nothing until you open it.
Does any AI analysis send my files to the cloud?
No. No cloud AI service is involved. This only comes up if you already run Ollama yourself: the models (LLaVA for images, Mistral for documents) run there, on your own hardware. It is not something Vaulith sells you, and the app works without it.
What exactly does the dashboard sync?
Only numbers — counts, sizes, and timestamps, plus a device identifier. Never file names, paths, contents, thumbnails, or photos.
How do I know you’re telling the truth?
Verify it yourself. Both builds are code-signed, and you can watch the app’s network activity with Little Snitch or Wireshark. Here’s the walkthrough.