Privacy Policy

The short version

The LaunchGate app has no account, no analytics, no telemetry and no server of ours to talk to. It does not collect, receive, store or transmit any personal information about you. There is nothing for the app to sell, share or lose, because nothing reaches us from it in the first place. (This launchgate.dev website, which you are reading right now, is separate from the app and is covered on its own further down this page.)

The one network request it makes

LaunchGate's whole job is deciding whether the network actually works yet. To do that it makes a single unauthenticated HTTP request to a connection-test URL and checks whether it gets an answer.

By default that URL is Apple's own captive-portal endpoint,https://captive.apple.com/hotspot-detect.html, the same one macOS itself uses to detect a Wi-Fi login page. You can change it to any URL you prefer in Settings, including one you host.

The request carries no identifier of you or your Mac beyond what any HTTP request necessarily reveals to the host you contacted — and it is sent with an ephemeral session, so no cookies or cached data persist between checks. Whoever operates that URL sees a request; we do not.

What stays on your Mac

Your list of managed apps, their launch delays, your gate settings and the history of past login runs are written to your own~/Library/Application Support/LaunchGate/folder and its log in ~/Library/Logs/.

These never leave your machine. Deleting the app and those folders removes everything LaunchGate ever stored.

Software updates

LaunchGate checks for updates usingSparkle, which requests an update feed from launchgate.dev. As with any web request, our host sees the request and your IP address. We do not use that to build a profile of you, and you can switch automatic checks off in Settings.

What LaunchGate can see on your Mac

To do its job the app reads your installed applications and your macOS Login Items, so it can offer you a list to choose from and warn you when an app is set to start before the gate can hold it. That reading happens entirely on your Mac and is never transmitted.

Children

LaunchGate is a general-purpose utility, is not directed at children, and collects no information from anyone.

Changes

If this policy ever changes, the revised version will be posted here with a new date. Because the app collects nothing, we do not expect material change.

How this website measures visits

This website (launchgate.dev), which is separate from the LaunchGate app described above, uses third-party tools to understand how visitors use our pages and which links or advertisements bring them here. These tools may see: the pages you view, how long you stay, and the website, link or advertisement that brought you here (including campaign identifiers in the link); how you interact with a page (clicks, taps, scrolling and mouse movement), which may be kept as a replay of your visit with anything you type hidden; and your browser type, device type, screen size, language, time zone and country (not your city — our page-analytics tool is set not to store your IP address). Our advertising-measurement tool sets a cookie that recognises your browser on later visits for up to one year and may store its data on servers in the United States. None of these tools receive what you type into forms, your email address, or anything from inside the LaunchGate app. Tools we use to improve how our pages appear in search engines and AI assistants work only with our public page content and receive no information about you. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings at any time.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about anything else — write to[email protected]. A real person reads and replies.

LaunchGate is made by Vohux Inc., Ontario, Canada.