Privacy Policy for Yggdrasil Explorer

Last updated: June 03, 2026

Privacy and Data Collection

Yggdrasil Explorer is a local system utility built with your privacy as a top priority. We want to be completely transparent about our data practices:

What data we collect

• No personal data collection: Yggdrasil Explorer does not collect or transmit any personal data to external servers.
• Local only: All process, system, and telemetry information is read on demand from your Mac and used only to display it within the app. It is never uploaded or stored remotely.
• No analytics: We do not use any analytics or crash-reporting services to track your usage.
• No advertising: The app contains no advertising or third-party tracking frameworks.
• No accounts: Using Yggdrasil Explorer does not require an account, sign-in, or any online service.

Software updates (Sparkle)

Direct downloads include in-app updates through Sparkle, an open-source macOS update framework.

• What happens: The app periodically checks our public update feed (https://devmil.de/Yggdrasil/download/appcast.xml) and may download a signed, notarized DMG when you choose to install an update.
• What is sent: Only the information needed to determine whether a newer build exists (such as your app version and build number, and standard HTTP request metadata). Your process list, files, network connections, and other inspection data are not transmitted.
• When: Update checks run in the background after launch; you can also trigger a check with Check for Updates… in the app menu.
• Control: You are prompted before an update is downloaded or installed; you can dismiss the dialog and keep your current version.

What the app accesses on your device

To show you an accurate view of what is running on your Mac, Yggdrasil Explorer reads information directly from the operating system:

• Process and system telemetry: Process names, identifiers (PID/PPID), CPU and memory usage, and process hierarchy, obtained through Darwin kernel APIs (such as sysctl, libproc, and Mach calls).
• Handles and connections: Open file descriptors, network connections (TCP/UDP ports and endpoints), and Mach ports associated with processes.
• Code-signing and security metadata: Code-signing status, Team IDs, entitlements, sandbox and hardened-runtime state, Gatekeeper origin, and binary architecture.

All of this information is processed in memory on your device to render the interface and is discarded when no longer needed.

Privileged helper

To inspect processes that are not owned by your user account, Yggdrasil Explorer installs a small helper using Apple's SMAppService framework. The main app communicates with this helper over secure, local inter-process communication (XPC). The helper performs only the telemetry queries described above and does not transmit any data off your device.

Changes to this policy

If we make changes to this policy, we will update it here with a new "Last updated" date.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at: