Privacy policy

At a glance

Who we are

This policy covers the DiffScope desktop app and the website at diffscope-app.pages.dev, both published by DiffScope (“we”, “us”). A contact address is coming soon.

The desktop app

The DiffScope app does not collect, store or send any information about you or your files.

• No network connections. The app contains no networking code: no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporter, no update checks, no licence checks and no account.
• Your files stay on your computer. Files and folders you compare or merge are read and written locally and are never uploaded anywhere.
• Settings are stored locally. Your preferences are saved on your computer in %APPDATA%\DiffScope. Nobody else can see them; delete that folder to remove them (see Reset all settings).

Windows itself may contact Microsoft about programs you run, for example when Microsoft Defender SmartScreen checks a downloaded file. That is a Windows feature governed by Microsoft’s privacy terms, not something DiffScope does.

This website

The website keeps simple statistics about how it is used. It records two kinds of event, and nothing else.

Page views

When a page loads, a small script (/main.js) sends one request to our server (/api/hit) containing:

• the path of the page, for example /download;
• the address of the page that linked to it (the browser’s referrer), which the server immediately reduces to the site name only, for example github.com. Links from our own pages are not recorded;
• the utm_source campaign tag, if the address you opened contains one.

Repeat views of the same page by the same visitor within 30 minutes are counted once.

Downloads

When you download DiffScope through a /download/… link, the server records the version and file name, the number of bytes served, the link’s src tag (which button you used, for example nav or hero), and the referring site of your most recent page view that day. Repeat downloads of the same file by the same visitor within 10 minutes are counted once.

What each record contains

Besides the items above, every page view and download record contains the following, worked out by our server from the request:

The daily visitor code

To count how many different people visit on a day without storing who they are, the server combines your IP address and user agent with a secret key that changes every day (UTC) and runs them through a one-way keyed hash (HMAC-SHA-256). Only the first 16 characters of the result are saved.

• The IP address and the full user agent are used for that calculation and then discarded; they are never written to the database.
• Because the key changes every day, the same visitor gets a different code each day, so visits on different days cannot be linked to each other.
• The code is used only to count unique visitors per day and to ignore repeated views and downloads.

What is not collected

• No IP addresses are stored.
• No cookies, and no tracking across other websites.
• No names, email addresses or accounts. The site has no forms and no sign-in.
• No advertising networks, no third-party analytics or tracking scripts, no social media widgets.
• Nothing is sold, rented or shared for marketing.

Why we collect it

The statistics answer simple questions: is anyone using DiffScope, which releases are downloaded, which pages help people, which links bring visitors, and which countries and Windows versions matter. Bot detection keeps those numbers honest and helps spot abuse.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom: we process this limited data on the basis of our legitimate interest in understanding and improving the website and the product (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR / UK GDPR). We have chosen to collect as little as possible so that this interest does not override your privacy.

Who can see it

The statistics dashboard is private and password-protected; only the site owner can open it. The one figure shown publicly is the all-time total number of downloads, which is an aggregate count and identifies nobody.

Storage and retention

Statistics records are stored in a Cloudflare D1 database. The website currently has no automatic deletion: records are kept until they are deleted by the site owner. If an automatic retention period is introduced, this section will say so.

Cookies and local storage

This website sets no cookies.

If you use the theme switch (the sun and moon button), your choice of light or dark is saved in your browser’s local storage under the name diffscope-theme, so the next page opens in the same theme. It stays in your browser, is never sent to our server, and you can remove it by clearing this site’s data in your browser settings. Nothing else is stored in your browser.

Third parties

Cloudflare (hosting)

The website, its statistics database and the download files are hosted by Cloudflare, Inc. Like any web host, Cloudflare necessarily processes your IP address and request details to deliver pages, protect the site against attacks and keep it running, and it may keep its own operational logs. Request logging for the site’s server code is switched on so that errors can be diagnosed; those logs are held by Cloudflare under its own retention rules. See the Cloudflare privacy policy.

Google Fonts

The pages use the Inter and JetBrains Mono typefaces, which your browser downloads from Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com). When that happens, Google receives your IP address, your browser’s user agent and the address of our website. Google states that it does not use Google Fonts requests to build profiles or target ads; see the Google Fonts privacy FAQ and the Google privacy policy. If you block these requests, the site still works with your system fonts.

Links to other sites

Pages link to other websites, such as the Electron project. Those sites have their own privacy policies; nothing is shared with them unless you follow a link.

Your choices and rights

• You can use DiffScope without visiting the website again: the app never contacts it.
• You can block the statistics request (/api/hit) or the Google Fonts requests with a content blocker; the site keeps working. Downloads are still counted, because the count is made by the download server itself.
• The site does not currently change its behaviour for Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals; the same minimal data is recorded either way.
• Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask for access to, correction of or deletion of personal data about you, and to complain to your data protection authority. Because no IP addresses, names or long-lived identifiers are stored, we usually cannot single out records belonging to you, but we will help where we can. A contact address is coming soon.

Children

DiffScope is a developer tool and the website is not aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

If what the app or website collects changes, this page will be updated before or when the change takes effect, and the “Last updated” date at the top will change.

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