Privacy

Data in the app

Outbound stores your rules, preferences, profiles and connection audit logs on your Mac. Audit logs are kept for 30 days locally. The app requests only the HTTPS blocklists you add and the managed rule feed your administrator sets.

Administrators may configure an audit export folder. Your organization controls any collector that reads that folder and the retention of exported logs. Read how Outbound works for the full list of current app connections.

The Analytics overview and cloud models

Analytics can show a few sentences that sum up the range you are viewing. On a Mac with Apple Intelligence they are written on the Mac. Every number in them is checked against your own figures, and if one does not match, Outbound shows a plain summary instead. On a Mac without Apple Intelligence it shows a plain summary.

You can instead bring your own model in Settings › Intelligence: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, or any OpenAI-compatible server such as Ollama or LM Studio. Your key is stored in your Mac’s keychain. Nothing is sent until you turn on “Send figures to” that model. What is sent is totals, app names, website domains and countries for the range. Never addresses, full host names, file paths, rules, or what was sent. “Show What’s Sent…” displays the exact request before anything leaves your Mac.

AI apps and the MCP server

Outbound includes a Model Context Protocol server, started with outboundctl mcp. Settings › Intelligence has an “Add Outbound to” button for Claude, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI and VS Code. An AI app you add can ask about your apps, the sites and countries they reach, what was blocked and your rules. It sees the same figures as Analytics, never the contents of a connection. It can ask to add, remove, turn on or turn off a rule. Outbound shows you exactly what would change and makes the change only if you allow it. You can switch this off.

Problem reports

A problem report is sent only when you choose Help › Report a Problem in the app and send it. It contains the description you write. If you choose, it also contains diagnostics: versions, Mac model, macOS version, Outbound’s mode and status, rule counts and open problem codes. Diagnostics contain no sites, addresses or app names. Only if you tick it, the report also contains the last 30 minutes of Outbound’s own log, which can name sites.

You see exactly what will be sent before you send it, or you can save the report to a file instead. Reports go to outboundfirewall.com over HTTPS and are kept only to fix the problem. The site stores a salted hash of the sender’s network address to limit abuse, never the address itself.

Launch notification requests

If you use the notification form, the website stores your email address, the request time and your consent to one Outbound launch email. It uses a local server file or a database, depending on the deployment. The form does not sign you up for a recurring newsletter.

To remove your request before launch, email support@outboundfirewall.com from the address you used. Notification records are used only to manage and send the requested launch message.

Website analytics

To understand how people find and use this website, it loads Google Analytics 4, PostHog and Cloudflare Web Analytics after the page has loaded. They record the pages you view, the site that sent you, campaign tags in the link (utm_*), which buttons and links you use (for example Download, Notify me and links to other sites), your browser and device type, and an approximate location worked out from your connection. Google Analytics sets its own cookies (_ga); PostHog keeps a random visitor id in your browser. PostHog is set not to store your IP address and not to record your screen. None of this runs inside the Outbound app.

The site also keeps the campaign tags and the first site that sent you in your browser's local storage, and sends them with a Notify me request so we can see which pages lead to signups.

Website requests and preferences

Your browser sends normal request information to the web server, including an IP address, requested URL and browser headers. Hosting and reverse-proxy access logs may record this information. The notification handler uses a short-lived, in-memory rate limiter; it does not save IP addresses with notification records.

The appearance button saves outbound-theme in localStorage on your device. It records only your light or dark preference. The analytics cookies above are the only cookies this site sets; there are no advertising cookies. External links open other sites with their own privacy practices.

Payments and licences

Dodo Payments is the merchant of record. Its checkout collects your name, email, billing address and payment details under its own privacy policy; this site never sees your card. Dodo tells this site the order number, product, amount, currency and any refund, which we keep to count the founding licences and handle support. We do not store your email address from a purchase. A founding-price checkout keeps a salted hash of your connection for 24 hours so the same visitor reopens the same checkout.

The app sends your licence key and your Mac’s name to Dodo Payments when you activate it, and the key about once a week afterwards to confirm it is still valid. The key is stored in your Mac’s keychain.

Support

When you email support, we receive the address, message and attachments you send. Include only the information needed to investigate. Remove private hosts, account details and access tokens from logs.

Contact and changes

For access, correction or deletion requests, contact support@outboundfirewall.com. This policy describes the site and development app as of October 8, 2026. Changes to collection or network behavior will be documented here.