Privacy Policy for HigherBat

1. Controller

The controller within the meaning of Art. 4(7) GDPR is:

2. Data Protection Officer

No data protection officer has been appointed. There is no obligation to appoint one, as the conditions of Art. 37(1) GDPR and Sec. 38(1) BDSG are not met: fewer than 20 people are permanently engaged in the automated processing of personal data, there is no large-scale processing of special categories of data, and the core activity does not consist of large-scale regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects.

For all privacy matters, please use the contact details given in Section 1.

3. Core Principle: Processing Exclusively on Your Device

HigherBat is a local diagnostic tool for your Mac's battery. All measurement, usage, and settings data collected by the App is processed and stored exclusively on your device.

The controller operates no servers to which data from the App is transmitted, and has no access to the data processed in the App. No data is passed to analytics, advertising, or tracking services; no such components (SDKs) are contained in the App.

The App's only network communication is with Apple's services: to retrieve the product and price data for the in-app purchase, and to verify your purchase entitlement (see Section 4.5).

4. Data Processed in Detail

4.1 Battery and power telemetry

Data: charge level, charging and mains status, voltage, current, power (watts), temperature, charge cycle count, design and nominal capacity, battery condition, battery serial number, design cycle limit, device designation, characteristics of the gauge itself (the designation of its measuring chip, its fault and cell-disconnect counters, the revision of the charging-protocol specification, and the unfiltered pack voltage), the charge ceiling set in System Settings or by Optimised Battery Charging, the state of Low Power Mode, and characteristics of the connected power adapter (wattage, voltage, current, wireless or wired).

Source: exclusively from the IOKit / IOPowerSources interfaces of the macOS operating system. No data is collected from you that you do not generate yourself by using the device.

Purpose: displaying the live readings, the diagnostic cards, and the history chart, and calculating time remaining and service projection.

Storage: instantaneous values are held in memory. In addition, the history of the preceding 24 hours, comprising for each sample a timestamp, charge level, charging state, power reading, battery temperature, whether the power adapter was connected, and the name of the application active at that moment (Section 4.2), is stored in a file inside the App container's “Application Support” folder, so that the history chart survives a restart of the App. This is written at intervals of roughly five minutes and when the App quits. The two samples between which the Mac was asleep additionally carry a marker, so that the history chart can show a sleep period as such rather than merely as a gap; nothing is measured during the sleep period itself (Section 4.3a). Each entry further carries a randomly generated identifier, which the App needs solely to tell the entries apart when displaying them; it identifies neither you nor your device. A small number of learned reference values are stored persistently in the App's local settings (UserDefaults), likewise inside the App container: a smoothed battery-health figure, the charge cycle count and date the wear rate is measured from, and the charge level at which this Mac's charging was observed to stop. The key of each of those entries contains the battery's serial number, so the values are not incorrectly carried over when the battery is replaced. The serial number does not leave your device.

Values from the gauge's own memory: the “Battery & Statistics” section of the main window additionally displays values that the App did not measure, but that the battery's own charging electronics recorded and make available through IOKit: the voltage and measured impedance of each cell bank, the most recently learned charge capacity together with the cycle count at which it was learned, the extremes registered across the battery's entire service life (lowest, average and highest temperature, lowest and highest pack voltage, highest charge and discharge current) and the lowest and the highest charge level of the current day. These values come from the battery's own memory and may therefore date from before the App was installed. The App reads them only while that section is open, does not store them, and does not transmit them; nor do they appear in the CSV export (Section 6), which can only output what the App itself has stored.

Desktop widget: the bundled widget is a separate process and displays only the current reading. So that it shows exactly the figures the App shows, the App hands it the current reading (charge level, charging and mains status, estimated time remaining, charge ceiling, battery health, cycle count, temperature, and the time of the reading) together with your chosen temperature unit, through a storage area on this Mac shared only by the App and its widget (an “App Group”). This entry is overwritten continuously while the App runs and contains no history, no application names, and no serial number. While the App is not running, the widget reads the same values from IOKit itself. The widget stores nothing of its own, has no access to the App's history or statistics, and has no network access.

4.2 Names of active applications (rolling 24 hours)

Data: the display name of the application currently in the foreground, obtained via NSWorkspace, stored together with a timestamp and the corresponding power reading. It is held locally as part of the history described in Section 4.1. Only that name is stored, never a window title, a document name, or any content. When none of your applications is in the foreground, for example at the login window or in the screen saver, the entry “System” or the name macOS reports for the system surface is stored in its place.

Purpose: attributing energy consumption to individual programs (“Heaviest Power Consumers”).

Please note: this processing is limited to a rolling window of 24 hours: when the App starts, and continuously while it runs, entries older than 24 hours are discarded automatically and irretrievably. While the App is not running, the state last written remains unchanged in the App container; it is pruned at the next start and can be removed in full at any time via “Clear History”. Deleting the App alone does not remove it (Section 10). This is not tracking across apps or websites within the meaning of Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework. No combination with third-party data takes place. The data does not leave your device unless you export it yourself (Section 6).

4.3 Aggregated statistics (daily records and cumulative totals)

Data: one record per calendar day, containing aggregated figures only: the charge used and the charge added (in percentage points), the time spent running on battery and the time spent charging, the measured energy together with the period it was measured over, the lowest and highest charge level of that day, the number of measurement intervals the record is based on, and, for the Care Score, the total time measured, the time spent plugged in at 95 % charge or more, the time spent below 20 %, the number of times the charge fell below 10 % on battery, and the time the battery was at 40 °C or warmer together with the time a temperature was measured at all. It contains no application names, no timestamps beyond the calendar date, and nothing that indicates what the Mac was used for.

Source: derived solely from the telemetry described in Section 4.1, as it is measured. No further data is collected for this purpose.

Purpose: displaying the Statistics screen (charge used per day, time on battery, average draw), which the rolling 24-hour history of Section 4.1 cannot cover, and calculating the Care Score, a rating of how gently the battery was treated over the last 14 days.

Storage: in a separate file inside the App container's “Application Support” folder. Records older than 30 days are discarded automatically and irretrievably. Alongside the records the file holds one single bookkeeping timestamp, marking the last measurement already counted, so that the same measurement is not counted twice after a restart; it describes no usage and belongs to no particular day. The data does not leave your device and is erased in full, together with the history it was derived from, by “Clear History”.

Cumulative totals (kept without a time limit): the same file additionally holds a single record of running totals, so that the Statistics screen can show figures covering the entire time the App has been in use rather than only the last 30 days. It contains sums and counters only: charge used and charge added, time on battery, time charging and time plugged in without charging, the measured energy together with the period it was measured over, the highest draw measured, the strongest power flow ever measured together with the current and voltage read at that same moment, the number of charges started, the number of times 100 % was reached and 10 % was undercut, the time spent above 80 % and below 20 % of charge, the longest uninterrupted period on battery power, the number of days on which measurements were taken, the number of days with battery use, the total duration observed, the first and the last calendar date with measurements, the calendar date of the day with the highest consumption, the sleep figures described in Section 4.3a, and the battery health and cycle count as read at the first and at the most recent observation, together with the calendar date of those two observations. There are no individual days, no timestamps beyond those calendar dates, no application names, and nothing that indicates what the Mac was used for; individual measurements cannot be reconstructed from it. Because the record contains no history that could be pruned, it is not subject to a retention period: it remains until you use “Clear History” or delete the App's stored data (Section 10).

4.3a Sleep periods

Data: for each period during which the Mac was asleep, the point in time at which it began, its duration, and the charge level at its beginning and at its end. From these the App derives running totals only: the number of sleep periods, their total duration, and the charge lost across them, with the count and the duration additionally kept separately for sleep periods spent on battery power, plus the most recent sleep period, which is kept individually, including whether it took place on mains or on battery power.

Source: the sleep and wake notifications of the operating system (NSWorkspace), and the charge level of the battery at each of those two moments. Nothing is measured during a sleep period; no application is able to, because the Mac is not running.

Purpose: answering the question that the rolling 24-hour history cannot, because it covers only waking hours: how much charge this Mac loses while asleep.

Storage: in the file described in Section 4.3, as part of the cumulative totals. Sleep periods shorter than five minutes are ignored. The individual periods themselves are not kept as a list, only the running totals and the single most recent period. There are no application names and no indication of what the Mac was used for; the data does not leave your device and is erased by “Clear History”.

4.3b Battery wear over time

Data: one record per calendar day, containing exactly three values: the date, the battery health figure of that day (in percent), and the charge cycle count of that day.

Source: the battery's gas gauge, by way of IOKit, the same readings as in Section 4.1.

Purpose: displaying the wear curve on the Battery & Statistics screen. Two readings, the first and the most recent, can only state how far the battery has worn; they cannot state whether it is still wearing, and at what rate. That requires the intervening readings.

Storage: in a separate file inside the App container's “Application Support” folder. Records older than five years are discarded automatically and irretrievably. The series contains no usage data whatsoever: no application names, no charge levels, no times of day, nothing beyond the three values named above. It does not leave your device and is erased in full by “Clear History”. If the battery is replaced (recognised by the cycle count falling), the series begins anew, because readings taken from the old battery say nothing about the new one.

4.4 Settings and application state

Data: the alert rules you define (charge levels, battery temperatures, and the length of time the Mac may stay plugged in above 80 %), whether the alerts and their sound are switched on, the three switches for the charge-limit, plug-in and unplug alerts, menu-bar icon style, which side the text beside it sits on, colour coding of the percentage, charging animations, appearance, temperature and time format, onboarding status, and the option you last chose in HigherBat's Focus filter (Section 5).

Purpose: providing a configurable application that stays consistent across restarts.

Storage: locally in UserDefaults inside the App container.

4.5 Trial period, purchase, and entitlement

HigherBat offers a three-day free trial followed by a single one-time in-app purchase. There are no subscriptions.

• Retrieval of product and price data: on launch, and when the purchase view or the settings section is opened, the App retrieves the in-app purchase's product data through StoreKit (Product.products), including the price applicable to your storefront. This retrieval happens on every launch and regardless of whether you intend to buy or have already bought; it is what allows the price to be shown in your own currency rather than hard-coded. The App transmits no personal data in doing so, and the controller receives nothing from the request.
• Start of the trial: the start time is stored locally, both in UserDefaults and in a file inside the App container's “Application Support” folder.
• Clock reference against clock tampering: so that the trial cannot be extended by setting the system clock back, the App additionally remembers the latest point in time it has ever seen and measures the deadline against that value whenever it lies ahead of the current time. This timestamp is advanced roughly every five minutes while the App runs and when the App quits, and is stored locally in the same way as the start time: in UserDefaults and in a file inside the App container's “Application Support” folder. It says nothing beyond when the App last ran, is evaluated for no other purpose, and does not leave your device.
• Link to your Apple Account: to prevent the trial from being extended indefinitely by reinstalling, the App retrieves, through Apple's StoreKit interface (AppTransaction), the date on which your Apple Account first obtained the App, and uses whichever of the two dates is earlier. This retrieval contacts Apple's servers. In doing so the controller receives no identifier for your Apple Account and no personal data; only a date is evaluated locally.
• Payment handling: the purchase is handled entirely by Apple. The controller never receives your payment details, credit-card data, Apple Account identifier, or name, but only the information, verified on your device, as to whether a valid entitlement exists.
• Restoring purchases: if you use “Restore Purchases”, the App asks Apple, through AppStore.sync(), to re-deliver to this device an entitlement already associated with your Apple Account. Apple may prompt you to sign in to your Apple Account. The request is addressed to Apple's servers; the controller receives no data from it.
• Code redemption: if you redeem a voucher or promotional code, Apple's own redemption interface is opened. Entry and validation of the code take place exclusively at Apple.

Apple as an independent controller: for the processing of your data within your App Store account, payment handling, and purchase history, Apple is an independent controller. Apple's privacy policy applies in that respect.

4.6 The App's own alerts

When the battery reaches a charge level or a temperature you have defined, the App shows an alert in the top right corner of the screen, with a short sound if you want one.

That alert is drawn by the App itself. It is not a system notification: the App requests no permission for it, it does not appear in the macOS Notification Center, and no push service is involved. Its content comes solely from the readings described in Section 4.1 and does not leave your device. You can switch the alerts and their sound off at any time in the App's settings; the App remains fully usable without them.

4.7 Launching automatically at login

If you enable “Launch at Login”, the App registers itself with macOS as a login item via the SMAppService system interface. No personal data is processed or transmitted in doing so; it is purely a system setting that you can revoke at any time in the App or in System Settings.

5. Shortcuts and App Intents

HigherBat exposes several read-only functions (“App Intents”) to Apple's Shortcuts app: charge level, charging state, estimated time remaining, battery health, and temperature. Where a charge ceiling is set in System Settings, the answer to the time-remaining request also names its value.

These values are returned only at the moment a shortcut, automation, or Siri request started by you asks for them. Nothing is transmitted in the background, and the App itself sends these values nowhere.

Focus filter: HigherBat offers a Focus filter that you can add to a Focus in System Settings to choose which of its alerts appear while that Focus is on, and whether they make a sound. Warnings about the charge level and the battery temperature appear in any case, without a sound where the Focus asks for silence. When such a Focus turns on or off, macOS tells the App only the option you chose; the App learns neither which Focus it is nor any of its other settings, and stores only that option among its settings (Section 4.4).

Presentations: so that a presentation is not disturbed, the App checks, at the moment an alert is due and without storing anything, whether a display is being mirrored and whether a presentation app (Keynote, PowerPoint or LibreOffice) is in the foreground in full screen. If so, the App plays no sound and shows only warnings about the charge level and the battery temperature. The App also asks macOS to exclude alerts from screen capture. Recent versions of macOS do not enforce this in every recording or video-call app, so an alert may still appear on a shared screen.

Please note: a shortcut you create is under your own control. If you set up an automation that forwards these values to another application or to an online service (for example a webhook, a messenger, or a cloud service), that disclosure happens at your instigation. The service you selected is responsible for that onward processing; the controller of this App has no influence over it and no knowledge of it.

6. Data Export (CSV)

Using the “Export CSV” button you can write the locally stored data, including the recorded names of active applications, to a file at a location of your choosing.

The export covers all measurement, history and statistics data: the rolling 24-hour history (Sections 4.1 and 4.2), the aggregated daily figures for the last 30 days (Section 4.3), the cumulative totals including the sleep figures (Sections 4.3 and 4.3a), and the wear series (Section 4.3b). The four stores appear as four tables one after another in the same file, each under its own heading.

This function also serves to fulfil your right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR). Please note: from the moment of export the file lies outside the protected App container. You are responsible for its further storage, disclosure, and deletion.

7. Legal Bases for Processing

Access to terminal equipment information (Sec. 25 TDDDG): access to the system sensors (IOKit) and the storage of settings in your terminal equipment are strictly necessary under Sec. 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG in order to provide the telemetry service you have expressly requested. No separate consent is required for this.

Obligation to provide data (Art. 13(2)(e) GDPR): providing the data is neither required by law nor by contract. Without local access to the system's battery interfaces, however, the App cannot perform its function.

8. Recipients and Disclosure of Data

The data processed in the App is not disclosed to third parties. In particular, no data is sold, rented, or leased.

Data exchange exists solely to the following extent:

• Apple: in connection with the purchase and the verification of your entitlement (Section 4.5). Apple is an independent controller in that respect.
• WhatsApp (Meta): only if you choose to use the “Chat on WhatsApp” button in the App's Support screen (Section 13a).
• Disclosures instigated by you: through Shortcuts (Section 5) or the CSV export (Section 6).

Processors (Art. 28 GDPR): no processor is involved in the processing that takes place inside the App; it occurs exclusively on your device.

For the receipt and forwarding of postal mail sent to the business address given in Section 1, we use Postflex GmbH, Emsdettener Straße 10, 48268 Greven, as a processor. A data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28(3) GDPR is in place with them. If you contact us by post, the personal data contained in your letter is processed there strictly on our instructions for the purpose of mail handling. Postflex GmbH has appointed a data protection officer: heyData GmbH, Schützenstraße 5, 10117 Berlin, datenschutz@heydata.eu.

9. International Transfers

The controller transfers no data out of the App to countries outside the European Union or the European Economic Area. The App itself contacts no server other than Apple's (Section 4.5).

If you open the web version of this policy or of the imprint using a button inside the App, that opens your browser and loads a page from our website. Our website's privacy policy applies to that request; the App itself transmits nothing in doing so.

Where a transfer to Apple occurs in connection with the App Store purchase, this takes place under Apple's own responsibility. The contracting entity within the EU is Apple Distribution International Ltd., based in Ireland; for any transfers to the USA, Apple states that it relies on appropriate safeguards within the meaning of Art. 44 et seq. GDPR. Please refer to Apple's privacy policy for details.

If you contact us via WhatsApp (Section 13a), the transfer takes place under the responsibility of WhatsApp Ireland Ltd. / Meta, which processes data in the USA among other places and states that it relies on appropriate safeguards within the meaning of Art. 44 et seq. GDPR. This route is voluntary in every case; email and post (Section 13) are available as alternatives without any third-country transfer.

10. Retention Periods and Deletion

You can remove the stored history completely and irreversibly at any time using the “Clear History” button. Please note: unlike iPhone and iPad, macOS does not remove an app's stored data when you move the app to the Trash or delete it from Launchpad. The App container (~/Library/Containers/com.aaronwuest.HigherBat) and the storage area shared by the App and its widget (~/Library/Group Containers/2JPNGJ4W73.com.aaronwuest.HigherBat) remain, so that settings and history survive a reinstall. To remove everything, use “Clear History” before deleting the App and then delete these two folders, for example via “Go to Folder” in the Finder.

11. Data Security and Backups

All data is stored inside the macOS App Sandbox and is protected against access by other applications by the operating system's access controls.

Please note: depending on your system settings, local App containers may be included in your personal Time Machine or iCloud backups. The security of those backups is governed by your Apple and system settings and lies outside the controller's sphere of influence.

12. No Automated Decision-Making, No Profiling

Automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22(1) and (4) GDPR does not take place.

The calculations displayed in the App (time remaining, Care Score, service projection) are purely technical estimates provided for your information. They produce no legal effect concerning you and do not similarly significantly affect you.

13. Contacting Us by Email or Post

If you contact us by email, we process the data you provide (in particular your email address, your name where given, and the content of your message) solely in order to handle your request. This data is not passed on to third parties. The “Send Email” button in the App's support section does not itself send anything: it merely opens your mail client with our address as the recipient and the App's version and build number in the subject line, so that this detail is not missing from a bug report. Whether you send the message is entirely your decision.

If you contact us by post, your letter is first received and forwarded to us by our processor, Postflex GmbH (see Section 8). In doing so, personal data contained in your letter, such as sender details, may be processed. This takes place strictly on our instructions under a contract pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.

In both cases the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where the enquiry relates to entering into or performing a contract, and otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR based on our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries.

13a. Contacting Us via WhatsApp

The App's Support screen offers a “Chat on WhatsApp” button as an additional way to reach us. Pressing it does not send anything: it merely opens the address wa.me in your browser or in the WhatsApp app, with our telephone number pre-filled. Whether you then write anything is entirely up to you.

Please note: WhatsApp is operated by WhatsApp Ireland Ltd. (Meta). If you use this route, the content of your message, your telephone number and the associated metadata are processed by Meta as an independent controller, on its own terms and in part outside the EU (Section 9). We have no influence over that processing. WhatsApp may also access the contact data stored on your device; that too lies outside our sphere of influence.

The message content that reaches us is processed by us solely in order to handle your request, on the same legal bases as above (Art. 6(1)(b) or Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Using WhatsApp is voluntary and never necessary: email and post (above) lead to exactly the same place, and no data reaches Meta by that route. Meta's own privacy policy applies in respect of the processing that takes place at WhatsApp.

14. Children

The App is not directed at children and is not intended for use by children under the age of 16. No personal data of children is knowingly collected. Since all data is stored exclusively locally, the controller has no access to it in any event.

15. Your Rights as a Data Subject

You have the following rights against us with regard to personal data relating to you:

• Access (Art. 15 GDPR)
• Rectification (Art. 16 GDPR)
• Erasure (Art. 17 GDPR)
• Restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
• Data portability (Art. 20 GDPR)
• Objection to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR)
• Withdrawal of consent with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR)

Exercising them in practice: because the controller stores none of your data on its own servers and has no access to the data in your App, you exercise these rights directly on your device:

For anything beyond that, please contact service@aaronwst.de.

16. Right to Lodge a Complaint with a Supervisory Authority (Art. 77 GDPR)

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you have the right under Art. 77 GDPR to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you consider that the processing of personal data relating to you infringes the GDPR. The competent authority for the controller is:

You may equally contact the supervisory authority of your habitual residence or place of work.

17. Notice for California Residents (CCPA / CPRA)

No personal information is sold or “shared” within the meaning of the CCPA/CPRA. No processing for purposes of cross-context behavioural advertising takes place. You have the right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights.

Do Not Track signals (CalOPPA): because the App does not track your behaviour across websites or services, DNT signals are not evaluated.

18. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy so that it always reflects current legal requirements or changes to the App's feature set. The version in force at the time of your visit applies. The current version is delivered with each App update and is available on this page.

Further information can be found in the Imprint.