Privacy Policy

In short: Lynx downloads on your computer. We don’t see the links you paste, the files you download or what you watch, and you don’t need an account. To run the free trial and Pro licences, the app checks in with our licence service about once a day using an anonymous device ID. The website collects what you choose to give us (such as an email address for a wait-list), anonymous visit counts, and standard server logs.

This policy covers the Lynx apps (Lynx Download Manager, Lynx Notch and the Lynx browser extension), the website lynxdownloadmanager.com and the Lynx partner program. “We” means Slowrox, the company that makes Lynx.

The Lynx app

What stays on your computer. Links you paste or copy, your download history and library, your settings, clips, the files you download, and what’s playing on your Mac (for Lynx Notch). None of this is sent to us.

What the app connects to.

• The sites you download from. Lynx fetches files and video directly from them, as your browser would.
• Our licence service, when Lynx starts and about once a day (details below).
• Our update service and its file hosting, when Lynx starts and every few hours, to check for and download updates to Lynx and its components. With the check, Lynx reports its version, how its last update went, and which version of the Lynx browser extension each browser has. These requests contain nothing about you beyond what any web request contains, such as your IP address.

Crash reports and anonymous usage. Unless you turn it off in Lynx › Settings › General › Privacy, Lynx sends us:

• Crash reports when part of Lynx stops unexpectedly: which part, the error message and where in our code it happened, and the Lynx and macOS versions. Before anything is sent, Lynx removes links, file paths, e-mail addresses and long codes from the message.
• Daily counts of finished and failed downloads. For a finished download, the name of the site it came from and where it was started: a pasted link, the browser extension, Lynx Notch or a playlist. For a failed download, the kind of error (for example “the site refused the download”), the name of the site’s video service when it was a video, and the version of the download component. When Lynx switched to another download method for a file, which method and whether it worked. Never the link, the page, the title or the file name.
• Which features were used that day, as counts and on/off flags: clips, playlists, audio, Auto-delete, Lynx Notch, the browser extension and clipboard history. For downloads with the lid closed, how many finished and how many stopped, on battery or on the charger.

If you move Lynx to the Trash while “Share crash reports and anonymous usage” is on, the app sends one signal saying so, tied to its installation ID. If an installation doesn’t check in for 30 days, we treat it as probably removed. Neither includes your name, files, links or anything you downloaded.

These reports are tied to the same anonymous installation as the licence check-in. We use them only to find and fix problems and to learn which features matter. Crash reports are deleted after 90 days and daily counts after about 13 months.

The app contains no advertising or third-party tracking code.

What the licence service receives, and why. The 14-day trial, Pro licences (one computer at a time) and invites depend on recognising a computer, so each check-in sends:

• A device ID, a one-way identifier derived from your computer’s hardware ID. The hardware ID itself never leaves your computer. The device ID lets the trial survive a reinstall and lets a licence know which computer it’s on.
• An installation key created by this copy of Lynx.
• Basic facts about the computer: Mac or Windows, the model (for example “MacBook Air”, never the serial number), whether it’s a virtual machine, the versions of the system and of Lynx, your language setting, and your time zone (only to tell which country you’re in; never your location).
• A count of finished downloads. Just the number, never what they were.
• On Lynx Free, how many videos you downloaded today: a number, for the 10 videos a day. Which videos they were stays on your computer: Lynx tells a repeat apart there, and never sends anything about a video, not even a scrambled one. Kept 7 days.
• Your approximate network. The service sees your IP address like any server, but stores only its first three parts (for example 203.0.113.x) and your country. Our hosting providers’ request logs keep the full address for a short time, for security.
• When you activate a licence: a one-way fingerprint of the key and its last four characters (never the key itself), and your computer’s name, so Lynx can tell you which computer a licence is on. An invite code, if you enter one.

We use this only to run the trial, licences and invites, to prevent abuse, and to count how many copies of Lynx are in use and on which versions. It’s stored with our database provider in the United States. You can ask us to delete it; we then can’t tell that your computer has already had its trial.

The browser extension talks only to the Lynx app on your own computer. It sends nothing to us or anyone else. The copy from the Chrome Web Store asks before it takes over any of your downloads. After that:

• When you start a download in your browser, it gives Lynx the file’s address, the page it came from, the file’s name, type and size, your browser’s user agent, and that site’s cookies for the file, so a download that needs a sign-in works in Lynx as it does in the browser. Lynx uses them only to fetch that file and keeps them with the download on your computer.
• When you use the Lynx button, the popup or the right-click menu, it gives Lynx the address and title of that page or link. For sites that only show a video to signed-in viewers, it also gives that site’s cookies, which Lynx keeps on your computer for up to 60 days (Settings › Browser lets you remove them).
• When you open its popup, it asks Lynx about the current page to show its title and picture.
• It keeps its settings, your answer and a connection code in your browser’s storage.

You can turn off download catching and the Lynx button in the popup, or remove the extension at any time.

The website

What you give us.

• Email address, if you join the newsletter or a wait-list, or ask us to email you the download link. Used only for that, and deleted when you unsubscribe or ask.
• A Windows or Linux vote, if you visit from one of those and tap the vote button: the platform, a random code kept in your browser (so one browser counts once), the page, the first page you opened and the site and campaign tags that led you there (as in the analytics below), your time zone and the country it belongs to, and the first part of your IP address (to stop floods). An email address added there is used only for one note when Lynx for that platform is ready.
• Gift licence, if you asked for the free Pro licence the website used to offer: your email address, where you heard about Lynx and whether you ticked “Email me about new features and offers”. Used to send you the licence key, to stop the same person claiming many keys, to learn which channels bring people to Lynx, and to send one reminder shortly before your free Pro ends. We send product emails only if you ticked the box, and we delete all of it when you ask.
• Name, email and message, if you contact support. Used to answer you.

What’s collected automatically. Our web host keeps standard server logs (IP address, browser, pages requested, time) for a limited time, for security and to keep the site running. We don’t use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking.

Website analytics. To learn which pages help and where visitors come from, the website counts page views and a few clicks: the Download and Buy buttons, the pricing switch, wait-list sign-ups, gift licence requests and invite links. Our own counter uses no cookies and stores nothing in your browser. With each page view it receives the page’s path, the name of the site that linked to it (for example “reddit.com”, never the full address), campaign tags in the link (such as utm_source), your browser’s time zone and, like any request, your IP address and browser. It keeps an anonymous visitor code that changes every day and is deleted after two days, so we can count daily visitors but can’t recognise you on another day or recover your IP address. It also keeps the kind of device and browser (for example “Mac, Safari”) and the country of your time zone. It notes whether you interacted with the page at all (moved the pointer, scrolled, touched or pressed a key; never what you typed or where you pointed), so visits by automated checkers can be told apart from people’s. Visits from browsers controlled by automation, or set to the UTC time zone that servers use, aren’t counted. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, nothing is sent.

Google Analytics. The website also uses Google Analytics 4 to see how visitors find and use it. It receives the pages you view, the clicks listed above, how you reached the site (referring site and campaign tags), your approximate location, device, browser and language. Google Analytics doesn’t log or store IP addresses, and we’ve turned off Google signals, ad personalization and all advertising features. Outside the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland it sets a first-party cookie (_ga, kept up to 13 months) so a return visit counts as the same visitor. In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland it sets no cookie and stores nothing in your browser. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, it sets no cookie anywhere. You can also block it with Google’s opt-out add-on or any content blocker. How Google uses this data: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

From download to install. When you download Lynx from the website, we record the download with the visit that led to it and keep the first three parts of your IP address (for example 203.0.113.x) for 14 days. If Lynx is first opened from the same network within 72 hours, we connect the two, so we can tell how many visitors from, say, a blog post went on to install Lynx. After 14 days the network part is erased.

Partner links. When you open a partner’s link (an address that starts with lynxdownloadmanager.com/c/), our server stores one first-party cookie, lynx_ref, for 60 days. It holds the partner’s short name, the code in the link if there is one, and the time of your visit. Only our checkout reads it, and passes those to Paddle, our payment provider, with your order, so the sale counts for that partner. It isn’t used for advertising, and the partner never learns who you are. We don’t set it in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland (or their territories), when we can’t tell which country you’re in, or when your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track. You can delete it in your browser settings at any time.

Student discount. If you ask for the student discount, we keep your email address and the photo of your student ID you send, to check that you are a student and to prevent abuse of the discount. We delete the photo when you ask.

Partner gifts. If you claim a gift on a partner’s link, we keep your email to send the key, your network (erased after 14 days) and country to stop abuse, and which partner’s link it was. If you buy Lynx Pro within 12 months, that partner may be credited. Partners see counts, never your email.

Purchases

Payments are handled by Paddle.com, our reseller and merchant of record. When you buy Pro, you give your name, email, country and payment details to Paddle, not to us. Paddle shares with us what we need to provide your licence and support: your name, email, country, what you bought and the order status. We never see your full card number. Paddle’s own privacy policy applies to the checkout.

Our partner program

What you give us. When you apply at affiliate.lynxdownloadmanager.com, you give us your name, email address, country, links to where you publish, the size of your audience, your note to us, the reward you pick (commission, or a gift for your audience) and your confirmation that you handle your own taxes. If you earn commission, once you’re approved you add the bank details you want to be paid to: the account holder’s name and the account number and routing number, or the IBAN and BIC. We store them encrypted, use them only to pay you, and share them only with our bank’s payment service to send the transfer.

Why. To review your application, run your partner account, credit the sales you send, pay you, prevent fraud and keep the records tax and accounting rules require. We do this under our agreement with you (the Partner Terms) and, for tax records, our legal obligations.

Signing in. There’s no password: we email you a sign-in link that works once, for 15 minutes. The portal keeps your sign-in in your browser’s local storage until you sign out or it expires after 30 days.

What partners see. Visits, trials, gifts claimed and sales from their link and code, as counts, plus their earnings if they earn commission. Never who bought or who claimed a gift.

Keeping and deleting. We keep your partner record while you’re a partner, then as long as tax and accounting rules require. Applications whose email address is never confirmed are deleted after 7 days, and applications we decline after 6 months. To have your data deleted, email privacy@lynxdownloadmanager.com; commission and payout records the law requires us to keep are kept until that period ends.

People we contact

When we write to a creator, publisher or journalist about our partner program or a review copy of Lynx, we keep their name, their public profile and channel links, a business email address they published, the page where we found it and the date, why we think Lynx fits their audience, our messages and their reply.

We do this on the basis of our legitimate interest in reaching people who publish about Mac software. We find these details on public pages and never buy lists. We never email consumers cold, and we never write to addresses in Germany.

Reply “no” and we stop for good. To have the record deleted, write to hello@lynxdownloadmanager.com: we delete it and keep only your address on a do-not-contact list, so we never write to you again. Records of people who don’t reply are deleted after about a year.

Who we share with

Only service providers that help us run Lynx (our web host; our email providers, Google Workspace for our mailbox and Resend for licence and partner emails; our database provider; Google Analytics; Paddle; and, for partner payouts only, our bank’s payment service, which receives the partner’s bank details and the amount), under agreements that limit their use to providing that service. We don’t sell personal information, and we don’t share it for advertising.

Keeping and deleting

We keep contact messages and purchase records as long as needed to support you and to meet legal and tax obligations. Licence-service records are kept while you use Lynx, so the trial and your licence keep working. To see, correct or delete what we hold about you, email privacy@lynxdownloadmanager.com. We answer within 30 days.

Your rights, wherever you live

Why we use your information (EU, EEA and UK). To give you what you asked for (the trial, your licence, a gift licence key and its reminder, your purchase, support), which is our contract with you. To keep Lynx secure and fair, prevent abuse of the trial, gift licences and invites, and understand in anonymous or pseudonymous form how the website and app are used, which are our legitimate interests. To send the wait-list, launch-day and product emails you signed up for (for a gift licence, only if you ticked the box), with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time from the link in every email. To run the partner program for partners who joined it, which is our agreement with them, and to write to people who publish about Mac software, which is our legitimate interest (see People we contact). And to keep the purchase and commission records that tax law requires.

Your rights. You can ask to see, correct, delete or export what we hold about you, ask us to restrict how we use it, and object to any use based on our legitimate interests, including website analytics. Email privacy@lynxdownloadmanager.com. If you’re in the EU, EEA or UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Where your information is kept. Our licence service and service providers process information in the United States and other countries. Where the law requires, these transfers are covered by the providers’ data processing agreements, including the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

California and other US states. We don’t sell or share personal information, and we don’t use it for targeted advertising. You have the rights above whichever state you live in, and using them never changes the price or the service you get. We honor Global Privacy Control.

Children

Lynx isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll update the date above and, for significant changes, say so on the website.

Contact

privacy@lynxdownloadmanager.com