PasteSpace Business — Privacy Policy
Last Updated: October 12, 2026
PasteSpace Business — Clipboard Manager ("PasteSpace Business", "the App") is developed by Marius Constantin Popescu. It is the edition of PasteSpace made for organizations, sold on the Mac App Store and in volume through Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager. This Privacy Policy explains how the App handles your data.
1. Our Core Principle: Your Data Stays on Your Device
PasteSpace Business is designed with a local-first architecture. All clipboard history, Vault items, settings, text recognised in images, text extracted from documents, and related data are stored exclusively on your Mac. We do not operate any servers, cloud services, analytics platforms, or remote databases.
No data ever leaves your device through PasteSpace Business. The App has no purchases, accounts, or analytics, it reports nothing to your organization, and it makes no network connection of its own, as described in Section 13.
2. Data We Collect
We do not collect any personal data. Specifically:
- No analytics or telemetry — we do not track how you use the App.
- No crash reports are sent to us — macOS handles crash reporting through Apple's own systems, subject to your macOS privacy settings.
- No advertising or ad networks.
- No third-party SDKs that collect data.
- No account creation required — the App has no user accounts or login.
- No reports to your organization — the App sends nothing to your employer, your school, or their device management system.
Because PasteSpace Business collects zero personal data, it is inherently compliant with major data privacy regulations worldwide, including the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and similar frameworks. There is no personal data to collect, process, share, or delete — your privacy is protected by design.
3. Data Stored Locally on Your Device
PasteSpace Business stores the following data locally within its macOS App Sandbox container:
- Clipboard History: text (with its formatting), links, images, and references to files copied to your system clipboard, together with the name of the app each item was copied from and the date and time. Stored in a local SQLite database.
- Copy History and Usage: a record of each time an item is copied — when, and whether in another app or from PasteSpace Business — and how often you use each item from PasteSpace Business; for a copied file, also when it was moved to the Trash, put back, or deleted from your disk while the item was in your history. It powers the item details and the "Most used" and "Recently used" sort orders. When an item is deleted, this history is kept under a keyed fingerprint (see Section 6) — the number of times it was copied, the dates, times and apps of its 20 most recent copies, when it was deleted, and what happened to its file — so that it continues if you copy the same content again. Ephemeral Mode keeps only the number of copies.
- Vault Items: clipboard content encrypted using AES-256-GCM, together with its formatting and any text read from it. The ciphertext, nonce, and authentication tag are stored in the same local database, alongside a masked preview and a keyed fingerprint (see Section 6).
- Recognised and Extracted Text: text recognised in copied images (Section 8) and text extracted from copied documents (Section 9), stored alongside the corresponding item so that it can be searched.
- Edited Versions: texts you edit and save in Quick Look, stored as new items linked to the original.
- Settings & Preferences: your configuration choices (toggle states, blocklist, hotkey), stored in UserDefaults within the App Sandbox.
- Encryption Key: stored in your macOS login Keychain on this Mac, with a file backup in the sandboxed Application Support directory. The key never leaves your device.
4. Clipboard Monitoring
PasteSpace Business monitors your macOS system clipboard (NSPasteboard) at regular intervals to detect new copied content. This is the App's core functionality.
- Monitoring runs only while PasteSpace Business is running; quitting the App stops it.
- You can exclude any number of apps with the App Blocklist in Settings. Nothing copied in a blocked app is recorded.
- Content that an app marks as private ("concealed" or "transient", as is common for passwords and one-time codes) is not recorded, nor is content arriving from another device through Universal Clipboard.
- Copies from known password managers are recorded only into the Vault, encrypted, while "Capture from password managers" is on — the default. A copy that cannot be locked (for example because the Vault is turned off) is not recorded at all. With the option off, password managers are ignored entirely.
- PasteSpace Business never simulates keystrokes or pastes into other apps on your behalf.
5. Sensitive Data Detection
When the Vault and its automatic detection are enabled (both are on by default), PasteSpace Business checks each copied text locally against patterns for potentially sensitive content, including:
- Credit/debit card numbers (validated with the Luhn checksum)
- IBANs (validated with their check digits)
- Personal identification numbers (US Social Security numbers, Romanian CNPs)
- API keys and tokens (GitHub, GitLab, Slack, OpenAI, Google, AWS, Stripe, JWT, etc.)
- SSH and PEM private keys, SSH fingerprints
- Database connection strings and secret environment variables
- Software license keys
- Passwords, username and password pairs, and cryptocurrency seed phrases
- One-time codes copied from authenticator apps
- High-entropy strings that may be secrets
Detected content is encrypted in the Vault automatically. The same local checks also label items by kind (for example "Passwords") so that you can filter your history; the label is stored only on your Mac. All detection is performed locally. No data is sent anywhere for analysis.
6. Encryption & Security
The Vault uses industry-standard encryption:
- Algorithm: AES-256-GCM (Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data)
- Implementation: Apple's CryptoKit framework (not a custom or third-party implementation)
- What is encrypted: the item's content, its formatted copies, and any text recognised in it or extracted from it
- Key Storage: a single 256-bit key, created on your Mac and stored in your macOS login Keychain. It is never synced to iCloud or transferred to another device.
- File Backup: a synchronized copy of the key is kept in the sandboxed Application Support directory with POSIX 0600 permissions (readable only by your user account) as a safety net
- Search: locked items are removed from the search index, so their contents cannot be found, or confirmed, by searching
- Previews and Fingerprints: a locked item shows only a masked preview, and its duplicate-detection fingerprint is computed with a key derived from the Vault key (HMAC-SHA256), so it reveals nothing without that key. The fingerprints that keep the history of deleted items are computed the same way, with a key of their own, and reveal nothing about those items
Locking a file item protects PasteSpace Business's record of the file — its name and location. The file itself, on your disk, is not encrypted.
PasteSpace Business uses encryption only to protect data stored on your device (ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption = false).
7. Biometric Data (Touch ID)
PasteSpace Business uses Apple's LocalAuthentication framework to authenticate users via Touch ID — or, on a Mac without Touch ID, the device password — when accessing Vault items.
- PasteSpace Business never accesses your fingerprint or biometric data directly.
- All biometric processing is handled by macOS and the Secure Enclave.
- The App only receives a success or failure result from the system.
- No biometric data is stored, transmitted, or logged by PasteSpace Business.
8. Text Recognition in Images (OCR)
Text recognition uses Apple's Vision framework to read the text in copied images.
- All processing happens locally on your Mac.
- Recognition runs in a separate helper process within the App. The helper is sandboxed, with no network access and no access to your files of its own: it receives only the image being read, and quits when it has nothing to do.
- No images are uploaded to any server.
- Recognised text is stored in the local database alongside the original image and is searchable within the App, unless the image is locked in the Vault.
- You can turn text recognition off in Settings.
9. Text Extraction from Documents
PasteSpace Business reads the text of documents you copy — PDFs, Word and Excel files, RTF and OpenDocument text files, web pages and web archives, and text and code files — so that you can find them by their contents. Scanned documents are read with text recognition, as described in Section 8.
- All reading happens locally on your Mac, using Apple's PDFKit and AppKit document readers. Web pages are read by PasteSpace Business's own reader, which never downloads anything a page refers to — images, style sheets, scripts, or links.
- The extracted text is stored alongside the file reference in the local database. Locked documents are not read, and text read before locking is encrypted with the item.
- You can turn text extraction off in Settings. Text already extracted stays until the item is deleted.
10. Third-Party Services
PasteSpace Business does not integrate with any third-party services, analytics platforms, crash reporting tools, advertising networks, or cloud storage providers. It does not use Apple's App Store framework either: it has no in-app purchases and never asks for a rating. Buying the App — on the Mac App Store, or in volume through Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager — is handled entirely by Apple; the App takes no part in it and reads nothing about the purchase.
When you share an item, it is handed to the macOS sharing service you choose (for example Mail, Messages, or AirDrop), which sends it under its own terms; PasteSpace Business itself makes no network connection. Links in your history are shown with a title derived from the address itself — PasteSpace Business never visits the page — and open in your default browser only when you choose to open them.
11. Data Retention & Deletion
- Clipboard history can be cleared at any time with the Clear History button; pinned and Vault items are kept. Individual items, or a selection of items, can be deleted at any time.
- Pinned items can be removed with "Clear Pinned", and Vault items with "Clear Vault" (after authentication), in Settings.
- When the history limit is reached, the oldest unpinned items are removed automatically, and — if you set "Keep history for" to 1, 7, or 30 days — so are items older than that. Pinned and Vault items are never removed automatically.
- Ephemeral Mode erases your clipboard history whenever PasteSpace Business quits, including when your Mac logs out, restarts, or shuts down; the erasure is completed the next time PasteSpace Business starts. Vault items are always kept, and pinned items are kept unless you choose otherwise.
- Deleting an item also deletes its copy history and any text read from it. Deleted items cannot be recovered. Only its history outlives it — how many times, when and in which apps it was copied, when it was deleted, and what happened to its file — kept under a fingerprint that reveals nothing about its content (Section 3), however it was removed. Ephemeral Mode keeps only the number of copies. "Forget" under "History of deleted items" in Settings erases all of it.
- macOS keeps an app's data after the app itself is deleted. To remove all of PasteSpace Business's data, quit the App, delete the folders "com.pastespace.business" and "com.pastespace.business.ocr-helper" in ~/Library/Containers, and delete the "com.pastespace.business.vault" item from your login keychain in Keychain Access.
12. Children's Privacy
PasteSpace Business is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Since no data is collected from any user, this policy applies equally to all age groups.
13. macOS Permissions
PasteSpace Business uses the following macOS capabilities to function:
- Clipboard Access (NSPasteboard): to monitor and record clipboard content.
- Touch ID / Device Password (LocalAuthentication): to authenticate access to Vault items.
- App Sandbox: the App and its text-recognition helper run within Apple's App Sandbox, which restricts access to the file system and other apps' data.
- File Access (security-scoped bookmarks): to access files you copy in Finder — for preview, document reading, and dragging them back out — and to notice when they are moved to the Trash, put back, or deleted.
- Network (outgoing connections): held only because Apple's WebKit, which Quick Look uses to show previews of some documents (such as Word, Markdown, and CSV files), does not start without it. PasteSpace Business itself makes no network connection.
PasteSpace Business does not request the Accessibility permission, does not monitor your keystrokes (it receives only its own global shortcut), and never simulates keystrokes.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be reflected in the "Last Updated" date at the top of this document. Continued use of the App after changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
15. Contact
If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us at: mariuscpopescu@icloud.com