Legal

Etch privacy policy

Last updated November 2026

Etch is a screen-drawing app for macOS and Windows made by Heavy House LLC (“Heavy House”, “we”). This policy covers the Etch app. Our website has its own privacy policy, and Gumroad, the store that sells Etch, has its own.

The short version

Etch doesn’t collect or sell any information about you. It has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no crash reporting. The only time it goes online is to check your license key with Gumroad.

Checking your license key

Etch needs a license key before it will draw. To check a key, Etch sends two things to Gumroad over an encrypted connection: the key you entered and the ID of the Etch product. Like any internet request, this also shows Gumroad your IP address. Etch sends nothing else: no name, no email address, no information about your computer or what you draw.

This happens when you activate a key, and again about once a month when Etch starts and your computer is online, to check the purchase wasn’t refunded. If you’re offline, Etch keeps working and tries again later.

Gumroad counts how many times a key has been activated. Its reply includes details of the purchase, such as the email address it was bought with. Etch reads only whether the key is valid and discards the rest.

What stays on your computer

• Your settings. Colors, pen size, shortcuts, where the floating button sits and similar choices are saved in a settings file in your user profile (~/Library/Application Support/Etch/ on a Mac, %APPDATA%\Etch\ on Windows). The file never leaves your computer. Deleting it resets Etch to its defaults.
• Your license. After activation, Etch saves the key and the dates it was activated and last checked, next to your settings. You can remove it from Etch’s License window.
• Your drawings. Ink exists only on screen while a session is open. Etch doesn’t save drawings, take screenshots or record the screen. When you close a session, the ink is gone.
• Open at login. If you turn this on, Etch asks the operating system to start it when you sign in. You can turn it off in Etch or in your system settings.
• Settings from Facet. The first time Etch runs, if Facet is installed on the same computer, Etch copies your drawing preferences from it once. Nothing is sent anywhere.

What Etch can see while it runs

• While you’re drawing, Etch receives the mouse, pen and keyboard input you give it, as any app does when it’s in front. It uses that input to draw and discards it.
• Global shortcuts. Etch registers its shortcuts with the operating system so they work from any app. Etch is told only that its own shortcut was pressed. It can’t see your other typing.
• Mouse clicks on Windows. The cursor highlight can show a click effect while Etch is paused and you’re working in other apps. To do that, the Windows version listens for left mouse button presses and their screen position, system-wide, only while the cursor highlight is on and Etch is paused. It doesn’t listen to the keyboard. Clicks are used to draw the effect and aren’t stored or sent anywhere. Some security software reports this kind of listener; turning the cursor highlight off stops it. The Mac version doesn’t include it.
• The cursor position. While the cursor highlight is on, Etch reads where the pointer is so it can draw the highlight. This isn’t stored.

Buying Etch

Gumroad handles purchases as the seller and collects your payment details, email address and billing information under its own privacy policy. Gumroad shares your email address and order details with us, and your name if you give one, so we can deliver your purchase and help if something goes wrong. We never see your card number.

Support

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to send. We use it to answer you and keep it only as long as we need to.

Children

Etch is a general-purpose tool and isn’t aimed at children. Because Etch collects nothing, it holds no information about anyone of any age.

Changes

If Etch changes in a way that affects this policy, we’ll update this page and its date.

Contact

Heavy House LLC, hello@heavy.house.