The short version
Privacy
Last updated July 15, 2026
Aside is designed to work locally. The text you write in Aside is stored on your Mac and is not sent to us.
No account
Aside does not require you to create an account. The app does not include advertising or analytics.
Website analytics
When enabled, this website and the Hardflip API use Altertable for a small set of product events, such as page views, relevant link clicks, checkout creation, trial downloads, and new license activations or deactivations. Altertable uses a random analytics identifier stored in a cookie and browser storage, and may keep unsent events in browser storage so they can be delivered after a reload or offline period. A separate random attempt identifier connects a checkout click to checkout creation. Event properties contain no email, license key, device identifier or name, activation identifier, customer identifier, IP address, or page text. The Aside app itself contains no analytics.
Local storage
Your current and previous pages are stored as individual Markdown files in a folder on your Mac. Aside uses its Application Support directory by default, or you can choose another folder in Settings—including one managed by a third-party sync service. Aside itself does not upload your page text. Deleting the page files removes that content from your Mac and any service that synchronizes the folder.
Purchases
Purchases and license keys are processed by Polar, our merchant of record. Checkout starts through the Hardflip API and continues on Polar’s secure website. Aside and Hardflip Studio never receive or store your complete payment-card details.
License activation
When you activate Aside, the app sends your license key, a random installation identifier, and your Mac’s user-assigned device name to the Hardflip API. The API uses an opaque cryptographic identifier to coordinate retries and asks Polar to manage the devices allowed by your license. Aside stores the returned activation identifier, license key, and signed device-bound entitlement in your macOS Keychain. It contacts the licensing service again only when you activate or deactivate a Mac. Update checks use a separate signed public feed and do not verify or transmit your license. Your page text is never sent.
Free trial
Aside stores the date your trial begins and basic trial status locally in your macOS Keychain. The trial starts when you start writing. This information is not sent to us. When the trial ends, editing pauses, but your pages remain readable, copyable, and exportable on your Mac.
How we use and keep data
Hardflip Studio uses purchase and licensing data to provide Aside, and limited operational and analytics data to run and improve the service. Cloudflare hosts the website and API, Altertable processes the product events described above, and Polar handles checkout, receipts, refunds, license keys, and activation records. We keep operational and licensing records only for as long as they are useful for operating, securing, and supporting Aside.
Questions and requests
Contact Hardflip Studio at aside@hardflip.studio if you have a privacy question or want to access, correct, or delete personal data associated with you. You can also contact your local data-protection authority; in France, this is the CNIL.