Privacy Policy.

Last updated · October 8, 2026

Drain is an app for macOS and Windows that desaturates color in apps you choose. This policy explains exactly what Drain does and does not do with your data.

Everything below until Drain for Windows is about Drain for Mac. Drain for Windows works the same way, with one difference: it activates a license key with our server.

The short version

On Mac, Drain does not collect, transmit, or store any of your personal data on any server. Everything Drain knows about you stays on your Mac. There is no analytics, no tracking, no telemetry, and no account.

What stays on your device

Drain stores a small set of preferences locally on your Mac using macOS's standard UserDefaults system. None of this leaves your device:

• Whether Drain is turned on
• Your drain mode (drain only listed apps, or drain everything except listed apps)
• The bundle identifiers of the apps you have added to your list (e.g. com.apple.Safari)
• Whether you have completed onboarding and seen the premium screen
• Your dock / menu bar visibility preference
• Whether Drain may have left the color filter on, so it can turn it off after an unexpected quit
• The date you installed Drain
• In the Mac App Store version only: when your free trial started, a counter of app launches, and whether you have been shown a review prompt — used only to decide locally when your trial ends and when to ask you for an App Store rating

You can erase all of this at any time by uninstalling Drain.

What Drain observes while running

To know when to apply or remove the color filter, Drain listens for macOS notifications about which app is currently in the foreground. This information is read only in memory, used to decide whether the current app should be drained, and is never written to disk or transmitted anywhere.

Drain is distributed through the Mac App Store and Setapp, and runs inside Apple's App Sandbox.

How Drain applies the filter

Drain does not modify other apps or capture their contents. To desaturate the screen, Drain triggers macOS's built-in Color Filters accessibility feature by running one of two Apple Shortcuts that you import during onboarding (“Drain Color Filters On” / “Drain Color Filters Off”). The actual color change is performed by macOS, not by Drain.

Drain runs these shortcuts in the background through Shortcuts Events, which macOS asks you to allow once (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation). Drain only asks Shortcuts Events for the names of your shortcuts, to check that its two are installed, and to run those two. It does not read, change, or run any other shortcut.

The Setapp version of Drain doesn't use Shortcuts. It turns Color Filters on and off directly, the same setting as System Settings → Accessibility → Display → Color Filters, and changes no other setting.

Purchases and payments

In the Mac App Store version, Drain Premium is available as a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase, sold and processed entirely through Apple's App Store using StoreKit. Offer codes are redeemed through Apple too. Drain does not see, receive, or store your name, email, payment method, or App Store account details. Your purchase is verified on your Mac using Apple's signed transactions. Drain's free trial runs entirely on your Mac and needs no account.

Apple's handling of your purchase is governed by Apple's own privacy policy: apple.com/legal/privacy

If you use Drain through Setapp, there are no in-app purchases. Access comes from your Setapp membership: Setapp's framework, built into that version of Drain, talks to the Setapp app on your Mac to confirm your membership, show Drain's release notes, and report app usage to Setapp. This is governed by Setapp's privacy policy.

Drain for Windows

Drain for Windows keeps its settings on your PC: whether it's on, its mode, the apps you've added (as the location of each app's program file), whether you've finished onboarding, and where Drain shows itself (taskbar, tray, or both). None of this leaves your PC.

Like Drain for Mac, it watches which app is in front only in memory, to decide when to turn the color filter on or off, and never saves or sends it. It applies the filter type you chose in Windows' Color filters settings using Windows' built-in Magnification API; it doesn't modify other apps or capture their contents.

The one thing it sends is for your license. Drain for Windows contacts our license server when you activate it, about once every 30 days after that to check the license is still valid, and when you deactivate a PC. Each time it sends:

• Your license key (when activating)
• A scrambled (hashed) ID for your PC, made from Windows' machine ID, which can't be turned back into it
• Your PC's name, so you and we can tell your PCs apart
• The version of Drain

We store these with your license so a key works on up to three PCs and a refunded purchase stops working, and for nothing else. We don't sell or share them. They're kept for as long as your license exists; email us to have them deleted. Drain for Windows has no analytics, advertising, or tracking, and never sends anything about the apps you use or add.

The activation itself is kept on your PC, encrypted to your Windows account. Uninstalling Drain removes it and your settings.

Drain for Windows is installed and updated through the Microsoft Store, and our license server runs on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft's handling of your data is governed by the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

License keys come with The Anti Phone System, bought on antibrowser.app; what we keep about that purchase is described in its privacy policy.

Children

Drain is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children.

Links to other services

Drain for Mac links to Apple's standard terms of use, Apple's subscription management page, and this privacy policy; Drain for Windows links to this privacy policy. Following those links sends your request to the linked party (Apple or our website host), governed by their respective privacy policies. Both apps' Contact Support option opens an email to us in your mail app.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at draincolor.app/privacy with a new “Last updated” date. Material changes will also be surfaced inside the app the next time you open it.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email: hello@draincolor.app