Privacy Policy for Mouse Aide

Effective date: 25 August 2026 · Last updated: 13 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how SUMMERCLOUDE PTE. LTD. ("we," "us," or "the developer") handles information in connection with the Mouse Aide macOS app ("the App").

The short version: Mouse Aide collects no data, and the App makes no network requests of any kind. It adjusts scroll events as they pass through your Mac, entirely on your device. We operate no server, we receive nothing, and nothing about you or your usage ever leaves your computer through the App.

What we collect

Nothing. The App has no accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting and no tracking of any kind. We do not receive your name, email address, device identifiers, usage statistics or any other information, because the App never transmits anything.

Accessibility permission

macOS requires an app to hold Accessibility permission before it may modify an input event. On macOS 27 the same permission is listed as Device Control and Data Access. Mouse Aide asks for this permission because it is the only way macOS allows an app to change the direction or speed of a scroll event as it passes.

The App uses this permission to read and adjust scroll events and the presses of non-primary mouse buttons — the middle and side buttons it can remap. From version 1.4 it can also read clicks or trackpad touches, but only while you have switched on one of the middle-click options described below. It reads no keyboard events and never sees what you type: it notices only whether a modifier key such as Shift, Option or Fn is held as you scroll, click or tap, and, from version 1.5, how long ago any key or mouse button was last pressed, for the rating request described below. It does not capture your screen and does not inspect the contents of any app. These events are examined in memory as they arrive, adjusted if your settings call for it, and immediately passed on. None of them are stored, logged to disk, or transmitted.

If you open the Diagnostics window from the menu bar icon, it lists recent events while it is open. They are held in memory only and discarded when the window closes.

Telling your devices apart

Settings are kept for each mouse and trackpad separately, so the App has to recognise which device sent a scroll. It reads the hardware information macOS attaches to the event — the device's name, its vendor and product identifiers, and its serial number — and combines them into a key so the same mouse is recognised when you plug it back in. From version 1.4, while a middle-click option is on, it does the same for a click or a trackpad touch.

That key is stored on your Mac, alongside your settings, in the App's own container. It is never shown to you, never written to the system log in readable form, and cannot be sent anywhere: the App has no network access. We never see it, because we never receive anything at all.

Middle click, in Mouse Aide 1.4 and later

Mouse Aide 1.4 adds two ways to make a middle click. Each is set separately for each device and stays off until you switch it on. Each reads a little more of your input, and only while it is on. Earlier versions do not have these options and read none of this:

• Tap with three fingers, for trackpads, reads how many fingers touch the trackpad and where they are as they touch, move and lift, and notes when a left, right, middle or side button is pressed on any mouse or trackpad, so it can tell a tap from a click. While any trackpad has it on, it receives this from every trackpad or touch-surface mouse and acts only on the trackpads you have switched on. It only listens: it cannot change or hold back any event. When it recognises a tap, it adds one middle click where the pointer is.
• Hold Fn and click, for mice and trackpads, reads left clicks and drags from every mouse and trackpad while any device has it on, and turns a click made with Fn held into a middle click on the devices you have switched on. It learns that Fn is held from the click itself: it reads no keyboard events and never sees what you type.

Neither option keeps what it reads. Touches and clicks are examined in memory as they arrive, and none of them are stored or logged to disk. The only thing saved is your choice for each option, kept on your Mac with your other settings, and nothing is sent anywhere.

So that Tap with three fingers can show Paused rather than let one tap do two things, Mouse Aide 1.4 also reads two of your trackpad settings: whether Look Up or dragging already uses three fingers. It reads them whenever its menu or Settings opens or it comes to the front, whether or not either option is on, and again just before each middle click it adds. It only reads them and never changes them, and nothing about them is stored or sent.

Choosing an application for a button

A mouse button can be set to open an application you choose. When you pick one, the App reads that application's identifier and stores only the identifier and its name, so it knows what to open. It creates no bookmark and keeps no access to your files afterwards, and it reads nothing else on your disk. This is the only reason the App requests read access to files you select yourself, and it is used at no other time.

Your settings

Your preferences — scroll direction, speed, modifier choices and button assignments — are stored locally on your Mac using the standard macOS preferences system, in the App's own folder (~/Library/Containers/com.summercloude.mousescroll.app). They never leave your computer. To remove them completely, delete the App and that folder.

Detecting other mouse software

The App can tell you when other software on your Mac is also changing how your mouse behaves, because two such apps working at once can cancel each other out. To do this it checks locally which applications are running, whether any of a list of known mouse utilities is installed, which programs are watching scroll events or the middle and side mouse buttons — keeping only each program's file name — and whether a few known mouse utilities have left a helper file behind. It checks when its Diagnostics window opens, when its Settings window opens (in version 1.4, only the first time after the App starts), when the setup window finds the permission granted, when Tap with three fingers is turned on or off, and, from version 1.5, just before a rating request. This check happens entirely on your Mac, the result is shown only to you, and nothing about it is recorded or transmitted.

Asking for a rating

Now and then — never in its first week, and at most once every 90 days — Mouse Aide asks macOS to show Apple's own rating panel. From version 1.5 it asks only right after you have opened its menu and closed it without choosing anything, and not if anything has needed attention in the past week.

From version 1.5 Mouse Aide makes a few checks around that moment, so that it does not interrupt you. As its menu closes, it notes whether the pointer is on the menu bar. Before asking, it checks how many seconds have passed since your last key press or click — never which key, or where you clicked — which app is in front, and which apps have windows on screen, reading only each window's number, its layer, its size and position, its transparency, and the app it belongs to. After asking, it repeats that window check and notes which app is in front twice a second until Apple's panel has closed (at most ten minutes, or ten seconds if no panel appears) and, if the keyboard is left with the panel after you answer it, for up to about two seconds more while it brings back the app you were using. It never reads window titles or what a window shows, and it never captures your screen. Nothing from these checks is kept.

To decide when to ask, Mouse Aide keeps a few dates on your Mac with your settings: the date and time it first started working, up to ten recent days on which it was running, and when it last asked or, from version 1.5, you last chose Rate Mouse Aide… from its menu. From version 1.5 it also keeps the date something last needed attention — for example the permission being switched off, or the setup window, Diagnostics or a support email being opened. These dates never leave your Mac.

The panel is the App Store's. If you choose to rate Mouse Aide, your rating goes to Apple and is handled under Apple's privacy policy, like any App Store rating.

The system log

Mouse Aide writes short status lines to your Mac's own system log — for example when it starts and, from version 1.5, when its permission is withdrawn or comes back and when it sends a rating request. They hold nothing you type. Where a line could name a device — or, from version 1.5, an app you chose — that name is marked private, so macOS normally hides it. Mouse Aide sends these lines nowhere; macOS keeps them with the rest of that log.

No network activity

Mouse Aide makes no network connections. It is distributed sandboxed through the Mac App Store without the network entitlement, which means macOS itself prevents it from communicating over a network, whether or not you take our word for it.

Children's privacy

The App collects no data from anyone, including children. It is rated suitable for all ages.

Data retention and deletion

We hold no data about you, so there is nothing for us to retain or delete. Your local settings stay on your Mac until you remove them, as described under "Your settings".

Your rights

Privacy laws such as the GDPR and Singapore's PDPA give you rights to access, correct and delete personal data held about you. We hold no personal data about users of the App, so there is nothing to access, correct or delete. You are welcome to contact us to confirm this.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published on this page with a new "last updated" date. If a future version of the App ever collects or transmits anything, this policy will say so plainly before that version is released.

Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy? Contact us:

SUMMERCLOUDE PTE. LTD. — registered in Singapore
[email protected]