What peeq can see, and what it never does

A notch app sits close to everything you do, so it’s fair to ask what it can see. Here is every permission peeq can ask for, what it does with it, and what it never does.

The short version

• No account, no analytics, no peeq servers.
• Each permission is asked for only when you use the feature that needs it.
• Today’s notifications and clipboard are kept in a private folder on your Mac and cleared the next day.
• peeq only goes online to fetch album artwork and website icons.

Accessibility

Used for: notifications, calls, replies to apps like WhatsApp, and (optionally) replacing macOS’s volume overlay.

macOS has no public way for another app to see notification banners or the incoming-call alert. peeq reads them the way assistive tools do, through Accessibility, and presses their own buttons when you tap Accept, Decline or Reply in the notch. It watches Notification Center’s banners only, not the rest of your screen.

Automation

Used for: Music, Spotify, Messages and your browser.

macOS asks once per app, the first time peeq needs it. peeq uses it to play, pause and skip, read the current song and artwork, send a Messages reply you typed, and read a playing video in a browser tab. It never opens an app on its own just to check on it.

Screen Recording

Used for: peeq’s own screen recordings, and nothing else.

It’s asked for when you start your first recording. Recordings are saved to your screenshots folder.

Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders

Used for: showing new screenshots and download progress.

macOS asks the first time peeq looks in these folders. peeq only notices new screenshots and growing download files there.

Things peeq does not need

• Full Disk Access — not needed.
• Input Monitoring — peeq follows the mouse pointer so the notch can react to it, never what you type.
• Camera or microphone — peeq only checks whether a call app is using the microphone, to know when a call ends. It never listens.

What stays on your Mac

To survive a restart, today’s notifications and clipboard items are saved in ~/Library/Application Support/peeq/History, a folder only your user account can read. Yesterday’s are deleted. Clipboard items that password managers mark as private are never recorded.

During the beta, peeq writes a diagnostics log to ~/Library/Logs/peeq. It records events like “music changed” or “banner seen”, never message text, song names or clipboard contents. It’s only shared if you choose Report a Problem and send the file yourself.

Reply suggestions

On macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, peeq suggests short replies using Apple’s on-device Foundation Models. The message never leaves your Mac.

One private API, and it’s optional

Showing what’s playing in any app uses macOS’s system Now Playing through a small open-source helper (mediaremote-adapter, BSD-3). It runs as a separate process, and you can switch it off in Settings › General. Apple Music, Spotify and browser tabs keep working without it.

Questions? [email protected]. The full privacy policy is here.