XTicker privacy
Last updated October 7, 2026
XTicker is a ticker app for your Mac, made by Hit the Deck Software. It is designed to need as little from you as possible: there are no accounts, no logins, no advertising and no analytics or tracking built into the app.
What stays on your Mac
Your settings (which sources are on, your stock symbols, custom words and RSS feeds, birthday, saved location, themes and schedules) are saved on your Mac. Calendar events, Mac activity (CPU, memory, battery, thermal state and, if you turn it on, your local IP address) and Now Playing are read locally through macOS and are never sent to a server. XTicker does not collect, store or receive any of this on our side. We do not run servers that receive your data.
What XTicker connects to
Each source you turn on contacts a public provider. XTicker sends only what that source needs, and each provider can also see your IP address and normal web request details. Those providers have their own privacy policies:
- Headlines and your own RSS or Atom feeds: built-in news is fetched from the publishers you select (BBC, NPR, The Guardian, ABC News, PBS, Al Jazeera and Ars Technica), and any feed address you add goes to whatever host you enter. Nothing about your calendar, music or custom messages is sent with these requests.
- Stocks: Nasdaq's public quote service, sent each ticker symbol you enter (up to twelve) and, if you use market-hours filtering, a market-status request that contains no symbols.
- Sports: ESPN's public scoreboard, one request per league you select. Filtering by team happens on your Mac.
- On This Day: Wikipedia, sent today's month and day, if you enable it.
- Daily horoscope: Free Horoscope API, sent only the zodiac sign you select.
- Sun and moon: the U.S. Naval Observatory, sent your saved latitude and longitude (to five decimal places), the date and your time-zone offset.
- Air quality: Open-Meteo, sent your saved latitude and longitude. This source is off by default.
- Planes overhead: ADSB.lol, sent your saved latitude and longitude and the search radius you choose. To show an aircraft's route, ADSBdb is sent only that aircraft's callsign, never your coordinates or the aircraft's position.
- Tides: NOAA. XTicker first downloads NOAA's list of tide stations, which includes no coordinates from you, picks nearby stations on your Mac, and then sends NOAA only the chosen station ID and the dates it needs.
- City, region or address search: the text you type in Nearby is sent through Apple Maps. This does not use Location Services.
- Updates: the Sparkle updater automatically checks the signed release feed hosted on GitHub and downloads updates from GitHub, which may use GitHub's content-delivery hosts. GitHub sees your IP address and normal request details. XTicker adds no user ID to these requests. Sparkle can attach an anonymous system profile only if you choose to turn that option on.
- Links you click: articles, providers, release pages, tips and email links open in your browser or mail app, and those sites have their own policies.
Location
Location is optional and is only used by the sources that need coordinates. You can search for a city, region or address through Apple Maps, enter latitude and longitude yourself, or choose Use My Location, which asks macOS for permission. Your saved location stays on your Mac, and only the sources you enable send those coordinates to the provider named above.
Permissions XTicker may ask for
- Calendar: only after you enable the Calendar source and press Allow Calendar Access. Event details are read through macOS and are not sent anywhere.
- Automation: Now Playing is on by default and checks whether Spotify or Music is running. If one is, macOS may ask you to allow Automation so XTicker can read the current track. It does not control your music app, and you can turn Now Playing off.
- Location Services: only if you choose Use My Location.
- XTicker does not ask for Accessibility, microphone, camera or screen recording access.
Contacting us
You can email info@xtickerapp.com. The Send Feedback item in the XTicker menu and the menu bar icon menu opens a draft to that address, with no logs, screenshots or system information attached. Nothing is sent unless you send it, and we use what you tell us only to read and reply to your message.
What XTicker does not do
No accounts, no advertising identifiers, no analytics or telemetry, no selling or sharing of your information, and no recording of your screen, audio or keystrokes.
Tips
Optional tips are handled by Buy Me a Coffee, a separate service with its own privacy policy. We never see your payment details.
Changes
We may update this page when the app changes. The date at the top shows when it was last revised. Questions can be sent to info@xtickerapp.com.