In short: Waitwing collects none of your data. The only time it goes online is a daily update check, which you can turn off in Settings. The screenshot only lives in memory, your location is turned into a city on your computer, and the AI assistant connection never leaves your machine. Here is each part in detail for the Mac version; section 8 covers what differs on Windows.
This policy covers the macOS and Windows app “Waitwing” (the “game”) and this website, provided by 5KM Tech, LLC (“we”).
1. Screenshot
- When: only at the moment you hit “Take off”. The game uses macOS ScreenCaptureKit to take a single screenshot of the display your cursor is on. It never records your screen continuously, and it never records audio.
- What for: the position and size of windows and the colors on screen are used to build that flight’s block world. The Old Photo puzzle only uses a few average colors from your desktop, not the image itself.
- Storage: none. The screenshot stays in memory, is handed to the game process over a private local channel inside your own user account, and is thrown away once it has become terrain. It is never written to disk and never uploaded.
- Text: the game does not recognize text on your screen and does not read chats or documents. Everything the villagers say was written in advance and never quotes anything on your screen.
- Window info: window position, size and owning app come from a system API. The game does not read window titles.
- Without permission: if you don’t grant Screen Recording, no screenshot is taken. The world is built from the window layout alone, using the theme’s own colors.
2. Cards
A card’s picture only shows the block world. It never includes the interface or the screenshot from take-off. Cards are stored on your Mac, and an image file is only created when you choose Export PNG, in your Downloads folder.
3. Location (hometown landmark)
- To place a landmark from your city in the world, the game asks for your location once through macOS Location Services. The system prompt only appears after you agree.
- Accuracy is set to the system’s “approximate location” (city level), requested once.
- The coordinates are turned into the nearest city in memory and dropped right away: not written to disk, not logged, not sent anywhere. The game itself only learns which landmark to place.
- If you say no, or turn hometown landmarks off in Settings › Privacy, the game picks one from your system time zone and region settings, or simply places a generic old lighthouse.
4. Apps in your Dock
The game reads the names, kinds and icons of the apps pinned to your Dock and the apps currently running, to create the little creatures. Icons are drawn in memory and not saved separately.
5. AI assistant connection (Claude Code, Codex)
- This is off by default. You connect it yourself in Settings › AI helper.
- When connecting, the game shows you every line it wants to change and only writes after you confirm: two hooks in
~/.claude/settings.jsonfor Claude Code, ornotifyin~/.codex/config.tomlfor Codex. Your original config is backed up first and can be restored in one click. - The hooks only talk to the game over the loopback address
127.0.0.1, and only say “started” or “done” plus a session ID. The game never reads your conversations, prompts or code. - The local service only accepts requests from your own machine that carry a token generated fresh at each launch. Requests from web pages are rejected.
6. Network
The game has no account and no cloud sync, contains no advertising, analytics or crash-reporting SDKs.
The only network use is the update check: once a day it downloads a list of versions from releases.5km.tech, and if there is a new one, downloads it in the background. The request carries nothing about you: no system information and no device ID, only the IP address every network request has and an identifier that just says “Waitwing”. Turn off “Check for updates automatically” in Settings and the game never goes online.
7. Data stored on your computer
Settings, cards, Species, Hangar progress and puzzle progress are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Waitwing/, on your computer only. You can remove them all with “Erase all cards and progress” in Settings, or delete that folder.
8. What differs on Windows
- Screenshot: taken once with Windows’ own desktop duplication API, kept in memory only and never saved. Windows has no Screen Recording prompt.
- Location: the Windows version never asks for your location; the hometown landmark is picked from your time zone and region settings.
- Creatures: they come from apps pinned to your taskbar and running apps with a window, using their program names and icons.
- Where data lives: the program sits in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Waitwing\; settings and cards live in%APPDATA%\Waitwing\and%APPDATA%\Godot\app_userdata\Waitwing\, all on your computer only. Launch at login adds one entry underHKCU\…\Runand removes it when you turn it off. - The AI assistant connection, network and card rules are the same as on Mac.
9. This website
This website is a set of static pages hosted on Cloudflare Pages. We use no cookies and no analytics or advertising code. The host may process access logs (such as IP addresses) under its own policies to run the service and prevent abuse. The “Leave your email” form on this site is not connected to any service yet; whatever you type there is not saved or sent.
10. Children
The game collects no personal information and is suitable for players of all ages.
11. Contact and changes
If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date above. For any question, email [email protected].