Your browsing stays on your Mac.

Nook is a local-first browser. This page spells out exactly what the app does and doesn't do with your data. Short version — there's no server, no account, no telemetry.

What Nook stores, and where

All of your browsing state lives in plain JSON files under ~/Library/Application Support/Nook/ on your Mac:

• state.json — open tabs, groups, spaces.
• history.json — URLs you visited.
• bookmarks.json — saved sites.
• settings.json — your preferences.
• permissions.json — per-site permission decisions.
• blocking.json — Shield counters + per-site pauses.

None of these files are uploaded anywhere. They never leave your disk.

What Nook does NOT do

• No analytics service. Not Google, not Plausible, not Mixpanel — nothing.
• No telemetry. The app doesn't phone home on launch, crash, or update check.
• No account. You never sign in to Nook itself.
• No cloud sync (yet). If it ships, it'll be opt-in and documented here.
• No usage tracking across websites. Shield actively prevents that.

Network traffic that does happen

Only three kinds of traffic ever leave Nook itself:

• Pages you visit. Standard web requests — those go to whatever site you're loading.
• Auto-update checks. Once on launch and every hour after, the app checks our release feed for a newer version. Can be disabled by quitting the app.
• Shield filter lists. EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and Fanboy's cookie list are refreshed from their upstream URLs periodically. These are the same public lists Ghostery, Brave, and Firefox use.

Widevine (for DRM-protected sites like Netflix / Spotify) is downloaded once from Google's CDM service on first launch. If you never open such a site, Widevine may never activate.

AI features

AI tab-renaming uses your Mac's Apple Intelligence on-device models (Foundation Models framework) when available, with a local Ollama fallback at localhost:11434. Nothing leaves your Mac in either case.

Cookies, storage, and third-party sites

When you visit a site, that site can still set cookies and local storage like in any other browser. Those are scoped to the site. Shield blocks known third-party tracking requests before they reach the network layer, so those sites can't set cookies in the first place. You can pause Shield per-site from the toolbar.

Incognito windows

Incognito windows use an in-memory session partition with no disk storage. Cookies, localStorage, cache — everything — is discarded when you close the window. History is not recorded. Bookmarks and settings are not wired. Chrome extensions are not attached.

Contact

Questions or concerns: email kuraydev.io@gmail.com.

Last updated: April 2026.