Your app data stays on your Mac.

Summary

• Anonymous, aggregate usage stats only: an active-install count with minimal update-check metadata. No identifiers, no raw IP stored, no crash reports. On by default; opt out in Settings → Privacy.
• Free use needs no account or license key. An azzuwayed.com account is required to join azzuwayed Pro or buy a Switchboard Lifetime license, and to use account-backed billing, purchase recovery, registered-device help, and private priority support.
• No background server, no listening network port.
• The installed app contacts only the services needed for updates, optional account sign-in, entitlement and license operations, and support actions you start.
• All configuration, logs, and approval state are stored on your Mac under your home folder.
• Pro membership and Lifetime purchases happen through your azzuwayed.com account. Payment and order records stay with that account; Switchboard receives only the membership or license data needed to resolve paid access.

Membership and Lifetime access

Joining azzuwayed Pro or buying a Switchboard Lifetime license requires an azzuwayed.com account. Your account keeps the identity, billing and access history, membership or order status, payment method, amount, locale, and references needed to provide and support that access.

After a Lifetime payment is confirmed, the license service receives your name, email address, and an order reference so it can issue and email the license. Sign in inside Switchboard to resolve membership or recover a Lifetime purchase. Lifetime owners may also activate manually with the emailed key.

Transactional email is sent through an email service provider: bank-transfer instructions, license-key delivery, purchase notifications, and refund notices. Email is used for order delivery and support, not marketing newsletters.

Lifetime activation sends the license and a Switchboard-specific, privacy-preserving device identifier needed to enforce its 3-Mac limit. Pro membership uses a separate one-way identifier derived on the Mac to manage the account's registered-device limit and obtain a signed 24-hour local access lease. The raw hardware identifier, account bearer credential, and signed lease are never exposed to the webview or logs. Your local services, logs, docs, and command approvals are not sent.

What the app does not do

• No automatic crash reporting or behavioral tracking. Switchboard does not send crash dumps automatically, does not record which features or services you use, and uses no third-party analytics SDK. A support report sends app/system metadata and only the logs, service snapshot, or stack trace you explicitly select. Anonymous update counting is described in Outbound requests below.
• No cloud sync of your app data. Your configuration, logs, docs, and approval state stay on your Mac. They are not synchronized to your account; selected support attachments are sent only when you submit them.
• No background HTTP server. The app does not listen on any network port. Other processes cannot connect to Switchboard.
• No arbitrary shell access from the UI. The webview cannot run shell commands you type. See Command security below.
• No reading of unrelated files. Switchboard reads and writes its own configuration directory and, when you add a docs folder, the folders you explicitly point it at. It does not scan your home directory or your projects on its own.

What stays on your Mac

Everything Switchboard remembers between launches lives in your Application Support folder:

~/Library/Application Support/com.azzuwayed.switchboard/

That directory contains your service configuration, local action definitions, preferences, approval history, remembered Observer findings, activity history, and automatic backups.

None of this is synchronized to your account. If you attach selected diagnostics to a support report, only that submitted copy leaves the Mac.

When you sign in, the long-lived account credential is stored in the macOS Keychain rather than this folder. Short-lived access tokens stay in memory. Signing out clears the local account session without deleting your Switchboard configuration or license files.

Outbound requests

With Check for updates automatically enabled (the default), the app checks for a newer release on launch and roughly once a day after that. This is a small static update file with the latest version and download information.

From automatic app checks — and only those, never update downloads — the update service records an anonymous, aggregate active-install signal with minimal app and system metadata needed for coarse totals. It stores no raw IP and no identifier. The app attaches no user identifier, no machine identifier, and no installation token.

Turn off Anonymous usage statistics in Settings → Privacy and the daily check carries an opt-out marker — it is never counted, while update checks keep working. Turning off Check for updates automatically (Settings → Updates, or the About dialog) stops the request entirely. The Check for updates button still works as a manual, one-shot fetch when you press it.

Lifetime activation and validation contact the license service to check the key status and device slot count. Pro lease refresh contacts azzuwayed.com to check current membership and registered device access. Neither uploads your service list, logs, command output, docs folders, or other local app data.

If you choose to sign in, Switchboard opens the system browser for azzuwayed.com authentication and uses the resulting account session for membership checks, purchase recovery, and private support. The app stores the refresh credential in the macOS Keychain and never exposes tokens, signed leases, device proofs, or license keys to its webview. Signing out clears the local membership lease without deactivating an owned Lifetime license.

A signed-in support report sends its category, title, description, app version, macOS version, selected language, and source. Recent logs, cached service details, and a frontend stack trace are opt-in attachments. Azzuwayed.com stores the resulting private ticket and its replies on your account.

The website's guest contact form sends the name, email address, locale, topic, and message you enter to azzuwayed.com so support can reply. The form includes abuse-prevention controls. Purchase, billing, recovery, connected-device help, and priority support require signing in to your azzuwayed.com account.

Command security

Switchboard manages local services by running real OS commands (Homebrew, Docker, launchctl, etc.). To keep that useful without letting the interface become a remote shell, the boundary between the visible app and operating system is intentionally narrow.

• The interface can request only a known action for the service you selected; it cannot submit arbitrary shell text.
• The native app resolves that request to a reviewed local command definition. Executable paths, arguments, and environment details do not come from free-form interface input.
• Risky actions require confirmation. New, imported, or changed command definitions must be reviewed before they can run.
• Command output is bounded; secret redaction defaults to on.

Updates and signing

When the update manifest reports a newer build, the in-app updater downloads the new .app.tar.gz bundle and its accompanying .sig file from the GitHub Release for that version. Before the bundle is unpacked, the minisign signature is verified against a public key compiled into the currently-running app. If verification fails, the update is rejected and nothing on disk is replaced.

The verification key bundled with Switchboard cannot create a valid release signature. Release builds are also signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple, so a freshly-installed update opens normally.

macOS permissions

Switchboard does not request Full Disk Access, Accessibility, or Screen Recording. It does not need them to manage services. If you add a docs folder under Settings → Documentation, macOS may show its standard file-access prompt for that folder; the app reads it but does not relay its contents anywhere.

The app uses a launchd login item only when you opt in via Launch at login in Settings.

Source and license

Switchboard is proprietary software, and the source repository is not planned to be public. The app is built and operated by Abdullah Alzuwayed, and the app itself is © 2026 Abdullah Alzuwayed. All rights reserved. Switchboard stays useful for free without an account. Switchboard Pro purchases use an azzuwayed.com account; paid access can be claimed after sign-in or activated with the emailed key.

Changes to this statement

If a future release adds a new outbound request, a new on-disk artifact, or a new permission, this page is updated in the same release. The release’s public changelog calls out the change. Transactional purchase and support email goes only to the account or contact address used for that request.

Contact

Questions or concerns about anything on this page? Use the guest contact form, or open private account support.