Heeler Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 28, 2026
Last Updated: September 10, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Vagabond Burro LLC (“Vagabond Burro,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) handles personal information in connection with the Heeler desktop application, website, software downloads, licensing, and support (collectively, “Heeler”).

1. The short version

Heeler is designed primarily as a local desktop application:

Heeler does not require an account or sign-in to edit photographs.
Your source photographs, edits, catalogs, and exports remain on storage you control unless you deliberately share, export, upload, or send them.
Heeler does not upload your photographs to Vagabond Burro for editing or machine-learning processing.
Heeler does not use your photographs to train artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models.
The current desktop application does not include advertising, third-party behavioral tracking, or product-analytics telemetry.
Optional features can communicate outside your device, for example checking for a newer release, downloading a machine-learning model you request, opening a pre-addressed message in your own email application, or sharing selected photographs over your local network.
A tester license file is verified entirely on your device and sends nothing to anyone. A purchased Heeler Pro key is activated online with the licensing provider identified at purchase: Heeler sends that provider your key and a name for your computer, and re-checks the key with the provider no more than about once a month. Nothing else leaves your device for licensing, and your photographs are never part of it.

This policy describes those details below. If Heeler’s data practices materially change, we will update this policy before or when the change takes effect as required by law.

2. Information Heeler processes locally

Heeler processes and stores information on your device or storage locations you select. Depending on the features you use, this can include:

source photographs, rendered previews, thumbnails, exports, and associated metadata such as camera, lens, date, dimensions, rating, or other embedded metadata;
folder paths, filenames, catalogs, collections, edit graphs, recipes, masks, presets, scripts, export settings, and application preferences;
cached renderings and optional machine-learning model files;
local license records, acceptance receipts, and a one-way device fingerprint used for certain license types; and
local diagnostic logs containing timestamps, app events, file paths, filenames, error messages, and other technical context generated during use.

This local information is under your control and generally is not transmitted to Vagabond Burro. Other people or software with access to your device, storage, backups, synchronized folders, or network may be able to access it. Your operating-system, backup, cloud-sync, storage, and security providers govern their own processing.

3. Information we receive

We may receive the following categories of information:

Information you provide

Communications and support information: your email address, name or signature, messages, attachments, diagnostic reports, screenshots, sample files, and any other information you choose to send when requesting support, reporting a bug, participating in a beta, or providing feedback.
Licensing information: a license request or license key, and the device fingerprint it carries, when you send one to us. In the current licensing flow Heeler writes a request file to your computer and you email it to us yourself; the application does not transmit it. The fingerprint is a one-way hash of stable device attributes. It does not contain your name, photographs, or the underlying device identifiers, but it is a persistent pseudonymous identifier for the device.
Transaction information: the product, license, price, transaction identifier, status, and limited purchaser information that a payment provider or merchant of record makes available to us. Payment-card details are processed by the checkout provider and should not be sent directly to us.

Information collected automatically by online services

When you visit a Heeler website, download software, or use another online function, the systems providing that function may process ordinary network and device data such as IP address, browser or app type, operating system, requested URL or file, referring page, timestamps, approximate location derived from IP address, and security or error logs. Hosting, content-delivery, release-download, and other applicable providers may process this information on our behalf or under their own policies. When Heeler activates or re-checks a purchased license key, the licensing provider identified at purchase receives the request described in Section 4 together with this ordinary network data, under its own privacy policy.

The current desktop application does not send product-usage analytics or advertising identifiers to Vagabond Burro.

4. Optional network features

Licenses and activation

Heeler has two license mechanisms.

A tester license file is verified against a key built into the application and never contacts anyone. When that license type requires a request, Heeler writes the request to a file and you choose whether and how to send it. We receive it only if you do.

A purchased Heeler Pro key is activated online. When you enter the key, Heeler sends it, together with a name for your computer, to the licensing provider identified at purchase, and the provider records the activation. Heeler stores the key and the activation locally and re-checks them with the provider no more than about once a month. A re-check that cannot reach the provider changes nothing; only the provider's own refusal of the key, for example after a refund, ends Pro access. Removing the activation from Heeler's Help menu tells the provider to release it. The provider receives ordinary network data with each request under its own privacy policy. Your photographs are never part of any of this.

Update check

Heeler can ask whether a newer release exists by reading a small manifest file from the public release repository, which is hosted by GitHub. It does so once at launch, unless you turn off the Check for updates at launch preference, and whenever you choose Help > Check for Updates. The request sends ordinary network information to GitHub, including your IP address and the platform Heeler is running on, under GitHub's own privacy policy. Heeler does not send your license key, catalog, photographs, or any identifier of its own. Heeler never downloads or installs a release by itself; the dialog hands the installer to your browser only when you choose to download it.

Model downloads

Certain local editing features use optional machine-learning models. Heeler downloads a model only after you request the download. The model host will receive ordinary network information, including your IP address and request details, under its own privacy policy. Your photographs remain on your device and model inference runs locally.

When you deliberately start a local-network gallery, Heeler renders the selected collection into a local cache and serves it from your computer. The gallery can include rendered photographs, filenames or titles, dimensions, and retained metadata. Devices that can reach your network and have the link may request and view that material. The current local gallery server does not persist a request log. Vagabond Burro does not receive the shared photographs merely because you use this feature.

Local sharing may use unencrypted HTTP and is intended for trusted private networks. Stop sharing when it is no longer needed, protect the link, and do not expose the service to the public internet.

Exported web galleries

Heeler can write a static gallery to a folder you select. Vagabond Burro does not receive or host that gallery. If you upload it, the provider and viewers you choose may process its photographs and metadata under terms you control or accept.

Email and external applications

Heeler may open a pre-addressed email draft or another external application when you ask. The email is not sent unless you send it. Your email provider and other applications process information under their own policies.

5. How we use personal information

We use personal information as reasonably necessary to:

provide downloads, licenses, activation, updates, documentation, and support;
process purchases and refunds and maintain transaction records;
diagnose defects, respond to requests, improve Heeler, and communicate with you;
operate, secure, troubleshoot, and prevent abuse of our websites and services;
comply with law, enforce agreements, and protect users, Vagabond Burro, and others; and
carry out another purpose disclosed when you provide the information or with your consent.

Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we process information as needed to perform our contract with you, for our legitimate interests in operating and securing Heeler, to comply with legal obligations, or with your consent. You may withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, without affecting earlier processing.

6. How we disclose personal information

We may disclose personal information:

to vendors that provide hosting, software distribution, licensing, payment, tax, email, and support services, subject to appropriate contractual or legal restrictions;
when you direct us to, consent, or use a feature that necessarily sends information to a third party;
to professional advisers such as lawyers, accountants, insurers, and auditors;
to comply with law or valid legal process, or to protect rights, safety, security, and the integrity of Heeler; and
in connection with a merger, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or part of the business, subject to applicable law.

We do not sell personal information for money. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, and the current desktop application does not allow third parties to track your activity across unrelated apps or websites for advertising.

7. Retention

Information stored locally remains until you change or remove it, uninstall Heeler, clear application data, remove a downloaded model, delete an exported file, or use another applicable control. Uninstalling Heeler may not remove catalogs, exports, photographs, .trash folders, backups, or files stored outside the application-data folder.

We retain information we receive only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including providing support and licenses, maintaining transaction and acceptance records, resolving disputes, preventing fraud, and meeting legal, accounting, or tax obligations. Retention periods vary by the type and purpose of the record. Backup copies may persist for a limited period after deletion.

8. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect personal information we control. No storage or transmission system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

You are responsible for securing your devices, accounts, storage, backups, network, exported galleries, and local-share links. Do not send sensitive content in a support request unless it is necessary. Contact us if you believe your interaction with Heeler has created a security issue.

9. Your choices and privacy rights

You can choose not to send optional support files, not to download optional models, and not to start local-network sharing. You can manage local files using Heeler’s controls and your operating system.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a copy of personal information we hold about you, or to object to or restrict certain processing. You may also have a right to withdraw consent or appeal a denied request. To make a request, email support@heeler.app with “Privacy Request” in the subject line. We may need to verify your identity and may retain information where permitted or required by law.

Because Vagabond Burro generally does not receive your locally stored photographs, catalogs, or edits, we cannot access, correct, export, or delete those files for you.

You may opt out of non-transactional marketing email using the unsubscribe method in the message or by contacting us. We may still send license, transaction, security, or support communications when needed.

10. California disclosures

California law may require disclosure of the categories of personal information collected. In the preceding 12 months, depending on which Services a person used, we may have collected:

Identifiers, such as name, email address, IP address, transaction identifier, license key, or hashed device fingerprint;
commercial information, such as a purchased product, license type, transaction status, or refund information;
internet or electronic activity, such as website, download, activation, and security logs; and
user-provided content, such as support messages, attachments, screenshots, feedback, or sample files.

We collect, use, retain, and disclose these categories for the purposes and to the recipients described in this policy. We do not sell them or share them for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not knowingly use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes that require a right to limit under California law.

Heeler does not respond to legacy browser “Do Not Track” signals because there is no consistent industry standard for them. We honor legally required browser- or device-based opt-out preference signals where they apply to our practices. Because we do not sell or share personal information for behavioral advertising, such a signal does not change the current desktop app’s behavior.

11. International use

Vagabond Burro is based in the United States. If you use Heeler from another country, information sent to us or our providers may be processed in the United States and other countries whose data-protection laws may differ from yours. Where required, we use an approved legal mechanism for restricted international transfers.

12. Children

Heeler is a professional creative tool and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, contact support@heeler.app so we can review and, where appropriate, delete it.

13. Third-party services

Third-party websites and services have their own privacy practices. This policy does not govern a third party’s independent processing, including by your operating system, email provider, payment provider, merchant of record, website host, software-download host, model host, cloud-sync provider, or gallery host.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Heeler and applicable law change. We will post the updated policy and revise the effective date. If a change materially affects how we use personal information already collected, we will provide additional notice or seek consent where required by law.

15. Contact

For privacy questions or requests, contact support@heeler.app with “Privacy Request” in the subject line.

Vagabond Burro LLC
2108 N St, Ste N
Sacramento, CA 95816
USA
www.heeler.app

If applicable law gives you the right to complain to a data-protection authority, you may do so in the place where you live, work, or believe a violation occurred.