DataLink Scanner for macOS

Privacy Policy

Last updated 25 September 2026

DataLink Scanner collects nothing. It has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Scanned answer sheets, student names, student ID numbers and scores stay on the Mac the app is installed on, and are not sent anywhere unless you set up a destination yourself.

What the developer receives

Nothing. The app sends no usage data, no diagnostics, no crash reports and no device identifiers to the developer or to anyone else. There is no account to create and no sign-in.

What the app stores, and where

Everything the app records is written to its own storage on your Mac:

Scanned sheets and the answers read from them.
Class rosters you enter, including student names and ID numbers.
Scores, statistics and the answer key for each test.
Your settings.

In the Mac App Store version this lives inside the app's sandbox container. Nothing in it is uploaded, backed up to the developer, or shared between users. It is covered by whatever backup and disk encryption you have set up on that Mac, and by nothing else.

Sending a report to your own site

The app can send a scored report to a website you choose. This is off until you enter an address, and no address is set when the app is installed.

If you turn it on, then each time you choose to send a report:

The report goes over HTTPS to the address you entered, and to nowhere else. It contains student ID numbers, student names, per-question responses, scores and per-question statistics for that one test.
A connection token you paste in is kept in the macOS Keychain. It is sent only as an authorization header, is never written to the app's files or logs, and never appears in an error message.
The developer does not operate, see or receive anything sent this way. Once a report reaches your site it is governed by that site's policies, not this one.

Other connections

The scanner. The app talks to an Apperson DataLink 1200 over USB. That is a local cable, not a network.
Update checks. The Mac App Store version never checks for updates; the App Store does that. The version distributed directly from GitHub asks GitHub once a day for the latest published release number, and sends nothing with the request. It can be switched off in Settings.

Student information and children

The app is a tool for teachers and school staff. It is not directed to children, has no child-facing features, and asks no one to create an account.

It does handle information that identifies students, because that is what is printed and bubbled on an answer sheet. That information is entered by the teacher, stays on the teacher's Mac, and is disclosed to no one by the app. Teachers and schools remain responsible for handling student records under their own obligations, including FERPA in the United States.

Deleting your data

Individual tests can be deleted in the app, under Sessions.
Removing the app removes its container and everything in it. Files you exported yourself, such as CSV files, stay where you saved them.
A connection token is removed from the Keychain with Disconnect in Settings.

Because the developer never receives your data, there is nothing to request or delete from anyone else.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date above. The app's behaviour, not this page, is the thing being described: the source code is public, so any claim here can be checked against it.

Contact

Questions about this policy or about the app can be raised at the project's issue tracker.