Privacy Policy

Last Updated: April 2026

FEA Lab is a native macOS finite element analysis app that runs entirely on your device. We do not operate a FEA Lab server, we do not run a telemetry service, and we do not have a user account system. There is no "user data" for us to collect because FEA Lab never sends your data to us.

This page explains what that means in App-Review-grade detail.

1. Information FEA Lab does not collect

• Account or identity information. There is no sign-up, sign-in, or user profile in FEA Lab. We never ask for your name, email, phone number, Apple ID, password, or any other identifier.
• Analytics or telemetry. FEA Lab does not integrate any analytics SDK. We do not log feature usage, crash rates, session length, click streams, or any other behavioural data to a remote server.
• Advertising identifiers. FEA Lab does not request or use the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), does not integrate ad networks, and does not fingerprint your device.
• Location data. FEA Lab does not request access to Core Location or any geolocation data.
• Contacts, photos, microphone, camera, or Health data. FEA Lab does not request access to any of these.
• Your simulation files. The contents of your mesh, materials, boundary conditions, and results never leave your Mac via any FEA Lab–initiated network call.

2. Information FEA Lab stores locally on your Mac

The following is stored inside the app's sandbox container on your own device. None of it is transmitted anywhere.

• Project files you save. .fealab / .feap documents are written to whatever location you choose via the standard macOS Save panel.
• Autosave cache. FEA Lab keeps a working copy of the current project in its sandbox so you don't lose progress on a crash. You can clear this at any time by deleting ~/Library/Containers/tech.jambudweep.fealab/Data/.
• Window frame + UI preferences. Window position, last-opened project, solver-backend preference, and diagnostics-panel state are written to NSUserDefaults under tech.jambudweep.fealab.
• Crash logs. If FEA Lab crashes, a structured crash report is written to ~/Library/Logs/FEALAB/crashes/ using Apple's standard log format. These files stay on your Mac; they are not sent to us. They exist so you can mail them in if you ever open a support issue.

3. Network access

FEA Lab requests the com.apple.security.network.client entitlement only for these specific, user-initiated cases:

• Help → Documentation — opens a link to the public FEA Lab GitHub page in your browser.
• Optional "fetch live build" mode — disabled in App Store builds; lets development-mode users load the web UI from jambudweep.tech/fealab/ instead of the embedded copy. All fetches are over HTTPS/TLS 1.2+.

No background network traffic. No analytics pings. No license checks. No "phone home" behaviour of any kind.

4. File access

FEA Lab is App-Sandboxed. The only filesystem access it has comes from:

• com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write — so the Open and Save panels work, and so you can import meshes (.abq, .vtk, .stl) and export results (.csv, .vtk, .json).
• com.apple.security.files.bookmarks.app-scope — so FEA Lab can re-open a recent project file across app launches.

FEA Lab cannot read or write anywhere on your Mac other than files you've explicitly opened in the app, plus its own sandbox container.

5. Third-party software

FEA Lab is built on top of several open-source libraries:

• Apple's own SwiftUI, WebKit, Accelerate, Metal, MLX frameworks
• mlx-swift (MIT)
• swift-numerics (Apache 2.0)
• Sparkle (MIT) — linked for Developer-ID release builds only; dead-coded out of Mac App Store builds via a compile-time flag

None of these libraries collect or transmit personal data in FEA Lab's configuration of them.

6. Children

FEA Lab is a professional engineering tool. It is rated 4+ on the App Store because it does not contain any objectionable content, but it is not targeted at children and does not knowingly collect data from children.

7. Changes to this policy

If we ever start collecting data — which is not on any roadmap we have — we will update this page with an effective date and announce the change in the app's release notes before the change takes effect. Your continued use of a version that includes data collection would always be opt-in, never silent.

8. Contact

If you have questions about this policy or about how FEA Lab handles your data, please file an issue on the public repository: github.com/pmaero-byte/FEA_LAB/issues.

FEA Lab is developed as an independent project. This policy applies to the macOS app distributed through the Mac App Store (bundle identifier tech.jambudweep.fealab) and to any companion web preview served under the same branding. The policy does not govern any third-party fork or redistribution of the open-source code.