Privacy
What fmTrace collects, what it deliberately does not, and what this website records.
fmTrace is a developer tool that watches what your database does. That makes it worth being exact about what leaves your machine — so this page lists the whole of it.
1. What we collect
Machine identifier. To activate a trial or a licence, the plug-in reads your
Mac’s hardware serial number, computes a SHA-256 digest of it, and sends
that digest — the hardware ID — to our licensing server at
atlas.fmtrace.com. The serial itself never leaves your machine,
and we neither receive nor store it.
We hold the hardware ID so that one trial belongs to one Mac and cannot simply be restarted, and so we can extend or reissue your licence when you ask. On its own it identifies a computer, not a person: we do not attach a name to it, and the only way it becomes linked to you is if you write to us yourself.
To be straight about what the digest does and does not do: it means we do not hold your serial, and that a copy of our database does not hand anyone a list of Apple serial numbers. It is not a promise that the value could never be worked back — serial numbers come from a small, structured space, so somebody who already suspected a particular serial could confirm it by hashing it. Treat the hardware ID as a stable pseudonym for a machine, not as anonymity.
You can see your own hardware ID: the About tab in the fmTrace panel copies it, along with your version numbers, when you click Copy support info. It is the string to quote if you write to us about a licence.
Basic usage data. Alongside the serial, activation sends the fmTrace version
and build, your macOS version, your FileMaker Pro version, and your Mac’s model
identifier (MacBookPro18,3 and the like). We use it to know which builds and
which FileMaker versions are actually in use, so we can support them and know
when it is safe to drop one.
Email address, if you give us one — by writing to support@fmtrace.com, or by subscribing to the mailing list.
That is the complete list.
2. What we do not collect
Recordings stay on your machine. The plug-in writes .fmtrace files to your
disk. Neither the plug-in nor the viewer uploads them.
We never receive:
- the contents of any recording — the timings, the captured variable values, the field data;
- the source text of your scripts;
- the names, paths or contents of your databases;
- your Script History, which is built and kept locally.
A .fmtrace file holds real data out of your database. We only ever see one if
you decide to send it to us — see .fmtrace files
before you do.
3. How we use it
- Issuing and verifying trials and licences.
- Extending, renewing or reissuing a licence when you ask.
- Answering your support messages.
- Deciding which macOS and FileMaker Pro versions to support, from the version numbers in aggregate.
We do not profile you, we do not advertise, and we do not sell or share any of it. Nothing collected is used for anything other than the four purposes above.
4. This website
fmtrace.com collects nothing.
No analytics, no tracking pixel, no cookie, no consent banner to dismiss — because there is nothing to consent to. There is no JavaScript on any page, and every asset comes from this domain, so no third party learns that you visited. Our host records what any web server records in order to serve a page; we do not build profiles from it.
5. Other services
| Service | What it handles | What it sees |
|---|---|---|
atlas.fmtrace.com | Our own licensing server | The activation data in section 1 |
| Groups.io | The mailing list | Your email address and your posts, which are publicly archived |
| Cloudflare | Hosting for this website | Ordinary web server request logs |
Following a link from here to the list archive puts you on Groups.io, under their privacy policy rather than ours.
6. Retention
- Licence and activation records are kept for as long as the licence exists, because they are the licence.
- Support email is kept for as long as it takes to deal with, and we do not add you to any list on the strength of it.
- Mailing list membership lasts until you unsubscribe, which you can do yourself at any time from Groups.io.
7. Your rights
Write to support@fmtrace.com to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected, or to have it deleted. We aim to answer within 30 days.
Deleting your activation record ends the licence it represents — we will say so before doing it.
8. Changes
fmTrace is in beta and this page will change as the product does. Anything material gets announced on the mailing list.