1. Project and responsibility
MicCamWatch is free, open-source software maintained by Roman Cuisset and distributed through the project’s GitHub Releases. This policy covers the official application, this website and information voluntarily sent to the project. It describes the reviewed public version 0.20.0, not modified third-party builds.
Roman Cuisset, an independent developer without a registered company, is responsible for MicCamWatch and is the controller for processing whose purposes and means he determines, including website operation and project correspondence. Information that stays on your device is not received by the maintainer. If an organisation uses MCW, its own monitoring and data-protection responsibilities also apply.
2. What the application processes
MCW reads operating-system metadata about microphone and camera activity. Depending on the platform and permissions, this can include application names, process and parent IDs, executable paths, account or user IDs, session and integrity information, process ancestry, signing certificates or keys, capture-related module names, device names and identifiers, timestamps, and technical evidence or errors. Optional device-control journals can include USB topology, descriptors and hardware serial numbers. Some Windows checks inspect command lines in memory; raw command lines are not dedicated fields in the activity-event model.
The reviewed collectors do not record microphone audio, acquire webcam frames or inspect media payloads. Device discovery and activity/control metadata are not recordings. MCW uses the permissions exposed by the operating system; an unknown or degraded observation is not proof that access has stopped. Administrator approval and camera-profile inspection do not themselves grant camera or microphone capture permission.
3. Storage and retention
Local activity history is enabled by default. Where the selected frontend records events, it can store the metadata described above in history.jsonl. The current file rotates when it is already at least 5 MiB before the next event; three backups are retained and the oldest is replaced. This is size-based rotation, not an age-based deletion period or a strict total-size guarantee.
Settings, policies, installation receipts and control/restoration journals are separate local files, generally retained until changed or explicitly removed. Successful restoration can clear owned entries; uncertain restoration can require keeping them. On macOS, helper observations and errors also pass through private temporary files, even with history disabled; normal cleanup removes them, but interrupted processes can leave files behind. Uninstallation is not a personal-data purge and normally preserves settings, policies and history.
An explicitly selected watch log has no MCW-managed rotation or expiry. Optional operating-system event logs, desktop notifications, backups, synchronised folders and administrator-configured forwarding follow their own access and retention rules. Clearing MCW history does not clear these copies or restoration records. Do not delete restoration journals to bypass pending device restoration.
No fixed retention period for this project’s Cloudflare hosting/security logs or GitHub download records could be established from the repository; the providers publish purpose- and legal-obligation-based criteria. Cloudflare separately documents seven days of unsampled Web Analytics data, followed by aggregation, with six months available in its interface; that is not a retention promise for all hosting logs. Public GitHub reports remain available until removed under the platform’s tools and policies. Retention of private correspondence depends on handling the request, relevant follow-up and applicable legal requirements; no fixed project-wide deletion period is established.
4. Application network activity
The reviewed monitoring code has no automatic uploader for activity history, observations, diagnostics or crash reports, and no startup or periodic update check was found. Explicit installation and update operations request scripts, release metadata, packages and checksums from this website or GitHub and its delivery infrastructure. On Windows, explicit portable uninstallation can also download the matching release to authenticate an installation with no ownership receipt. These services receive normal request metadata, including IP address, request time, client information and the requested resource; the inspected download calls do not attach monitoring history or policy files.
Signature verification defaults to the offline trust policy. If you select online trust, native certificate/revocation services or your GnuPG keyserver configuration can make requests while observations are assessed, disclosing the certificate or key being checked and connection metadata. Offline trust does not disable explicit downloads or control all operating-system, antivirus, proxy, DNS, backup or network-filesystem traffic. Package managers and source builds can also contact their own distribution services.
5. Website, cookies and Cloudflare
The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Delivering and securing requests involves network metadata such as IP address, requested URL, time, browser/client information and technical or security results. The site’s own script enhances copying and navigation; it contains no cookie, localStorage or sessionStorage persistence, account system or report-submission form. No cookies or web-storage entries were observed in the browser check on 2026-10-23. The delivered Permissions Policy disables website access to the microphone, camera and several other device features.
The public HTML includes a Cloudflare-injected Web Analytics beacon. In the check on 2026-10-23, the delivered Content Security Policy blocked that external script; no successful analytics-beacon transmission was observed. This does not prevent Cloudflare from processing hosting requests. Cloudflare describes Web Analytics as a performance/page-view service without analytics cookies or individual cross-site tracking. Its hosting configuration must be reviewed before enabling or permitting any additional measurement; this policy and any legally required choices must then be updated.
The public responses also advertise Cloudflare Network Error Logging (NEL). Compatible browsers can send network-failure reports to Cloudflare, including request URL, error type, status, timing and network conditions. Cloudflare states that NEL uses the client IP transiently for network/geographic lookup and drops it after processing; this statement applies to the NEL pipeline, not every Cloudflare log. The browser policy lifetime in these headers is not a server-side data-retention period. No claim is made that hosting-provider processing is absent merely because application telemetry is absent.
6. Recipients and international processing
Cloudflare handles website hosting, delivery, security and its associated operational reporting. Its policy distinguishes processing on customers’ behalf from its own network/service purposes. GitHub hosts the repository, release downloads and voluntary issues or contributions, processing connection and usage information and any account or content data you provide under its own policy. The official contact mailbox uses Google’s Gmail: when you send an email, Google processes its content, attachments and delivery metadata under its applicable terms and privacy policy. Ordinary page links are not embedded GitHub or Google trackers; following a link, downloading a release or sending an email initiates separate processing.
Cloudflare, GitHub and Google operate internationally, including in the United States. Their policies describe the transfer mechanisms and safeguards they rely on, including relevant contractual clauses and Data Privacy Framework commitments where applicable. The applicable safeguards depend on the service and processing concerned; consult the linked provider policies for details and rights channels. This page does not promise EU-only processing or claim an unverified project-specific agreement. Information you publish in an issue can be read, copied or retained by other people.
7. Purposes and legal bases
For processing under the project operator’s responsibility, the purposes and GDPR bases are: providing and protecting the public website, preventing abuse and handling voluntary project correspondence on the basis of legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)); and responding to applicable legal obligations and data-protection requests (Article 6(1)(c)). The interests are maintaining a usable, secure open-source project and addressing the requests people choose to send. Third parties explain processing under their own responsibility, including their purposes and legal bases, in their respective policies.
Local monitoring serves the user’s chosen visibility and device-control purposes; it is not a feed of personal activity to the maintainer. Optional reporting and sharing are not required to download or use MCW. Normal connection information is necessary to deliver an online page or download. An operating-system permission or application setting must not be confused with GDPR consent. If a future processing activity relies on consent, it must provide the required information, a genuine choice and a way to withdraw it.
8. Choices and your rights
Use mcw config settings-path and mcw history path to locate the relevant local files. Set history_enabled to false and restart already-running monitoring frontends as needed to stop future history recording. mcw history clear removes the current MCW history and its rotated backups; it does not disable future recording, securely erase storage, or delete selected logs, operating-system records or control journals. You can stop monitoring and avoid online trust or optional logging; this does not erase existing copies.
Where the GDPR applies and its conditions are met, you can request access, correction, erasure, restriction, objection and portability, and withdraw consent for processing based on consent. Send project-related requests through the private contact below, identifying the processing concerned without unnecessarily sharing sensitive logs. The GDPR normally requires a response within one month, subject to its lawful extension and exception rules. A request concerning data held only on your device cannot be fulfilled by accessing that device remotely. Cloudflare, GitHub and Google also provide channels for processing under their own responsibility. You may complain to your competent supervisory authority; these rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions.
9. Diagnostics, security and voluntary reports
Diagnostics are displayed locally, not automatically submitted to the project. If you choose to send a log, screenshot, issue, email or antivirus submission, the recipient receives the content you provide. Review and redact names, account information, paths, device identifiers and other personal material first. Public issues are not a confidential channel. MCW does not provide automatic redaction, and operating-system crash reporting, cloud clipboard or backup features have separate policies. No sale, advertising upload or remote monitoring account feature was identified in the reviewed application and static site code.
10. Privacy contact
For privacy, personal-data and rights requests, contact Roman Cuisset at the official email address below. Do not post private documents, full histories or identity evidence in a public GitHub issue. Include only the information necessary to identify and handle your request. Sending an email uses your mail provider and Google’s Gmail; a mailto link opens your configured mail application and does not itself send a message.
11. Changes and sources
This notice is based on the reviewed release source, the public website response and the providers’ documents available on the date above. Provider settings and future application versions can change the processing described here; material changes require a corresponding notice update. Unknown provider retention periods are not replaced with invented deadlines. Source links below let you inspect the underlying application and provider information.