Privacy Policy: Your downloads are your business.

Downex is a free, open-source download manager for Windows and macOS, made by the Downex authors and released under the GPL-3.0-or-later. It was written clean-room, from its own specifications.

This policy covers the Downex app (its window, its command line downex and the background service, downexd), the Downex browser extension, and this website, downex.app. The source code will be public with the first release, so you can check what this policy says against what the code does.

Nothing about you. Downex has no telemetry, no analytics, no ads and no account. It does not send us, or anyone else, your downloads, your history, your settings or anything about your computer.

Downex uses the information you give it, such as the addresses you download and the sign-ins they need, for one thing: doing those downloads, on your computer.

The Downex window, the downex command and the browser extension talk to the background service, downexd, over a local pipe or socket that only your account can open. Nothing listens on the network. These are all the connections Downex makes:

• Your downloads. The addresses you give Downex, with the sign-in, cookies and referrer that belong to them, and through your proxy if you use one (the system's, one you enter, or a proxy script). A proxy script (PAC file) is fetched from the address you set.
• The update check. Once a day Downex asks downex.app whether there is a newer version. The request carries the version of Downex you have and no identifier; like any connection, it shows your IP address to the server. You can turn the check off in Settings → Updates. When you install an update, Downex downloads it from the address named in the signed update manifest and checks it against that manifest before it installs.
• yt-dlp and Deno. The first time you save a web video, Downex fetches these two tools from their publishers on GitHub and verifies them before using them. After that, it checks once a day for newer versions of them. You can turn that off in Settings → Video sites (Update automatically).
• Video pages. yt-dlp reads the page of a video you ask Downex to save, to find the video and its qualities. While the extension's “Prepare video qualities while you watch” is on, it also reads the page of a video you are watching on a few supported sites, without your cookies.

The extension notices downloads and videos in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Chromium and Firefox and hands them to Downex. It has no servers of its own and talks only to the Downex program on your computer, through your browser's native messaging. It sends nothing to us or to anyone else: no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no remote code.

What it reads

The addresses of pages and requests and their response headers, to recognise downloads and videos.

What it hands to Downex

When you download a file, send a link from the right-click menu, or choose a video or stream, it hands Downex what is needed to download it as your browser would:

• the file's address, the request method, the request headers your browser sent for it (these can include your cookies, an Authorization header and the referring page), a form body of at most 1 MiB, and the file's name, type and size;
• for a download or a stream detected on a page, the cookies your browser holds for that one address, so a download that needs you to be signed in works in Downex;
• for a video on a page, the page's address and title. Your cookies go along with a video only when you turn on “Send my sign-in cookies when a video needs it” (off unless you turn it on).

Prepare video qualities while you watch

This option is on unless you turn it off. After you stay 1.5 seconds on a video of a supported site, the extension hands the page's address (never your cookies) to Downex, which then asks that site for the video's qualities, so the Download button lists them at once. You can turn it off in the extension's options.

What it keeps in your browser

Your capture rules and options; the last 10 items it handed to Downex; the videos and files detected in your open tabs, with the request headers they were loaded with (kept only for the browser session); and a log of its last 20 capture steps, with the query part of each address removed. None of it leaves your computer except as described above, to Downex.

Downex keeps its data in your user account, on your computer:

• each download's address and the request headers it needs, cookies included, until you remove the download, so it can resume;
• your download list and settings;
• logs that help with problems, written without passwords, cookies, sign-in headers or the query part of addresses;
• site logins you save: encrypted for your Windows account (DPAPI), or kept in the macOS Keychain.

Like a browser, Downex marks each downloaded file with where it came from (its address and referring page, without any password): Windows' Mark of the Web, or macOS's quarantine flag and “Where from”. That is how the system knows to treat it with care; you can turn it off in Settings → Integration. If you turn on the optional virus scan, finished downloads are checked by the scanner you choose, on your computer.

On Windows, uninstalling Downex asks whether to delete this data too. On a Mac, it stays in ~/Library/Application Support/Downex and ~/Library/Logs/Downex until you delete it. Downloaded files are never deleted.

downex.app is a static website. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics, no trackers and no ads. Its fonts and images come from this site, not from other services.

If you pick the light or the dark theme with the theme switch, your browser keeps that one word in its local storage, so the next page opens in the same theme. It stays on your device and is never sent anywhere; choosing System in the footer removes it.

The company that hosts it may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses, the pages asked for and the time, to run and protect the service. Downex's daily update check reads a file on this site, so it can appear in those logs too. The download buttons lead to the project's release page, which is run under its host's own privacy policy.

Downex collects no personal data from anyone, children included. It is a general-purpose tool and is not aimed at children.

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date at the top.

Questions about privacy, or something here that looks wrong? A contact address will appear here with the first release, together with the link to the Downex repository.

Back to the home page or download Downex.