Privacy Policy

Effective 5 November 2026

1. Who we are

Alcove is made by Ustek RFID Elektronik Yazılım A.Ş. ("Ustek", "we", "us").

Ustek RFID Elektronik Yazılım A.Ş.
IDOSB Apre Sok. No:9
Tuzla 34956 Istanbul, Türkiye
Tuzla Tax Office, tax number 8960977691
Email: [email protected]

This policy covers the Alcove apps for macOS and Linux and this website, alcove.ustek-rfid.com.

2. What Alcove does

Alcove shows your Google Drive in your computer's file manager: in Finder on macOS and as folders under ~/GoogleDrive on Linux. When you open a file, Alcove downloads it from Google Drive. When you save, rename, move or delete a file there, Alcove makes the same change in your Google Drive. It also picks up changes made elsewhere, for example on the web, so your files stay current.

3. Google user data Alcove accesses

When you add a Google account, Google asks you to allow Alcove the following permissions. Alcove uses each one only as described.

Permission	What Alcove does with it
See, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive	Lists your folders and files, including Shared drives you belong to; downloads the files you open; uploads your edits; creates, renames, moves and trashes files and folders when you do so in your file manager; reads Drive's list of recent changes to stay in sync.
View and manage metadata of files in your Google Drive https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.metadata	Reads file names, sizes, dates, versions and checksums to show your files correctly and to detect what changed.

Through these permissions Alcove also reads your account's email address, name and profile picture link, to label the account in the app.

Alcove does not access your Gmail, contacts, calendar or any other Google service.

4. How Alcove uses this data

Alcove uses Google user data only to provide its features to you: showing your Drive on your computer, opening and saving files, and keeping both sides in sync. In particular, we:

• do not use it for advertising, and do not sell it;
• do not transfer it to anyone; the data travels only between your computer and Google;
• do not use it to build profiles, assess creditworthiness or for any purpose unrelated to the features above;
• do not use it to develop, improve or train artificial intelligence or machine learning models;
• do not read it: no person at Ustek has access to it, because it never reaches us.

5. Where your data is kept

Everything Alcove stores stays on your computer, in your user account:

What	macOS	Linux
Your Google sign-in (access and refresh tokens), encrypted	~/.config/alcove/tokens	~/.config/alcove/tokens
List of added accounts (email, name, profile picture link) and settings	~/.config/alcove	~/.config/alcove
Downloaded copies of files you opened, folder listings, changes waiting to upload	Managed by macOS for the Alcove location in Finder (~/Library/CloudStorage)	~/.cache/alcove
Activity log (may include file names and error messages)	core.log in Alcove's app group folder under ~/Library/Group Containers, and the macOS system log	~/.local/state/alcove/alcove.log

Your sign-in is encrypted with AES-256-GCM. The key is kept in Keychain on macOS or your desktop's keyring on Linux, or, if no keyring is available, in a key file that only your user account can read. Logs never leave your computer unless you choose to send them to us.

6. Sharing

Alcove sends your data only to Google, and only to carry out what you do in your file manager. We do not share Google user data with anyone.

If you contact us for help and choose to send us a log file or screenshot, we use it only to answer you and delete it when your request is resolved.

7. Security

• You sign in on Google's own page in your browser. Alcove never sees your Google password.
• All communication with Google uses encrypted HTTPS connections.
• Your sign-in is stored encrypted, and Alcove's files on your computer are readable only by your user account.

8. Keeping and deleting data

Alcove keeps its data on your computer until you remove the account or uninstall the app.

• Removing an account in Alcove deletes that account's sign-in and its downloaded copies from your computer. Nothing is deleted from your Google Drive.
• Withdrawing Google's permission: removing an account in Alcove does not tell Google. To revoke Alcove's access, open Third-party connections in your Google Account and remove Alcove. After that, Alcove can no longer access your Drive.
• Logs are kept small: when Alcove starts and its log is larger than 5 MB, that log replaces the previous one and a new log begins, so at most two exist.

9. This website

This website uses no cookies, analytics or third-party content. Like any web server, ours records standard access logs (IP address, date and time, page requested and browser type) to operate and protect the site. We keep these logs only as long as needed for that purpose and do not combine them with other data.

If you email us, we use your email address and message only to reply to you.

10. Children

Alcove is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, data protection laws such as Türkiye's Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) give you rights to information about, access to, correction and deletion of your personal data, and to object to its processing. Because Alcove keeps your Drive data on your own computer, you control it directly as described in section 8. For website logs or emails you sent us, write to [email protected]. You may also complain to the Personal Data Protection Authority of Türkiye (KVKK) or to the data protection authority where you live.

12. Google API Services User Data Policy

Alcove's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change how Alcove handles data, we will update this page and its effective date before the change takes effect. Significant changes will also be announced on the Alcove home page.

14. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: [email protected], or by post to the address in section 1.