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Privacy Policy — Trawler
Last updated: 8 September 2026
This policy covers the Trawler application for Windows (distributed through the Microsoft Store) and the GetTrawler.com website.
The short version
Trawler runs entirely on your computer, and we operate no servers. It sends us nothing — no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reports, no file names, no file contents. Nothing about your files, folders or scans is ever transmitted to us or to anyone else.
Trawler can reach network and cloud storage, but only where you point it: if you scan a NAS or a shared folder, it reads those files over your own network, the same way File Explorer does. Files that live online only — OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox placeholders — are skipped by default, so scanning will not quietly download your cloud storage. Both cases are explained below.
We can only see information you deliberately send us, such as an email asking for support — or a visit to our website, if you follow one of the two help links in the app's ? menu. Those open your browser at a page on GetTrawler.com and send nothing about you or your files with them.
Who we are
to be confirmed is the data controller for the purposes of UK data protection law.
- Address: to be confirmed
- Email: to be confirmed
The Trawler application
What Trawler reads
To find duplicate and similar files, Trawler reads:
- File and folder metadata — names, full paths, sizes, created and modified dates, and Windows file attributes.
- File contents — read only, in order to compute the checksums and fingerprints used to decide whether two files match. This includes image, audio, video and document content when you use the corresponding "Similar" features.
Trawler only reads the locations you choose to scan.
Where that information is kept
All of it stays on your device:
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| The scan index | Either in memory only, or — for large scans — a temporary database file on your own disk |
| Saved sessions | Only where you choose to save them |
| Logs | %LOCALAPPDATA%\trawler\logs, kept for 7 days and then deleted automatically |
The logs do contain file paths. They exist so that a failure can be diagnosed. They are written to your machine only, and are never transmitted anywhere. You can delete them at any time; deleting them does not affect the application.
What Trawler sends to us: nothing
We operate no servers. Trawler never contacts us, and there is nothing for it to contact. It contains no analytics or telemetry component of any kind, and it does not check for updates itself — updates are delivered by the Microsoft Store.
We do not receive, and cannot receive, any information about what you scan, what you find, or what you delete.
Links that open your browser
The help menu — the ? button in the title bar — contains two links to our website: Help and learning, and this Privacy policy. Choosing one hands the address to your default browser and nothing more; Trawler itself opens no connection to us, and it sends nothing about you, your files or your scan along with it.
What follows is then an ordinary visit to a web page, and our web server sees what any web server sees when you visit it. That is described under The GetTrawler.com website below. Nothing links that visit to your copy of Trawler.
Network drives, NAS and shared folders
Trawler can scan network locations — a NAS, a mapped drive, or a UNC path such as
\\server\share — if you choose one. When you do, Trawler reads and writes those files over your
network using Windows' ordinary file APIs, exactly as File Explorer does.
That traffic goes between your computer and your own storage. It does not pass through us, and we have no visibility of it. How it is secured is a matter of your own network and whatever protections that storage device provides.
Cloud storage — OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox
Files kept online only — the ones that appear in your folders but whose contents live in the cloud until opened — are treated carefully, because reading one forces your provider to download it.
- By default, Trawler skips them. They are excluded before they enter the scan at all, so scanning a synced folder will not silently pull your cloud storage down onto your disk. Trawler tells you how many it skipped.
- You can opt in (Settings → Scanning). If you do, Trawler will read those files, which causes Windows and your cloud provider to download them so their contents can be checked. That uses your bandwidth and your own cloud account, and what your provider records about it is governed by their privacy policy, not ours. We are not involved in that transfer and receive nothing from it.
How it is protected
We hold no copy of your data, so there is nothing at our end to breach. The files Trawler writes on your device — the scan index, saved sessions and logs — sit inside your own Windows user profile and are protected by your Windows account permissions, in the same way as your other personal files.
Where you scan a network or cloud location, the security of that connection is provided by your network, your storage device, or your cloud provider — Trawler uses the standard Windows mechanisms for reaching them and adds nothing of its own.
What you control
- Choose which folders are scanned, and exclude any you do not want touched.
- Delete the log folder above at any time.
- Delete any session you have saved, at any time.
- Uninstall Trawler through Windows Settings. This removes the application; delete the log folder and any saved sessions separately if you want those gone too.
Purchases and licensing
Trawler's paid features are unlocked through the Microsoft Store. The purchase itself is handled entirely by Microsoft:
- We never see, receive or store your payment details.
- The application asks Windows only whether a licence is active for the signed-in Microsoft account. It receives an answer, not an identity.
- We operate no licence server and no account system. There is nothing to sign up for.
Microsoft's handling of your purchase is governed by the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
The GetTrawler.com website
The website is a set of static pages. We do not use analytics, tracking pixels, or advertising, and we set no cookies. Nothing on the site is loaded from anyone else's server.
If you switch the site between light and dark, that one preference is stored by your own browser and is never sent to us.
Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses, for security and reliability. Those are not used to identify visitors and are not combined with anything else.
If you contact us
If you email us for support, we hold your message and email address for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry, and then delete it. We do not add you to a mailing list, and we do not share your address with anyone.
If you send us a log file or a screenshot to help diagnose a problem, please be aware it may contain file paths from your computer. Send only what you are comfortable sharing — we never request it automatically and the application never sends it on its own.
Who we share information with
Nobody. We do not sell, rent or share personal information with third parties. We have no advertising partners and no data-broker relationships.
The only third party involved in Trawler at all is Microsoft, which distributes the application and processes purchases through the Microsoft Store, as described above.
Children
Trawler is a general-purpose file management utility. It is not directed at children and collects no information from anyone, including children.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to access, correct, erase, restrict or object to the processing of your personal information, and to receive a copy of it in a portable form.
In practice these rights apply only to correspondence you have sent us, because the application itself gives us nothing. If you have emailed us and would like that correspondence deleted, write to to be confirmed and we will confirm once it is done.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) if you believe your information has been handled improperly.
Changes to this policy
If we change what Trawler does with your information, we will update this page and change the "last updated" date above. If a future version of Trawler ever introduces a feature that sends anything off your device, that will be stated here plainly, and it will be something you switch on rather than something you switch off.
Contact
to be confirmed to be confirmed to be confirmed