Kino plays files locally, keeps a small local cache, and has no account, analytics, advertising, or telemetry.
Kino reads the folders you choose so it can show thumbnails and play media. It does not upload your videos, photos, filenames, folder paths, selections, or viewing history to Verkheim.
Kino remembers ordinary preferences such as your last opened folder and uses local session information for flags, ordering, and temporarily hidden clips. It stores generated thumbnails under ~/Library/Application Support/Kino/Thumbnails. The cache is bounded and Kino removes older thumbnails when it grows beyond about 400 MB.
Deleting the cache does not delete or change your media; Kino creates thumbnails again when needed.
Opening, previewing, playing, flagging, arranging, and temporarily hiding items do not modify source files. Kino changes files only when you explicitly choose Copy, Move, or Trash. Copy and Move write to a destination you select. Trash uses the macOS Trash.
Kino can read a mounted network folder you choose. The connection is provided by macOS, Finder, or your storage system. Kino treats it like an ordinary folder. Your storage provider, VPN, DNS service, or network equipment may have separate logging and privacy practices.
Kino uses Sparkle to read a signed public update feed from https://verkheim.com/kino/appcast.xml. It does not attach media, filenames, folder paths, or viewing activity to that request.
The Kino website is informational and is not required for playback. Like ordinary hosted websites, the hosting provider may process routine request information needed to deliver pages and protect the service.
Send a private email with privacy questions. This page will be revised if a future release changes how Kino stores data or connects to services.