LAST UPDATED · 14 SEPTEMBER 2026

Privacy, inside
and outside the Box.

LitterBox is a local virtual-machine app made by Mark Shenouda. You don't need a LitterBox account, and the app does not include advertising, tracking, or a third-party analytics SDK.

Your Boxes stay on your Mac

Box settings, virtual disks, saved clean states, and downloaded operating-system images are stored locally in LitterBox's app container. LitterBox does not upload these files to a developer-operated service. A disk image can contain personal information you put inside the guest, including files and credentials.

Folders you choose to share

No host folders are shared with a guest by default. For a macOS guest, you may explicitly choose folders to share. LitterBox saves a macOS security-scoped bookmark so it can access that selection on subsequent launches. Software inside the guest may read and modify the files in a folder you share with read-write access.

Operating-system downloads

The app connects to Apple to find and download supported macOS restore images, and to Canonical's release servers for Ubuntu installation media and checksums. Those services receive information needed to answer a network request, such as your IP address and the requested resource. Their processing is governed by their own policies: Apple privacy and Canonical data privacy.

What happens inside a guest

Guest operating systems and any software you install have their own privacy practices. When guest networking is enabled, they may connect to the internet, your host, or reachable local-network services. LitterBox does not bundle an AI provider connection; if you install an AI tool inside a guest, any information you send to its provider is handled under that provider's terms.

Choosing Disabled for a Box's network removes its virtual network device. This controls that guest's networking; it does not stop LitterBox itself from downloading installation media on your Mac.

This website

This site does not add advertising scripts, analytics scripts, tracking cookies, forms, or browser storage. When hosted on Cloudflare Pages, Cloudflare processes request information, such as IP addresses, requested URLs, and browser or network metadata, to deliver and protect the site. See Cloudflare's privacy policy for its practices.

Support and diagnostics

If you contact the developer, the information you choose to send is used to respond to your request and investigate reported issues. Please do not send passwords, API keys, private virtual disks, or other secrets. Support correspondence is kept only as long as needed for support or applicable legal obligations.

LitterBox has no independent crash-reporting service. Apple may process App Store and system diagnostics according to your Apple settings and its privacy policy.

Your choices

You control what you store in a Box, which guest software you run, whether the guest has a network device, and which host folders you share. Tossing a Box deletes its local files; downloaded installation images can be managed separately in Images. Back up important work before deleting a Box or restoring its clean state. Copies in your own backups are controlled by your backup tools.

For questions or requests concerning information you sent to the developer, use the support page. Depending on your location, you may have rights to request access, correction, or deletion of personal information, or to raise a concern with a data-protection authority.

Changes

This page will be updated if LitterBox's data practices change. The date above identifies the latest revision.