Privacy.
The short version: bIRC has no servers of its own, and nothing to track.
Last updated: June 2026
No accounts, no telemetry
bIRC has no backend. There's no sign-up, no analytics, and no usage data sent anywhere. By default the app talks only to the IRC servers you choose to connect to.
Your data stays with you
- On your Mac — message history lives in a local store on your machine. Plain-text logging is off by default.
- In your iCloud — server profiles sync across your Macs via iCloud. It's on by default; turn it off in Settings → iCloud to keep them on this Mac only. Either way that's Apple's iCloud, under your account — bIRC never sees it.
- In your Keychain — passwords and certificate passphrases are stored in the macOS Keychain, never in plain files.
Connections
IRC traffic goes directly to the networks you add, over TLS where the server supports it. If you configure a proxy, DNS resolves at the proxy so your lookups don't leak. A few features fetch from other hosts only when you turn them on — inline images and video, link previews, network and user icons, file uploads (FILEHOST), and an optional public-IP lookup for DCC — and these are off by default, https-only, and routed through your proxy when one is set. This website serves static files with no trackers and no third-party fonts.