Privacy

TL;DR Mr. Zoo collects a minimal amount of anonymous data to help improve deployment (you can opt out). Your email will only be used to notify you of an app issue or major update. You can send correspondence to: Mr_Zoo@BFDWorks.com

Your email

• Your email information is never sold or shared.

App data collection

Mr. Zoo sends a minimal anonymous data to understand how the app is working using a random scrambled ID. Only these data points are collected:

• Anon app opens
• Anon how long the app is open.
• Anon download numbers. Download settings.
• Anon app fails and errors.
• Anon GIF capture length data and errors.
• Anon Gif FPS data & Google fit.
• Anon System version

You can turn off the random anonymous data collection at any time. Mr. Zoo menu › Share Anonymous app data.

Note: Mr. Zoo does not broadcast any content information like links, titles, file names, emails, etc.

The LFG button

• The LFG button grabs the video page you're on from the browser you were in last (Chrome, Safari, Arc, Edge or Brave). If that page isn't a video, it uses a video link from your clipboard.
• The LFG button uses that address only if it's a video page from YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, TikTok, X or LinkedIn, and ignores / deletes everything else. It never reads your clipboard or your browser in the background, it only captures links when you press LFG.
• macOS asks your permission once for each browser. You can change it any time in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation.

Signing in to a site

• Some videos need you signed in (YouTube's "confirm you're not a bot", Instagram, a private X post). Mr. Zoo asks first, in its window, for that site only.
• Say "Use my browser login" and Mr. Zoo reads that site's sign-in from your Chrome, Arc, Edge, Brave or Firefox. To find the browser you're signed in with, it looks at the names of your browsers' cookies, never their contents.
• For Chrome, Arc, Edge and Brave, macOS asks you first to let Mr. Zoo use the browser's "Safe Storage" key. Firefox keeps its sign-ins unlocked, so macOS doesn't ask.
• Only that site's sign-in is unlocked. Mr. Zoo hands it to the download (yt-dlp), which sends it only to that site. The copy is deleted when the download ends. Safari's sign-ins are never read.
• Your permission is remembered for that site. Take it back any time in Mr. Zoo's menu ("Use my YouTube login from my browser", or whichever site it is). Take back the macOS permission in Keychain Access.

Updates

Once every two weeks Mr. Zoo checks bfdworks.com for a newer version. It sends nothing about you.

Once a day Mr. Zoo also checks GitHub for a newer yt-dlp, the downloader inside it, and downloads it from there when there is one. It sends nothing about you.

How long it's kept

• Your IP address or request headers: the counting service's own code never stores them. Vercel, which hosts it, keeps routine request logs (including the IP) for about an hour.
• Each batch is folded into the day's totals overnight, then deleted (about one to two days).
• The scrambled install IDs are kept 35 days, for "how many people this week / month", then deleted.
• The daily totals are kept. They hold counts only, with no ID of any kind.

This page

No cookies, no ads, no trackers.

For IT

Asked "can I install this?" Here's what Mr. Zoo is, what it asks for and what it talks to.

The app

• A Mac app for Apple silicon, macOS 26 or later. Signed with an Apple Developer ID, Team ID 62CL59JCX9 (Bryan Denman), with the hardened runtime, and notarized by Apple for public downloads.
• Two bundle IDs: com.bfdworks.mrzoo (the app) and com.bfdworks.mrzoo.capture (Mr. Zoo Capture, the part that sees the screen, inside the app).
• Designated requirements, for MDM privacy (PPPC) profiles. Click one to select it:

identifier "com.bfdworks.mrzoo" and anchor apple generic and certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = "62CL59JCX9"

identifier "com.bfdworks.mrzoo.capture" and anchor apple generic and certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = "62CL59JCX9"

Permissions it asks for, and when

• Screen & System Audio Recording: only for the GIF capture, asked the first time you pick up the lion. Downloads never need it. On managed Macs, a PPPC profile can let standard users approve it for com.bfdworks.mrzoo.
• Automation (Apple Events) of the browser (Chrome, Safari, Arc, Edge or Brave): only when you press LFG, and it reads only the address of the page you're on. Firefox is never asked.
• Files & Folders: the save folder you pick (Downloads by default).
• Paste: the first time Mr. Zoo reads a copied link, macOS shows its own "paste from another app" prompt.
• Keychain, optional: only if you turn on "Use my browser login" for a site. macOS asks first to let Mr. Zoo use that browser's "Safe Storage" key, and only that one site's sign-in is read. Public videos never need it. Security tools may flag this, since some malware does the same thing; it's fine to leave it off.

What it connects to

Outbound only: HTTPS to every site, and plain HTTP only to a company proxy or its auto-config file. It never listens for connections.

• The video sites you give it links to, and their media servers (for example youtube.com, googlevideo.com, ytimg.com, vimeo.com and its CDN, instagram.com, tiktok.com, x.com, linkedin.com).
• Their picture hosts, for the cover image on the download card: i.ytimg.com, i.vimeocdn.com, cdninstagram.com and fbcdn.net, tiktokcdn.com, pbs.twimg.com and media.licdn.com. And lnkd.in, which Mr. Zoo asks itself to expand a LinkedIn short link.
• github.com, api.github.com and GitHub's download servers: once a day it checks for a newer yt-dlp, the open-source downloader inside, and downloads it when there is one. The download is signature-checked before use.
• bfdworks.com: once every two weeks, a version check (/mrzoo/version.json).
• mrzoo-caps.vercel.app: the anonymous usage counts above, on by default and off in the Mr. Zoo menu. No links, titles or screen content are sent.

How it's contained

• Every program inside the app is locked so only Mr. Zoo can start it (macOS launch constraints).
• The downloader runs in a macOS sandbox (Seatbelt, the same mechanism Chrome uses). It gets the network and its own scratch folder, and nothing else: not the screen, your files, the clipboard, the Keychain or other apps.

Company networks

Works with company proxies, including automatic proxy setup, and with networks that inspect secure connections: it trusts the certificates your Mac trusts.

• Networks that inspect secure connections (Zscaler, Netskope and the like): the downloader trusts the certificates the Mac trusts, including a company's own root installed by IT.
• Proxies: it follows the Mac's proxy settings, whether set by hand or by automatic proxy setup (PAC). A proxy running on the Mac itself works too.
• Not yet: a proxy that asks for its own username and password.

Uninstalling

Drag Mr. Zoo to the Trash. It leaves its self-updated downloader builds in ~/Library/Application Support/Mr. Zoo (about 95 MB), which you can delete.