Software Update

Overview

Some of our software has the ability to automatically check for updates or patches. This is achieved through a similar process to Apple’s “Software Update” feature, which retrieves a single web page from our site to detect when updates are released. No checks will be made if you are not already online. To protect your privacy, no personal information will be sent as part of this process. Although this feature is optional, we recommend that it be enabled. This will ensure you are always running the latest version, and will receive any bug fixes or performance improvements present in subsequent releases.

How It Works

In order to check for an update, this page is retrieved from our web server. The software compares its version with the currently released version, and informs the user if an update is detected. The “user agent” string sent by the software includes the software name, version, and details of the current operating system. This follows the normal conventions for web clients, and does not disclose any personal or identifying information. An example user agent string would be:

RouteBuddy/2.0 (Mac OS 10.5.1; 2400Mhz; 2048Mb; x86)

This string contains the software name and version, the Mac OS version, the CPU speed and architecture, and the amount of physical memory installed. This information is not processed on an individual basis, and is aggregated to form a general usage summary. This summary allows us to improve our development efforts, by ensuring that future updates are developed in accordance with the needs of our customers. If you would prefer to check for updates manually, this feature can be turned off in the Preferences window.

System Profile

When diagnosing a problem, we may request an Apple System Profiler report. This information can be collected with the standard “System Profiler” utility. The information contained in these reports can help us diagnose problems, as it provides an exact description of your configuration.

However, due to the way this information is collected, you may find that these reports contain information you do not wish to disclose (most commonly, a list of your installed applications). If you are concerned about sharing this information, we would ask that you edit the report with a text editor before sending and provide a summary of any excised information. We would recommend that any log files contained in the report are left in full, as these often contain diagnostic messages that indicate the source of the problem.