Last updated 13 September 2026
With your permission, Exorcise reads your Photos library so it can show your photos, group them by person, create albums, and move the photos you confirm to Recently Deleted. macOS asks for this permission itself, and you can change it any time in System Settings.
Apple offers no programming interface for the People that the Photos app recognizes, so Exorcise also reads the names and face locations that Photos has already saved inside your Photos library, in your Pictures folder. This happens on a temporary copy of the library's index, opened read only. The app never writes to your Photos library files, and it does none of its own face recognition on your behalf. It only reads what Photos already knew.
A small technical status file inside the app's own private container, so problems can be diagnosed if something goes wrong. It contains counts and version details, never photos, names or faces. Deleting the app removes it. Nothing else is stored.
Every deletion goes through the standard macOS confirmation dialog, which lists what will be removed. Confirmed photos move to the Recently Deleted album in Photos, where you can restore them for 30 days. Exorcise cannot delete anything without that dialog, and the album option deletes nothing at all.
None. The app is built without network permission, which macOS enforces. If a photo's full quality copy lives in iCloud, Apple's own Photos system fetches it; Exorcise just asks Photos for the image the same way any photo app does.
If the app ever changes in a way that affects privacy, this page will be updated and the date above will change. Since the app collects nothing, there is not much room for surprises.
Questions? Open an issue on GitHub.