In short
Alcazar is a desktop app, not a cloud service. Your cases, the people you follow and everything you collect are kept on your own computer. There is no Alcazar account, no server of ours in the middle, and no telemetry: the app does not tell us what you do with it.
Your data stays with you
Each case is stored in a database file in your Windows user folder, and nothing in it is uploaded anywhere. Maps you import are read from your own disk, and reports are written to where you save them.
Because the data lives on your machine, it is as safe as that machine. We recommend BitLocker, or another full disk encryption, on any computer that holds an investigation, and a Windows account of its own for the work.
What the app connects to
For live layers, Alcazar asks public sources for data directly from your machine. What it sends is a request for the data, such as the aircraft in an area, never your case files. The sources it reaches today:
- Maps: OpenFreeMap
- Terrain: Terrain Tiles on AWS
- Aircraft: adsb.lol
- Satellites: CelesTrak
- Fires: NASA FIRMS
- Earthquakes: USGS
- Launches: The Space Devs
- Place search: Photon, by Komoot
- Ships: AISStream, with your own key
- Satellite imagery: Esri ArcGIS, with your own key
A place search sends the name you type to the geocoder, so it can find it. The app's interface is locked to a fixed list of these addresses and cannot load content from anywhere else.
Without a connection, Alcazar still opens your cases, your imported maps and your reports. The live layers wait until you are back online.
Your keys
Some sources ask for a key of your own. Alcazar keeps each one in Windows Credential Manager, the store Windows uses for its own passwords, never in a plain file and never in the app's interface. The key goes only to the service it belongs to, and you can remove it in Settings at any time.
Your footprint online
The investigation tools run on your own machine, so your searches never pass through us. That also means each site a tool checks sees a request from your internet connection, as it would if you visited it yourself.
If the people you research must not see where the interest comes from, work through a VPN or a separate connection, and follow your organisation's rules for open source research.
This website
This site sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads nothing from other companies. The only data it collects is what you send through the contact form. Our Privacy Policy covers it in full.
Reporting a problem
If you find a security weakness in Alcazar or this website, please write to alcazarsystems@gmail.com before making it public, with enough detail for us to see it for ourselves. We will reply, keep you posted while we fix it, and credit you if you would like.