Legal

Privacy

Last updated: July 2026

This website

smergevj.com is a static site. It sets no cookies, runs no ad trackers, and collects no personal information. Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs (IP address, requested page, timestamp) for security and operations, as virtually all web hosts do.

Demo videos are embedded via YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode and load only after you click play. Once playing, YouTube's ownprivacy policy applies.

The SMERGE application

SMERGE runs entirely on your Mac. It does not include analytics or telemetry, and it does not transmit your media, presets, or performance data anywhere.

If you use the AI Shader Generator with a cloud provider (Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini), your text prompt is sent directly from your machine to that provider using your own API key, under that provider's privacy terms. Using a local Ollama model keeps everything on your computer. API keys are stored locally and never pass through our servers — we don't have any.

Camera, microphone, and screen-recording permissions are used live, in the moment, for the features that need them, and nothing captured is uploaded.

Email

If you email us, we'll use your address to reply and for nothing else. We don't operate a mailing list at this time; if we start one, it will be opt-in.

Contact

Questions: hello@smergevj.com · Aorta Apps