Which permissions does Flick need?

Accessibility

Accessibility is how macOS lets an app read and act on other apps' windows, so it's the one permission Flick can't work without. Flick uses it to:

• List your windows: each window's app, title, position and Space, and the file and folder names of the document it shows, when its app reports one, so search can find it.
• Switch to the one you pick, on any Space, restoring it from the Dock or showing its hidden app first.
• Close or minimize a window when you ask it to.

Flick gets window titles over Accessibility, as text, so it never needs to capture the screen to read them. What it reads stays in memory while it runs and is never saved or sent. What Flick reads

Flick never pops up the macOS request by itself: Grant Accessibility Permissions in the welcome window asks macOS and opens the right page of System Settings, where you turn Flick on. Flick notices within a second, with no restart. Turn on Accessibility, step by step

It's a broad permission. Apple's guide notes that giving an app this access also gives it access to your contacts, calendar and other information, and advises allowing it only for apps you know and trust. What the Accessibility permission covers

Automation

Automation lets one app control another. Flick needs it only for browser tabs, which come with a license, and only for the browsers you turn on: Safari, Google Chrome, Google Chrome Beta, Brave Browser and Microsoft Edge. Every browser is off until you turn it on, and Flick never sends a browser anything before then.

• When macOS asks: once per browser, after you turn it on in Settings › Browser Tabs. If that browser isn't open, macOS asks the next time you open it while Flick is running. Safari is read only while Include private windows is on, so that's when macOS asks about Safari.
• What the request says: Flick's reason, in its own words: “Flick reads the titles and addresses of your open tabs so you can search them and switch straight to one. Nothing leaves your Mac.”
• What Flick does with it: reads each tab's title and address, keeping only the site and path, and switches to the tab you pick. It never opens a browser that isn't running, and never closes or moves tabs.

Said no? Settings › Browser Tabs shows that Flick isn't allowed to control that browser, with Open Privacy Settings. Allow Flick to control a browser

Not needed: Screen Recording and Input Monitoring

Screen Recording (Screen & System Audio Recording in System Settings) lets an app record what's on your screen. Flick shows no window previews and never captures the screen: titles come over Accessibility, and the optional window locator, which outlines the selected window, reads only where windows are, never what they show. What Screen Recording allows

Input Monitoring lets an app watch your keyboard, mouse or trackpad while you use other apps. Flick's shortcuts don't need it, and Flick never asks for it.

Flick doesn't ask for any other privacy permission either: no Full Disk Access, contacts, calendars, location, camera or microphone.

Review or remove a permission

1. Open Privacy & Security

   Choose Apple menu › System Settings, then click Privacy & Security in the sidebar. The steps are the same on macOS 14 Sonoma and later.

2. Accessibility

   Click Accessibility (you may need to scroll) and turn off the switch next to Flick. To remove Flick from the list, select it and click −. Flick notices within 5 seconds and stops listing windows; with the ⌘Tab trigger, macOS gets ⌘Tab back.

3. Automation

   Click Automation, find Flick and turn off the switch for a browser. Flick stops reading that browser's tabs. To stop Flick contacting a browser without touching System Settings, turn the browser off in Flick's Settings › Browser Tabs instead.

To clear Flick's answers for every browser at once, run this in Terminal. To use a browser's tabs again afterwards, click Allow… next to it in Settings › Browser Tabs. Reset Automation, step by step

tccutil reset AppleEvents com.flicknav.flick

Questions