Code signing policy – wtWin, wtTux, wtMac and wtAnd

Windows: wtWin

Status: the installer is not signed. wtWin is a free hobby project; a code signing certificate costs money every year, and the free programme for open source projects requires a level of public visibility this project does not have yet. So Windows shows “Unknown publisher” on first launch: choose “More info” and “Run anyway”. Should that change, the release notes will say from which version on the installer is signed.

How the files are built: the installer wtWin-x.y.z.exe and the program file wtWin.exe inside it are built by GitHub Actions from the public source code of app4webtrees, never on a private computer. Download it only from the GitHub releases. The installer also contains unchanged upstream components: the Java runtime (Eclipse Temurin), PHP and webtrees.

Linux, macOS, Android

wtTux (.deb) and wtMac (.dmg) are not signed. Download them only from the GitHub releases; the release page lists the file sizes. On macOS choose “Open Anyway” under System Settings › Privacy & Security on first launch.

wtAnd (Android) is signed with the project’s own key. The APK on GitHub, in the app store and the one submitted to F-Droid are the same file, built reproducibly. Signing key, SHA-256: 93a5862d9c0f15e28b8ab649fbfa9969a9556e46e2500a66d4b557f350440255.

Team roles

Committers: Thomas Bugge (thobgg), the sole maintainer of the repository.
Reviewers: pull requests from other people – so far translations – are reviewed and merged by thobgg.

The GitHub account uses two-factor authentication.

Privacy

wtWin, wtTux and wtMac will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating them. In detail, the programs talk to:

Your own webtrees server – the address you enter at sign-in. That is where your family tree lives; nothing is sent anywhere else.
The family tree on this PC: webtrees and PHP run locally and listen on 127.0.0.1 only.
On request only: map tiles and place search from OpenStreetMap and Nominatim, place data from GOV, place images from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, and look-up links that open in your browser (GenWiki, Wikipedia, Archion, Matricula, archive portals). Each of these happens only when you open a map, search a place or click a link.
Update check: once a day the program fetches the current version number from wtwin.bgg-home.de/version.txt – one small text file, nothing is sent except the request. Switch it off under Help › Check for updates.

The programs keep no accounts and collect no usage data. The privacy policy of this website: Legal notice & privacy.

Installation and removal

The Windows installer installs per user without administrator rights, creates a start-menu entry and registers the link scheme wtwin:// for “Connect with wtWin” from webtrees. It replaces older versions by itself. Remove wtWin under Settings › Apps or with the uninstaller in the program folder; settings and a family tree on this PC stay in your user profile until you delete them.

Questions and security reports: GitHub issues or thomas@bgg-mail.de.