Show HN: Someone Was Here – Find out who used your Mac while you were away
someonewashere.appMany thanks to my ex for inspiring my new MacOS app, Someone Was Here.
It takes a photo of whoever uses your Mac while you're away, whether you left it unlocked or they know your password, and sends their photo to your iPhone if the face isn't yours.
I built Someone Was Here as a menu bar app making use of Apple Vision and a local face recognition run via Core ML. It all runs locally on your Mac with no tracking or ads.
Real-time remote alerts are available via one-time $4.99 lifetime purchase via the free companion iPhone/iPad app, Pushover, ntfy, Telegram or a webhook.
This is great! I just installed this to keep an eye on a dodgy hotel maintenance staff.
But -- I'd love to be able to register wife as a person to ignore in the settings screen, as well as myself. What do you do with the calibration photos? Do you create a numerical representation of "me" from the various poses, or are you directly comparing to each enlisted photo to discard candidates?
If you're doing the former, then it'd be beneficial to have multiple person slots, since it'd be terrible for accuracy to enroll different faces into the same slot. If you're doing the latter, then it should be no problem to have different faces in different calibration photos.
I understand that the objective is to, pardon the language, detect the "creeps", but somehow the app itself feels creepy, too :/ Somehow I wouldn't feel comfortable even installing it. Not to mention my own privacy concerns.
I felt pretty violated when someone went through my Mac and personal data without my knowledge which is why I created this app. I see this much like a home security system with cameras: a way to know when someone accesses your space.
The app runs sandboxed, doesn't have access to your personal files, and meets Apple's privacy requirements as well as my own. That said, not everyone will be comfortable with it, and that's fine.
Or you could just buy a Yubikey
I mean, everyone can assemble an FTP server, why start Dropbox, right?
Sounds like this app is perfect for you.
I think this is a great idea, overall. It’s not perfect for me, because I’m not using macOS for a very long time now. Good luck to a random stranger figuring out how to use my highly custom SwayWM system.
You could just buy a Yubikey.
Or you could just buy a Yubikey
FileVault 2 exists for this reason?
Where is your Mac sitting that random people go through it? And it stays unlocked? My family had a shared iMac when I was a kid, but people still had their own accounts. Some of us may have known one or more other users' passwords, plus I had sudo, but that still prevented random people from going on.
This app looks like a funny and whimsical response to that experience (respect) but wouldn't a much simpler solution be to shut your laptop lid? :)
Edit: re-read the description and I suppose it makes sense if you share your password
How could this app feel creepy?
It's a security camera in a laptop.
If someone opens your laptop, who isn't you/shouldn't, you know.
How about the free DND (DoNotDisturb) [0] by Objective See foundation?
DND is a valid alternative! There's definitely overlap, including photo alerts. DND's detection is based on opening a MacBook's lid.
Someone Was Here also detects activity after idle, lock-screen interaction, and unlocks, so it covers an already-open laptop or a desktop Mac that has no "lid" as well.
It also recognizes your face locally to suppress alerts about yourself, and offers a multiple remote alert options, Shortcuts actions with Siri phrases, a webhook for integration, and an MCP server for agents.
Surprised no one is commenting on the fantastic design. Looked at the hero, within 2 seconds, I understood what you do. Nice work.
> Many thanks to my ex for inspiring my new MacOS app
story implied?
Oh yes...some relationships end in closure, others end in software.
Maybe in Clojure, even
Closure in Clojure
I'm a PC/Android guy but I'd love an app like this! I have kids but i don't want to always have to input a pin whenever i step away from the computer in my own home. They can use it when i say it's okay but I don't like them hopping on when I'm out (and watching Youtube videos instead of doing their homework)
I'm a Linux guy. At one point a co-worker was pranking me by repearedly putting a small plastic bag around my mouse while I was away, and nobody woild tell me who it was.
So I had ChatGPT write a quick Python script to take a picture through the camera whenever the mouse was moved, and quickly got them.
Kinda cool - Sentry mode for your mac. I'd say the use-case is a bit weird, though, since you should just lock the darn machine and no longer need this, but, if, for some reason you need to leave your machine unlocked (don't get why, though), I can see the benefit of this
Nice idea.
> Real-time remote alerts are available via one-time $4.99 lifetime purchase via the free companion iPhone/iPad app, Pushover, ntfy, Telegram or a webhook.
Instead of making users download 2 apps (one on the Mac and one on the iPhone), you should instead consider sending the alert by email (through Mail extensions) and / or iMessage (iMessage Extensions) - you can still charge for it.
Wouldn't messages syncing to all devices, which might be a concern if you wanted the detection to be covert and only get alerts on a devices you can trust to be on your person? i.e. the 'unrecognized person' won't see a new email coming in to tell them they've been spotted and prompt then to cover their tracks.
To this point, the app holds its own desktop notification until it recognizes your face again, and only then tells you who came by. Remote alerts are instant.
Slick!
That's a good point, and a use case scenario, I hadn't considered. Email could be sent through third-party services, without alerting the intruder, but an iMessage would indeed be harder to hide if syncing is enabled.
Fair suggestion! The real-time remote alerts are optional.
The companion app gives you encrypted delivery through your own iCloud account without involving my servers, but I can see the appeal of email. For anyone comfortable wiring things together, there’s also a built-in MCP server alongside webhooks, so there’s plenty of room for custom integrations.
My question is , does it actually keep the camera turned on Always??? And check against facial biometrics? Else how does it differentiate between the user and some random guy . Just a doubt and i hope its not what i think.
No, the camera isn't always on. It briefly activates when someone interacts with the lock screen, unlocks the Mac, or returns after an configurable idle period. The camera light comes on for every photo (required by MacOS).
It compares the photo against your photos take during the initial using face recognition entirely on your Mac. Face data never leaves the Mac; photos leave only through an alert destination you enable. I receive neither.
I’d pay for this for my iPhone.
How frequently does it take a photograph? How do you identify if someone else is using my mac. Although it sounds interesting, I'm a bit skeptical
It takes a photo on lock-screen activity, an unlock, or activity after an idle period (2 minutes by default). It doesn't continually photograph you while you work. If it detects someone else, it can take up to five follow-up photos, 90 seconds apart, while they remain active.
It identifies you by comparing against photos you take during setup, entirely on your Mac. The camera light comes on with every capture, and you can restrict detection to only lock-screen activity and unlocks.
This is so weird.
Like, ...
Lock your laptop when you stand up??
Why would anyone know your password? If they do, change it.
This advice is available for the low low price of $4.99/month.
Locking your Mac is good advice. This also records someone trying to use it while it's locked.
A lock prevents access; an audit trail tells you someone tried. Same reason people have both door locks and security cameras.
And to clarify the pricing: the Mac app and local history are free. Remote alerts are $4.99 once, not per month.
I guess it could help determine physical tampering. While you lock your computer, someone could stick something on the laptop or inside it such as a microphone, location tracker etc. That app will help for that type of situation. Perhaps unlikely situation but still within the realm of possibility.
Also could be cool to see if your "friends" + "family" try to access your locked computer.
Ctrl-command Q (and Win+L for Linux/Windows) is instinct at this point for me.
I love these totally self-assured advice that totally work in theory and dismiss any particularities in any household.
I look forward to a barrage of alerts with cat pictures.
Sounds like a feature to me, I'd love to get random pictures from my cat throughout the day!
Accidental cat monitoring is a feature I'm willing to take credit for. :)
“Alert when no face is in view” is on by default. Someone snooping might cover the camera, look away, or sit out of frame. Treating an empty frame as suspicious is the safe default for a security app. The trade-off is the occasional cat alert.
Turn it off if you'd rather limit notifications to human suspects. Cat actually appearing in the frame sold separately.
> whether you left it unlocked or they know your password
this is why mandatory security training is a thing.
protip: a habit of locking your doors is cheaper and more effective than cameras inside your house, too.
Do people really not lock their computers when they walk away? I mean we have touch id for crying out loud and if they know your PW, welp, you've authorized the use.