Privacy — what Screen Studio sends and what it never sends
Updated 2026-09-02 · v0.2.10
Screen Studio records and captures your screen, so "does this app send anything anywhere?" is exactly the right question to ask. This page lists everything that is sent, everything that is not, and how to turn it off.
Your videos, screenshots and screen content never leave your Mac. The app sends anonymous counters only — things like "a recording just finished, it was 42 seconds long" — so we know which features people actually use. One checkbox turns it off, no restart needed.
What is sent
The app sends counter events to Google Analytics 4. Each event carries the kind of action plus a little technical context — never content.
| Event | When | Carries |
|---|---|---|
app_first_open | First ever launch | — |
app_updated | After an update | previous version |
app_session_start | Every launch | — |
recording_started | Recording begins | capture mode, audio source, webcam on/off, keystroke overlay on/off, backdrop on/off, frame size |
recording_stopped | Recording ends | duration in seconds, number of clicks |
recording_discarded | Recording thrown away | duration in seconds |
screenshot_captured | Screenshot taken | capture mode, destination, image format, pixel size |
stitch_exported | Stitched image exported | number of shots |
export_finished | Video export done | format, resolution, aspect, audio on/off, clip count |
export_cancelled | Export cancelled | same as above |
export_failed | Export failed | same as above, plus the error type |
Every event also carries: app version, macOS version, CPU architecture (arm64 or x86_64), a session id and an engagement duration. That is the whole list.
What is never sent
- Screen content. No frames, no images, no thumbnails, no audio.
- File names or paths. Neither the names you choose nor the folders you save to.
- Anything you type. The keystroke overlay is drawn into the video on your machine; no character is ever transmitted.
- Machine identifiers. No serial number, no MAC address, no hostname, no username, no email.
- Error message text. When an export fails, the app reports the error type name — not its description, because descriptions can contain file paths.
How you are counted
To tell "one person launching the app ten times" apart from "ten people launching it once", the app generates a random id on first launch and keeps it. That id is not derived from anything about your Mac or about you, so it cannot be traced back to a person. Delete the app and reinstall and you get a new one.
How to turn it off
Open the menu bar panel, go to Settings → General → Privacy and uncheck Send anonymous usage statistics. It takes effect immediately, no restart. Once off, nothing is sent at all — every event re-checks the setting before sending.
Update checks
The app checks for new versions through Sparkle: on each launch it fetches a small XML file from our server on Cloudflare. That request carries no identifier, but like any HTTPS request the server sees an IP address and the app version in the user agent. This is the minimum required for auto-update to work and there is no setting to disable it.
macOS permissions the app asks for
| Permission | Used for | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Recording | Reading screen frames to record and capture | Yes |
| Input Monitoring | Knowing where you click and type, so auto-zoom can follow and keystrokes can be shown | Yes, for auto-zoom |
| Microphone | Recording your voice | No |
| Camera | The webcam bubble in your video | No |
| Notifications | Update available, export finished | No |
None of these send data anywhere. They only let the app read what it needs to build your video locally.
This website
screenstudio.dev uses Google Analytics to count visits and downloads. There are no forms, no accounts and no login cookies. Block it with any extension you like — the site works fine without it.
Nothing else
Screen Studio has no account system, no cloud sync, no email collection, no ads and no third-party tracking SDK beyond the Google Analytics above. Your videos and images live in the folders you choose — by default ~/Movies/ScreenStudio/ and ~/Pictures/ — and nowhere else.
Contact
Questions, or something here looks wrong: [email protected].
Try Screen Studio
Free for macOS 15 and later, on both Apple silicon and Intel. No account needed.
Download · v0.2.10