Privacy Policy

Summary

AfterCut Studio is designed with privacy at its core. By default, the App processes recordings, edits, and captions locally on your Mac. The Mac App Store version does not collect, transmit, or store any data on external servers.

The website-distributed version uses PostHog (product analytics and feature flags) and Sentry (error tracking and logging), which receive a hardware-derived anonymous identifier, basic device information, and — in the case of PostHog — approximate location data derived from your IP address (such as country, region, city, and postal code area; see details below). It also offers opt-in features that send content to external services only when you explicitly choose to use them: Cloud Sharing (uploads the rendered video to AfterCut's cloud backend to produce a share link), Cloud Transcription (uploads microphone audio for caption generation), and YouTube Upload (uploads the rendered video to your YouTube channel via Google's APIs). These features are described in detail below.

Information We Do Not Collect

• We do not collect your name, email address, or full postal address. The website-distributed version's PostHog integration does receive approximate location derived from your IP address (country, region, city, and postal code area), as described under "Product Analytics & Feature Flags (PostHog)" below.
• We do not track your behavior outside the App
• We do not use advertising networks
• We do not sell or rent any information about you
• We do not automatically transmit your recordings, project files, or other content to external servers. Content is only uploaded when you explicitly use an opt-in feature (Cloud Sharing, Cloud Transcription, or YouTube Upload), and only the content you select for that action is sent.

Data Stored Locally on Your Device

The App stores the following data exclusively on your Mac. This data never leaves your device and is fully under your control.

Recordings and Projects

• Screen recordings (video and audio files) are saved to the output directory you choose
• Project files (containing editing metadata such as zoom sections, captions, timeline segments, and background settings) are stored in your Application Support directory
• Cursor position data collected during recording is stored within project files for the purpose of generating automatic zoom animations

User Preferences

The App stores your preferences locally using macOS standard storage (UserDefaults), including:

• Output directory location
• Video codec and frame rate settings
• Zoom, background, and camera overlay preferences
• Hotkey configuration
• Selected camera and microphone devices
• Launch at login preference

License Key (Website Distribution Only)

If you purchased AfterCut Studio outside the Mac App Store, your license key is stored locally on your device. License validation is performed by contacting the Polar.sh licensing service (see "Network Access" below for details).

Screen Recording Data

AfterCut Studio captures screen content solely at the user's request for the purpose of creating video recordings. All screen recording data is stored locally on the user's device and is never transmitted to external servers or shared with third parties. Users retain full control over their recordings and may delete them at any time.

Device Permissions

AfterCut Studio requests the following macOS permissions, each for a specific and necessary purpose:

• Screen Recording permission is required for the App to function.
• Microphone, Camera, and Speech Recognition permissions are optional and only requested when you use features that need them.
• By default, speech recognition is performed using Apple's on-device speech recognition framework, and audio is processed locally on your Mac. The App also offers an optional Cloud Transcription feature (website version only) that uploads your microphone audio to AfterCut's backend for processing — this is described in the "Cloud Transcription" section below and is only used when you explicitly choose it.
• You can revoke any permission at any time through macOS System Settings > Privacy & Security.

Network Access

Mac App Store Version

The Mac App Store version of AfterCut Studio has no network access capabilities. It cannot connect to the internet for any purpose. Updates are delivered solely through the Mac App Store.

Website Version

The website-distributed version makes the following network requests:

Software Updates (Sparkle)

The App periodically checks for updates by contacting https://cdn.aftercut.studio/appcast.xml. This request retrieves a version manifest (XML file) containing version numbers, download URLs, and cryptographic signatures. No personal data, device identifiers, or usage information is transmitted during this check. You can disable automatic update checks in the App's preferences.

License Validation (Polar.sh)

The App validates your license key by contacting the Polar.sh licensing service. During activation and validation, the App transmits:

• Your license key
• A hardware identifier derived from your Mac's IOPlatformUUID. Polar.sh uses this to bind a single license to a specific device, so a license cannot be shared across multiple machines beyond your activation limit.
• Your Mac's computer name (the "localized name" shown in System Settings > General > About, e.g. "Vlad's MacBook Pro"). This is used as a human-readable label so you can identify each activation in your Polar.sh customer portal.

No recordings, project data, captions, audio, or behavioral usage information is sent to Polar.sh. Polar.sh is a third-party service with its own privacy policy, available at https://polar.sh/legal/privacy. We do not control the data practices of Polar.sh beyond what is transmitted by the App (listed above).

Product Analytics & Feature Flags (PostHog)

The App uses PostHog to evaluate feature flags (which control access to features such as YouTube Upload based on your app configuration) and to capture a small set of product events that help us understand which features are used and where errors occur. PostHog receives:

• A hardware-derived anonymous identifier (your Mac's IOPlatformUUID), used as the PostHog "distinct ID" so feature-flag evaluations and events are consistent across launches on the same device. This identifier is not linked to your name or email.
• Your license key, attached as a person property so we can apply different feature flags or entitlements to licensed users. (PostHog is the only service other than Polar.sh and AfterCut's own backend that receives the license key.)
• A marketing channel tag (a non-personal string identifying which distribution build of the App you installed, e.g. "uneed" or the default channel).
• Standard device information collected by the PostHog SDK (app version, operating system version, device model, locale).
• Approximate location data derived automatically by PostHog from the IP address that your request originates from. This typically resolves to a country, region (state), city, postal code area, and approximate latitude/longitude at city-level precision, along with the local time zone. PostHog performs this lookup server-side as part of its standard event-ingestion pipeline; the App itself does not query your location or use macOS Location Services. We use this data only to understand which regions our users come from in aggregate. PostHog's geolocation behaviour is documented at https://posthog.com/docs/data/geoip.
• A small set of product events describing feature usage and errors, such as: license activation succeeded/failed/deactivated, YouTube sign-in completed/cancelled/failed, transcription started / completed / failed, and cloud transcription started. These events do not contain the contents of your recordings, captions, or audio.

PostHog does not receive your recordings, project files, cursor/keyboard data, audio, or captions. PostHog's privacy policy is available at https://posthog.com/privacy.

Error Tracking & Diagnostic Logging (Sentry)

The App uses Sentry to help us identify and fix issues. Sentry data is hosted in the European Union (Sentry's German region). Sentry receives:

• Crash reports and errors generated by the App, including stack traces, error messages, and performance traces (transactions and spans).
• Structured diagnostic logs generated by the App during normal operation. The App's internal logger is configured to forward log messages (informational, warning, and error level) to Sentry on a continuous basis, not only when a crash occurs. These logs describe what the App is doing internally (e.g. "export started", "transcription completed"), not the contents of your recordings.
• Device information: macOS version, hardware model, processor brand, total memory, available disk space, app version, selected camera and microphone device names, and configured codec / frame-rate settings.
• Project diagnostics when you submit a bug report from inside the App: counts of timeline elements (video segments, zoom sections, captions, cursor and keyboard events), frame dimensions, zoom factor, background type, video duration, and file system paths to the recorded video and camera files on your Mac, along with their file sizes. We use this to reproduce reported bugs. Bug reports do not include the actual audio or video content of your recordings, your captions text, or your cursor coordinates.
• A truncated form of your license key (first 4 and last 4 characters only, e.g. ABCD…WXYZ) attached to bug reports, so we can match a report to your account when providing support without storing the full key in Sentry.

Sentry does not receive the contents of your recordings, your project files, your audio, your captions text, or your full license key. Sentry's privacy policy is available at https://sentry.io/privacy.

Cloud Sharing (Optional)

AfterCut Studio includes an optional Cloud Sharing feature that produces a shareable link for a finished video. This feature is only used when you explicitly choose "Share Link" (or an equivalent cloud-share action) in the export flow. If you do not use this feature, no video data leaves your Mac.

When you use Cloud Sharing, the App contacts AfterCut's backend at https://api.aftercut.studio and transmits:

• The rendered video file, uploaded directly to object storage as multiple multipart chunks using short-lived presigned URLs.
• Optional thumbnail and preview GIF images generated from the video, used to render link previews.
• Basic metadata about the upload: a title (defaulting to the project name), the original filename, content type, project identifier, video duration, and file size.
• Your license key and activation identifier, sent as HTTP headers, so the backend can verify you are authorized to use the cloud-share feature. (A separate "Uneed" public-share variant does not require a license key.)

Cloud-shared videos are stored on infrastructure operated by AfterCut Studio. You can delete a cloud-shared video at any time from within the App or by contacting support. Cloud Sharing is not available in the Mac App Store version.

Cloud Transcription (Optional)

In addition to Apple's on-device speech recognition, AfterCut Studio offers an optional Cloud Transcription path that may produce more accurate captions for some accents and languages. This feature is only used when you explicitly choose cloud-based caption generation in the captions tab. If you only use the default on-device transcription, no audio leaves your Mac.

When you use Cloud Transcription, the App:

• Extracts the microphone audio for the recording into a temporary M4A file on your Mac.
• Uploads that audio file to https://api.aftercut.studio/transcriptions as a multipart HTTP request, along with your license key (sent as an HTTP header) and a recording identifier so the resulting captions can be matched to the correct project.
• Receives the generated caption text in response and stores it locally as part of your project file.
• Deletes the temporary audio file from your Mac after the upload completes.

The App does not upload your screen recording, camera video, project file, cursor data, or keyboard events for transcription — only the microphone audio you have already recorded. Cloud Transcription is not available in the Mac App Store version.

YouTube Upload (Optional)

AfterCut Studio includes an optional YouTube Upload feature that lets you publish a finished video directly to your YouTube channel. This feature uses YouTube API Services. By using it you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. Google's handling of any data you provide to YouTube is governed by the Google Privacy Policy. YouTube Upload is not available in the Mac App Store version.

How sign-in works. When you connect your YouTube account, the App opens a Google sign-in page in a secure system browser session and uses the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow with PKCE. The App never sees your Google password.

Scopes we request. The App requests only the scopes it needs:

• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload — to upload videos to your YouTube channel on your behalf.
• https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly — to look up your channel's basic profile (channel ID, channel title, and thumbnail URL) so it can be displayed in the App as the upload destination.

What we send to Google / YouTube. When you upload a video:

• The rendered video file you have chosen to upload.
• The video metadata you enter in the upload form: title, description, tags, category, privacy setting (private / unlisted / public), and "made for kids" status.
• An optional custom thumbnail image, if you provide one.
• Your OAuth tokens, used by Google to authorize the upload against your account.

What we store locally on your Mac.

• A long-lived OAuth refresh token, stored in the macOS Keychain so you do not have to sign in again for every upload.
• A short-lived access token cache, stored in the macOS Keychain.
• Your YouTube channel ID, channel title, and thumbnail URL, cached in the App's preferences so the destination channel can be displayed without a network round-trip every time.

How we use, store, and share YouTube data. We use the YouTube data described above solely to perform the upload you have requested and to display the destination channel in the App. We do not store your YouTube data on our servers, we do not share it with any third party, and we do not use it for advertising or profile building. Your video and its metadata are sent directly from the App to Google's servers; AfterCut's backend is not in the upload path for YouTube.

Revoking access. You can revoke AfterCut Studio's access to your Google account at any time from the Google Account permissions page at https://myaccount.google.com/permissions. Doing so invalidates the refresh token stored on your Mac. You can also clear the locally stored tokens and channel cache from inside the App by signing out in the YouTube tab of the editor sidebar; this removes the refresh token from the macOS Keychain.

Limited Use. AfterCut Studio's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Third-Party Services

AfterCut Studio does not integrate with any advertising networks. The App uses Apple system frameworks (AVFoundation, ScreenCaptureKit, CoreImage, MetalKit, SwiftUI, AppKit, and Speech). The website-distributed version additionally uses the following third-party services. Each is described in detail in the "Network Access" section above.

• Sparkle — an open-source macOS update framework, for checking and delivering app updates.
• Polar.sh — a licensing service, used for license-key activation and validation. Receives your license key, a hardware identifier, and your Mac's computer name.
• PostHog — a product analytics and feature-flag platform. Receives a hardware-derived anonymous identifier, your license key, marketing channel, basic device info, IP-derived approximate location (country, region, city, postal code area), and a small set of product events.
• Sentry — an error tracking and diagnostic-logging platform (data hosted in the EU). Receives crashes, errors, structured logs, device information, and (on bug-report submission) project diagnostics including file paths and a truncated license key.
• AfterCut Cloud Backend (api.aftercut.studio) — used only for the optional Cloud Sharing and Cloud Transcription features. Receives the rendered video or microphone audio you choose to upload, plus your license key.
• Google / YouTube — used only for the optional YouTube Upload feature, via Google OAuth and the YouTube Data API. Receives the video you choose to upload, the metadata you enter (title, description, tags, etc.), and your OAuth tokens.

None of these services receives the contents of your recordings, audio, or project files unless you explicitly use a feature that uploads that content (Cloud Sharing, Cloud Transcription, or YouTube Upload). PostHog, Sentry, Polar.sh, and the AfterCut Cloud Backend receive your license key (Sentry receives only a truncated form of it).

Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade any information about you, and we do not share any data with advertising networks or data brokers. We share information with third parties only as described in the "Network Access" and "Third-Party Services" sections above, and only as needed to provide the corresponding feature:

• Your license key, hardware identifier, and computer name are shared with Polar.sh for license activation and validation.
• A hardware-derived anonymous identifier, your license key, basic device information, IP-derived approximate location (country, region, city, postal code area), and a small set of product events are shared with PostHog for product analytics and feature-flag evaluation.
• Crash reports, diagnostic logs, device information, and (on bug-report submission) project diagnostics plus a truncated license key are shared with Sentry for error tracking.
• A rendered video and basic upload metadata are shared with AfterCut's cloud backend only when you use Cloud Sharing.
• Microphone audio is shared with AfterCut's cloud backend only when you use Cloud Transcription.
• A rendered video and the metadata you enter are shared with Google / YouTube only when you use YouTube Upload.

We may also disclose information if required to do so by law (for example, in response to a valid subpoena), or to protect the rights, safety, or property of AfterCut Studio or its users.

Data Retention and Deletion

All data created by AfterCut Studio is stored locally on your device. You have full control over this data:

• Recordings: Delete them directly from Finder at your chosen output directory.
• Project files: Located in ~/Library/Application Support/com.aftercut.studio/. Delete them at any time.
• Preferences: Automatically removed when you uninstall the App, or you can reset them manually via macOS defaults.
• Uninstalling the App removes all application data. To ensure complete removal, also delete the Application Support folder mentioned above.

Children's Privacy

AfterCut Studio is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The data the App does transmit (such as a hardware-derived identifier, a license key, or basic device information) is not used to identify or contact individuals and is tied to a Mac, not to a person. If you believe a child has provided information to us through AfterCut Studio, please contact us at the address below and we will take appropriate action.

International Users

AfterCut Studio is offered worldwide. Most data created with the App stays on your Mac. The data that does leave your Mac may be processed in countries other than the one you are located in:

• Sentry data is processed in the European Union (Sentry's German region).
• PostHog data is processed in the United States.
• Polar.sh processes license data according to its own privacy policy.
• AfterCut's cloud backend (api.aftercut.studio) and the underlying object storage may process data in multiple regions.
• Google / YouTube processes uploads according to the Google Privacy Policy.

By using the App and its optional cloud features, you consent to your data being transferred to and processed in these locations.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected in the "Last Updated" date at the top of this document. Continued use of the App after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

• Email: support@aftercut.studio
• Website: https://www.aftercut.studio