Knipper privacy policy
Last updated: 22 August 2026
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against the source. If a feature changes, this changes with it.
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The short version
Knipper does not collect anything. There is no account, no analytics, no
crash reporting, and no server belonging to Knipper. Your screenshots and
recordings stay on your Mac.
One feature can send data off your Mac, and only if you set it up
yourself: Translate. It is off until you choose a provider and enter a
key. Details below.
What stays on your Mac
- Screenshots and recordings. Saved where you tell Knipper to save
- them, plus a copy in Knipper's own Application Support folder for the
- History window. Deleting them from History deletes the files.
- Text read from your screenshots. Knipper reads text out of images
- using Apple's Vision framework, which runs on your Mac. It is used to
- search your history, to find things to act on, and to propose
- redactions. It is not sent anywhere.
- Spotlight index. If Spotlight indexing is on, the text of a
- screenshot is given to macOS Spotlight so you can find the image by
- words inside it. That index is part of macOS and stays on your Mac. You
- can turn this off in Settings, under Privacy.
- Settings. Stored in macOS user defaults on your Mac.
What can leave your Mac, and only if you set it up
Translate. Knipper has no translation service of its own. If you want
to translate text in a screenshot, you choose a provider, enter your own
API key, and Knipper sends the selected text to that provider so it can
be translated. That text leaves your Mac and is handled under that
provider's privacy policy, not this one. Knipper is not affiliated with
any of them.
- Translate is off until you configure it.
- Only the text you translate is sent. Never the image, and never
- anything else.
- Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain, not in a settings file.
- Knipper never transmits your key anywhere except to the provider you
- chose, as that provider's API requires.
- If you would rather nothing left your Mac, point Knipper at a model
- running locally on your machine. It supports any OpenAI-compatible
- endpoint, including one on localhost.
Links you click. If Knipper finds a link, an address or a flight
number in a screenshot and you click that chip, your Mac opens it in your
browser or Maps the same way clicking any link does. Knipper does not
fetch it in the background. Flight chips open FlightAware.
What Knipper never does
- No analytics, telemetry, usage tracking, or crash reporting.
- No account, sign-in, or profile.
- No advertising and no advertising identifiers.
- No selling or sharing of data. There is no data to sell.
- No uploading of screenshots or recordings anywhere.
Permissions and why
- Screen Recording. Required. Without it macOS will not let any app
- capture the screen, which is the entire purpose of Knipper.
- Accessibility. Used to read the name of a control you click while
- recording steps, so a step can say "Click Save" instead of naming a
- coordinate, and to sense scroll position during a scrolling capture.
- Camera. Only if you turn on the webcam picture-in-picture for a
- recording.
- Microphone. Only if you record narration.
Each is requested when you first use the feature that needs it, and each
can be revoked in System Settings at any time. Revoking one disables that
feature, not the app.
Children
Knipper is not directed at children and collects nothing from anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes and the current
version is published at this URL.
Contact
Write to hello@knipwork.com.
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