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Recap Privacy Policy

Effective November 4, 2026

Recap is a macOS screen recorder made by Sébastien Therriault. It records your screen and camera, lets you edit the video, and uploads it to your YouTube channel when you choose to. This policy explains what data Recap uses, where it goes, and how to remove it.

The short version

  • Your recordings stay on your Mac. A video only goes to YouTube when you press Upload.
  • There is no Recap server, no analytics and no tracking.
  • Your sign-in details are stored only on your Mac, in a file only your macOS user account can read.
  • AI features are off by default. When on, only the text transcript is sent, never video or audio.
  • No data is sold or shared with third parties.

Your recordings

Recordings, thumbnails and the details you add to a video (title, company, role, contact, tags and notes) are saved on your Mac in ~/Movies/Recap/. They are never sent anywhere except when you press Upload, which sends that video, its title, its thumbnail and its playlist choices to your YouTube channel. The private details (company, role, contact, tags and notes) are never uploaded.

Google and YouTube data

To upload videos, Recap asks you to sign in with Google and grant one permission, the YouTube scope (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube). Recap uses it only to:

  • upload the videos you choose to your YouTube channel;
  • set those videos' privacy (Unlisted by default), thumbnails and playlists;
  • read your videos' titles and view counts to show them in Recap's library.

Recap only talks to Google directly from your Mac. The sign-in tokens Google gives Recap are stored only on your Mac, in ~/Library/Application Support/Recap/, in a file only your macOS user account can read. Recap does not send your Google data to any server of its own (there isn't one), does not use it for advertising, and does not share, sell or transfer it to anyone.

Recap's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

YouTube API Services

Recap uses YouTube API Services to upload your videos and manage them on your channel. By using Recap's YouTube features, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service. Google handles the data it receives under the Google Privacy Policy.

The YouTube data Recap keeps on your Mac is limited to your own videos' IDs, titles, view and like counts, and your playlist names. View and like counts are refreshed from YouTube at most every 30 minutes while Recap is open. Disconnecting YouTube in Recap's Settings revokes Recap's access with Google and deletes the cached counts and playlist names.

Transcription

Recap transcribes your recordings to find long silences and filler words. Transcription runs on your Mac when your Mac supports it. If it doesn't, Apple's speech recognition service is used, under Apple's privacy policy.

AI features (optional)

AI features are off by default. If you turn them on and add your own Anthropic API key, Recap sends only the text transcript of a recording to Anthropic's Claude API, to flag retakes and filler words and to suggest a title. Video and audio are never sent. Your API key is stored only on your Mac, in the same private file as the Google sign-in. Anthropic handles that text under Anthropic's privacy policy.

Who Recap talks to

Recap connects only to Google (to sign in and to use the YouTube API) and, if you turn on AI features, to Anthropic. It has no analytics, no crash reporting and no tracking of any kind.

Removing your data

  • You can remove Recap's access to your Google account at any time, by clicking Disconnect in Recap's Settings or on Google's security settings page.
  • Deleting the app, the ~/Movies/Recap/ folder and the ~/Library/Application Support/Recap/ folder removes everything else Recap stored on your Mac.
  • Videos you uploaded stay on your YouTube channel until you delete them there.

See also the Recap Terms of Use.

Changes to this policy

If Recap starts handling data differently, this page will be updated and the effective date above will change.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: sebastien.therriault1@gmail.com