Privacy and your data
Your recordings stay on your Mac. Transcription runs on your Mac too. Something only leaves when you choose to: AI narration sends your script lines to ElevenLabs or HeyGen with your own key, and a share link uploads that one video.
What stays on your Mac
- Recordings and projects. Your screen, camera and sound stay in your projects, on your disk.
- Transcription. Speech is turned into words on your Mac, with a model downloaded once or with Apple's own speech recognition.
- Editing and export. Everything is made on your Mac.
What leaves it, and when
| When | What is sent | Where |
|---|---|---|
| You click Speak all with AI voice | The text of your narration lines | ElevenLabs, with your key |
| You click Present all | The text of your lines and their speech | HeyGen, with your key |
| You make a Share link | That video, its poster, title, chapters and button | Cinemac's share server, or your own if you set one up |
| You download a transcription model | Nothing about you, it's a download | Hugging Face |
Nothing else is sent. Your recording itself is never sent to the AI services. Only what you share leaves your Mac.
Your keys
API keys are kept in the macOS Keychain, not in your projects, and each key is sent only to the service it belongs to.
Permissions
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Screen Recording | Recording your screen. The only one Cinemac needs. |
| Microphone and Camera | Your voice and your camera. |
| Input Monitoring | Your clicks and keys, which drive automatic zooms and keys on screen. |
| Accessibility | Resizing a window before you record it, and reading the name of what you click (such as a Publish button) so Cinemac can write callouts. Password fields are never read. |
You can turn off Record the characters I type in Settings › Recording. Then only shortcuts like ⌘C are recorded, never the text you type. Turn off Note what I click there too, and Cinemac stops noting what each click lands on. The names it notes stay in the recording on your Mac. See Permissions.