Privacy Policy · ScreenForm

01

Who we are

ScreenForm is a macOS application built and maintained by an independent developer. It is not a company. In this policy, "we", "us", and "ScreenForm" mean the developer and the project, and "you" means the person using the app.

The way to reach us about anything in this document is developeraarush8@gmail.com. We read it, and we answer.

This policy covers the ScreenForm macOS app and the ScreenForm website. It does not cover the other applications on your Mac that you happen to point ScreenForm at, or the websites you visit.

02

Permissions ScreenForm asks for

macOS requires your explicit consent before an app can do any of the following. You grant each one in System Settings, and you can withdraw any of them at any time, which will disable the matching feature rather than the whole app.

Screen Recording. Required. Without it macOS will not let ScreenForm see any pixels, so the core feature cannot work. ScreenForm uses this permission only in the moment you draw a selection.
Accessibility. Used to detect which application is in front and to read the text of the element you selected where the app exposes it. This produces better answers than pixels alone.
Automation. Used only if you want browser context. It asks your browser for the URL of the active tab so an answer about a web page can be grounded in the page you are actually on.
Input monitoring. Used to detect the global shortcut. ScreenForm watches for the modifier combination that opens the overlay. It does not log what you type, and it does not record keystrokes into other applications.
Network access. Used to send a question to the model provider and to check for updates.

Denying Screen Recording stops ScreenForm from functioning. Denying Accessibility, Automation, or Input monitoring degrades specific features but leaves the rest of the app usable.

03

When ScreenForm reads your screen

Only when you hold the shortcut and draw a closed shape. There is no background capture, no capture on a timer, no capture on app launch, and no capture when the overlay is not visible.

Capture is designed to be impossible to perform by accident or to miss when it happens. Three things appear together: a full-screen overlay, the dimming of everything outside your selection, and an animated stroke around the region. If those three things are not on your screen, ScreenForm is not reading it.

ScreenForm captures the region you drew. It does not capture other displays, other windows behind the one you selected, or anything outside the shape.

04

What stays on your Mac

The work of understanding your screen happens locally. None of the following is transmitted to us as a separate event, and none of it is stored on our servers:

Optical character recognition. Text is extracted from the captured region using the OCR built into macOS, on your device.
Layout and content detection, meaning the decision about whether you circled a table, a block of text, or a chart.
The name of the frontmost application and the title of its window.
The path of the file open in your editor, where the editor exposes it.
Your settings, shortcut preferences, and interface options.
Your own API key, if you provide one. See section 07.

05

What leaves your Mac

Exactly one network call is made per question you ask, and it happens only after you press Return. Here is the full contents of that call.

Item	Sent?	Why
The image of the region you circled	Sent	The model needs to see what you selected in order to answer about it
The instruction you typed	Sent	It is the question
Text recovered by on-device OCR	Sent	Improves accuracy over the image alone, particularly for small text and numbers
Name of the frontmost app, window title	Sent	Grounds the answer in what you are doing
URL of the active browser tab	Sent	Only when you have granted Automation and the selection is in a browser
Earlier turns in the same conversation	Sent	So follow-up questions make sense
Anything outside your selection	Stays	It is never captured in the first place
Your files, clipboard, or browsing history	Stays	ScreenForm does not read them
Keystrokes in other applications	Stays	ScreenForm does not record them
Your API key, if you supply one	Stays	Held in the macOS Keychain and sent only to the model provider, never to us

Where that call goes depends on which plan you are on, which is the subject of the next two sections.

06

The free plan and our proxy

On the free plan, your request passes through a server we operate before reaching the model provider. We do this so that no shared provider key has to be shipped inside the app, and so we can count your monthly actions.

This means that on the free plan, the contents listed in section 05 pass through our infrastructure in transit. We use them to forward your request, to enforce the monthly limit, and to investigate abuse or a fault you report to us. We do not use them to train models, we do not sell them, and we do not build advertising profiles from them.

If you would rather no request of yours touched our servers at all, use your own API key. That path skips us entirely.

07

Using your own API key

You can supply your own Anthropic API key. When you do:

The key is stored in the macOS Keychain, which is encrypted and controlled by the operating system rather than by us.
The key is never transmitted to us, and it is not included in crash reports or diagnostics.
Requests go directly from your Mac to Anthropic. They do not pass through our proxy, and we do not see their contents, their volume, or their timing.
Your use is then governed by your own agreement with Anthropic, including their privacy and data retention terms. We are not a party to that relationship.

Removing your key from ScreenForm deletes it from the Keychain entry the app controls. It does not revoke the key at Anthropic, which you should do from your Anthropic account if the key has been exposed.

08

Web search

Some answers need current information, such as a price, a version number, or a quote. When that happens, a search query derived from your question is sent to a search provider, and the results are used to ground the answer. Sources are shown to you so you can check them.

The search query may contain terms taken from your selection. If you are working with confidential material and would rather that never happen, you can disable web search in ScreenForm's settings, and no search request will be made.

09

Account information

The free plan requires you to sign in with Google so we can attach the monthly action count to someone. From that sign-in we receive your email address, your name, and your Google account identifier. We do not receive your Google password, and we do not request access to your Gmail, Drive, Calendar, or Contacts.

We use this information to identify your account, to count your actions, and to email you about service matters such as an outage or a change to these documents. We do not sell it.

If you use your own API key, you do not need an account, and you can use ScreenForm without giving us your email address at all.

10

How long we keep things

Captured images on your Mac. Held in a temporary location for the life of the session and deleted when the session ends or the app quits.
Request contents passing through our proxy. Retained for 30 days for abuse investigation and fault diagnosis, then deleted.
Account records. Kept while your account exists. Deleted within 30 days of you asking us to close it.
Monthly action counts. Kept for the current and previous month so the free allowance can be enforced, then deleted.
Crash and diagnostic reports. Retained for 90 days. These contain technical state, not screen contents.

11

Who else is involved

We rely on a small number of other companies to run the service. Each receives only what it needs to perform its function.

Anthropic. Processes your question and returns the answer.
Google. Handles sign-in for free plan accounts.
[Hosting provider]. Runs the proxy and this website.
[Search provider]. Serves web search results.

There is no payment processor, because ScreenForm never charges you. The free plan is free, and if you use your own API key you pay Anthropic directly. We never see or store card details.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We may disclose information if we are legally compelled to, and we will tell you when we are permitted to tell you.

12

Your choices and rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to obtain a portable copy, to object to certain processing, or to complain to a data protection authority. Residents of the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom have these rights under the GDPR. Residents of California have comparable rights under the CCPA, including the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them.

To exercise any of these, write to developeraarush8@gmail.com. We will respond within the time the applicable law allows, and normally sooner.

Beyond the legal mechanisms, the practical controls are in the app: revoke a macOS permission, turn off web search, switch to your own API key, or quit the app, which stops it doing anything at all.

Our legal bases for processing, where the GDPR applies, are performance of our contract with you for answering your questions and maintaining your account, and our legitimate interests in preventing abuse and keeping the service running.

13

Children

ScreenForm is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

14

Security

Traffic between your Mac, our proxy, and the model provider is encrypted in transit using TLS. Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain rather than in a preferences file. Access to our infrastructure is limited to people who need it.

No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. If we become aware of a breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authority as the law requires.

15

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, so you have the chance to stop using ScreenForm if you disagree.

16

Contact us

Everything reaches the same inbox: developeraarush8@gmail.com. Privacy questions, rights requests, bug reports, and anything else all go there. If you are exercising a legal right, say so in the subject line so it does not get lost.

ScreenForm is an independent project rather than a registered company, so email is the way to reach us. If you need to correspond another way to exercise a legal right, say so in your message and we will work it out with you.

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