Privacy Policy
The core principle
Shotbox is a macOS desktop app, and everything it does happens on your Mac. OCR, titling, categorizing, and entity extraction all run on-device. Your screenshots and the text inside them never leave your device. There's no account, no signup, and no login. The app never uploads your screenshots or their content. We — the developer — don't collect anything that identifies you (anonymous usage stats are covered in §8).
1. Everything runs locally
Shotbox is a local-first tool. Once a screenshot lands on your Mac, the app reads it with Apple's Vision framework (on-device OCR), then titles it, categorizes it, and pulls out any entities (such as order numbers, tracking codes, or amounts) — all on your device. This recognition makes no network calls. Your screenshots and their extracted text never leave your Mac.
2. What we don't collect
Shotbox does not collect any of the following:
- Personally identifiable information (name, email, phone number, etc.)
- Your screenshots or any text recognized from them
- Device identifiers or tracking data
- A usage profile that identifies you, or cross-app tracking
- Location data
3. No account, ever
Shotbox has no account system. There's nothing to sign up for, nothing to log into, and no cloud to connect to. Every feature works out of the box, fully offline. The app never uploads your screenshots or their content.
4. Permissions
The way Shotbox normally works asks for zero permissions. It passively saves the screenshots that land on your desktop (or your usual screenshot folder), and reading those files needs no special grant.
The only permission ever involved is optional. If you want to use the built-in one-click region-capture hotkey, macOS asks for a one-time Screen Recording grant — the same grant every screenshot tool needs. It's used solely to invoke the system screenshot when you press the hotkey; it does not record your screen, and nothing is captured unless you actively trigger it. If you never use that hotkey, this permission is never needed.
5. Sensitive entities are masked by default
When Shotbox extracts entities like card numbers or ID numbers, it masks them by default in the interface, so sensitive values aren't shown in plain sight. The full value is only read locally, on your Mac, at the moment you click Copy. It is never sent anywhere.
6. Where your data lives
All of your data — the saved screenshots, the OCR text, the titles, categories, and extracted entities — lives in a local Application Support folder on your Mac. It stays on your device.
7. Deleting your data
You're in control of your data at all times. You can delete any item inside the app whenever you like, and removing the app deletes its local data along with it. Because everything is stored locally and nothing is uploaded, there's no server-side copy to request or erase.
8. Analytics and advertising
To understand which features get used and improve the product, the Shotbox app sends anonymous usage stats: a randomly generated device ID (not tied to your identity) plus a few "this feature was used" events — never any screenshot, OCR text, or clipboard content. It's on by default and you can switch it off anytime in Settings. These go to the developer's own endpoint, with no third-party analytics or advertising SDKs. Separately, this website uses Cloudflare's privacy-friendly, aggregate analytics (no cookies, no cross-site tracking).
9. Children's privacy
Shotbox is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any updated policy will be posted on this page, with the "Last updated" date at the top revised accordingly.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please reach out:
Email: hi@gatheon.com