Privacy and data
DemoTake keeps your recordings on your Mac and sends no usage analytics or tracking data. Here is exactly what stays local, what can leave your Mac and when, and the settings that control it.
Demo recordings are full of things you'd rather not publish: customer names, emails, tokens, the odd notification. DemoTake is built so that none of it leaves your Mac unless you choose a feature that needs it, and so that secrets are hidden before anything is exported or handed to an AI.
Local-first
Everything you record is stored on your Mac, in your library at ~/Movies/DemoTake. A take is a .take package with its recording, events and edits. Recording, editing and exporting all happen on your Mac, and they work without an account. You can see where the library is and how much space it uses under Settings › General › Library.
DemoTake doesn't receive your recordings, takes or exports unless you upload or share them. To delete a take's data, delete the take.
What leaves your Mac, and when
DemoTake sends no usage analytics, crash reports or tracking data. Everything that does leave your Mac is tied to something you can see:
| What | When | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| Free-trial check-in | DemoTake Agent, at launch and about once a day while unlicensed | A salted hash of your Mac's hardware identifier (never the identifier itself), the edition and the app version |
| Update check | DemoTake Agent, once a day and on DemoTake › Check for Updates… | A request for the latest version. DemoTake Studio is updated by the App Store |
| Sign-in, sync and share links | Only when you use a cloud feature | Your account details, and the takes or exports you choose to upload or share |
| DemoTake AI | Only when an AI feature runs, with DemoTake AI or your own AI provider key | Redacted, structured text by default. Never your raw recording |
The trial check-in exists so the free trial can't be restarted by reinstalling. The server stores the hash only as a further salted hash, together with the trial start date, edition and version. It isn't linked to any account, IP addresses aren't stored with it, and it's deleted 12 months after the trial ends.
- Raw recordings and .take packages
- Password and secure-input fields
- Your AI provider key, in the macOS Keychain
- The MCP server: loopback only, access token required
- Trial check-in: a salted hash, DemoTake Agent only
- Takes and exports you sync or share
- Redacted text for DemoTake AI features
- Update checks in DemoTake Agent
Settings › Privacy
Settings › Privacy gathers your permissions and your privacy defaults in one place.
What Never Leaves Your Mac: raw recordings and .take packages · password and secure-input fields (never sent as AI context) · API keys, stored in the macOS Keychain and never in take files · snapshots returned to agents have detected secrets blurred first.
- Permissions shows Screen Recording (required), Microphone, Accessibility and Camera (optional), and updates live as you change them in System Settings.
- Auto-redact sensitive data blurs emails, tokens, card numbers and one-time codes that Secret Guard finds. You can add or remove blurs yourself in the editor; see Redaction.
- Allow agents to use the camera is off by default. While it's off, only you turn the presenter camera on (Record camera in the Record view); agents can't, and replays and scheduled runs never record the camera. The recording controls and the menu bar show a camera sign whenever it's recording.
- What Never Leaves Your Mac lists the guarantees that don't depend on any setting.
DemoTake AI
AI features are optional, and the full product works with them switched off. In the Manual and Your Agent modes, DemoTake AI isn't used at all: your own agent does the thinking.
When an AI feature does run, Secret Guard first replaces likely secrets and personal identifiers (passwords, one-time codes, API keys, tokens, card numbers, email addresses and phone numbers). Password and secure-input fields are never sent. Settings › AI › Send only minimal context is on by default: only redacted, structured text is sent, and screenshots never are. Hosted DemoTake AI keeps usage counts to meter your plan, not the content of your requests.
If you use your own AI provider key, it's stored in the macOS Keychain on your Mac only, never in take files.
Voices and translations
A voiceover and other languages can be made entirely on your Mac. The Mac's own voices and On this Mac translation (macOS 26 or later) send nothing. DemoTake AI voices send the text of each line you speak. DemoTake AI translation sends only the words to translate: names, numbers, shortcuts, glossary terms and anything Secret Guard flags stay on your Mac. Text on screen is read on your Mac, and text in blurred areas is never read. See Voiceover and subtitles and Your demo in other languages.
Agents and snapshots
DemoTake's MCP server accepts connections only from your own Mac, and only with its access token. When an agent asks for a snapshot, DemoTake blurs detected secrets before the image leaves the app, and observe_state returns a text outline with secrets redacted. What your agent then sends to its own provider is governed by your agreement with that provider.
Agents are told to mark secret input as secure. Secure fields are detected automatically too: what's typed into them is never logged and is masked in renders.
Secrets in demo specs
A demotake.json spec never contains a secret. A step that types a password names an environment variable instead:
{ "action": "type", "secret_env": "DEMO_PASSWORD", "element": { "role": "securetextfield" } }The demotake CLI reads the variable and forwards it to the app for that run only. It's never logged, stored in the take or shown in videos. A step can also read a generic password from the login Keychain with keychain. See Demo specs and CI.
Want the legal detail: legal bases, retention, your rights and our processors? Read the privacy policy and the security overview.
Where to go next
- Redaction to blur anything Secret Guard missed.
- Install and permissions for what each permission is for.
- Blur sensitive data in screen recordings