Privacy Policy

Recordings, projects, guides and screenshots are created and stored on your computer. They are never sent to us, and we have no way to see them.

2.1 What a recording in Chrome captures

When you start a recording, the extension captures the tab, window or screen you chose. On web pages it also records your pointer’s position, clicks and scrolls, and the name of the button, link or field each click landed on, so the editor can place zooms and write a guide’s steps. It notes the moment each key is pressed, never which key, so the editor can follow typing. What you type into a field is never read. The pointer is tracked only while that recording runs, and only in the tabs that recording can show: the recorded tab, or the Chrome tabs in a recorded window or screen. Other applications and Chrome’s own toolbar are never tracked. The pointer track is stored as part of the recording.

2.2 What a recording in the Mac app captures

The Mac app captures the display or window you chose, the microphone, camera and system sound you switched on, and your pointer’s position and clicks. If you allow Accessibility access, each click also notes what it landed on as macOS describes it to screen readers: the kind of control and its name, the app and window it was in, and a web page’s address without its query string. The app notes the moment each key is pressed, never which key, and what you type is never read. Nothing is recorded before you press Record or after you stop.

2.3 Where it is stored

In Chrome, recordings, edits and screenshots are stored in the extension’s browser storage while they are captured, and in pointercam.com’s browser storage (IndexedDB and the Origin Private File System) once you edit them. Both copies are on your computer, and the second is made by your browser without any network transfer. The Mac app keeps its recordings and edits in its own folder on your Mac.

The editor at pointercam.com is a program your browser downloads and runs. Editing works on the copy on your computer, exports are rendered by your computer, and the finished file is saved to your computer.

Deleting a recording in the library deletes it from that storage. Removing the extension deletes its copy, and clearing pointercam.com’s site data in Chrome deletes the site’s copy.

3.1 Website requests

pointercam.com is hosted by Vercel. As with any website, Vercel records the requests made to it, such as the IP address, the page requested and the time. Your recordings are never part of these requests.

3.2 Version and update checks

The site and the Mac app read a small signed file, pointercam.com/release.json, to learn the newest version and whether a feature is paused while a fix is prepared. The Chrome extension receives this file from the site and does not fetch it itself. The Mac app also checks dl.pointercam.com for updates, sending its version and a randomly generated number that decides which Macs receive a new version first.

3.3 Downloads from other services

Some typefaces in the editor are downloaded from Google Fonts when they are used. The first time you create captions, the speech recognition model is downloaded from Hugging Face; captions are then made on your computer. These services receive your IP address as part of the download. Nothing you recorded is sent.

3.4 Messages you send us

A problem report, feedback, a quote for this website or a refund request is sent only when you press Send. It contains what you wrote, your email address if you give it, and for a refund request, what you bought, your reason and, if PointerCam holds one, your licence key. A problem report can also include this computer’s details, which the form shows you before you send: versions, browser, screen size, plan and recent error messages. It never includes a recording. Messages are delivered to our inbox by Resend.

Email you send to support@pointercam.com is forwarded to our inbox by Cloudflare, and our replies are sent through Resend.

3.5 Licence checks

When you enter a Studio licence key, and about once a day after that, PointerCam sends it to pointercam.com/api/license. That service asks Dodo Payments whether the licence is still active, and answers with a licence that works offline for a week. The request contains the licence key, Dodo Payments’ activation identifier and two dates. It contains no recording, project, file name, usage information, name or email address. The service stores nothing.

3.6 Purchases

Purchases are made through Dodo Payments, the merchant of record, which collects your payment and billing details under its own privacy policy. We never receive your card details. Dodo Payments shares with us what we need to provide Studio and to support you, such as your name, email address, what you bought and the status of your payments.

3.7 Protecting our services

Our endpoints use the IP address of each request, held only in memory, to limit how many requests can be made in ten minutes. They do not write it to their logs or store it.

3.8 Launch emails

If you ask to be emailed when the Mac app or the Chrome extension is out, we keep your email address, and which of the two you chose, as a contact with Resend. We use it only to email you about PointerCam. Every email has a link to unsubscribe, and you can ask us to delete your address at any time.

We use the information described above only to:

• provide, update and fix PointerCam;
• confirm Studio licences;
• answer your messages and handle refund requests;
• email you about PointerCam, if you asked us to;
• protect our services from abuse.

We do not sell personal information, use it for advertising, or build profiles of the people who use PointerCam. There are no analytics or tracking scripts on this website or in the apps.

Where the GDPR or the UK GDPR applies, we rely on:

• performance of a contract, for licence checks, purchases and refunds;
• our legitimate interests in operating, securing and updating PointerCam, for website requests, update checks and request limits;
• your consent, for launch emails, for a quote published on this website, and for the computer details included with a problem report. You can withdraw consent at any time.

We use these providers, each under its own terms and privacy policy:

• Vercel, which hosts the website and our server functions;
• Cloudflare, which provides our domain name service and forwards email sent to us;
• Resend, which delivers our email and keeps the list of people who asked for launch emails;
• Dodo Payments, which processes purchases as the merchant of record;
• Google Fonts and Hugging Face, for the downloads described in section 3.3.

These providers may process information in the United States and in other countries outside Canada.

• Recordings and projects stay on your computer until you delete them.
• Messages and refund requests are kept in our email for as long as we need them to respond and to keep a record of refunds. We delete them on request where the law allows.
• Launch email addresses are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
• The licence service keeps nothing.
• Website request records are kept by Vercel for the period its service sets.

You can ask us for access to the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Where the GDPR applies, you can also object to our use of it or ask for a copy in a portable format. Write to support@pointercam.com. We reply within 30 days.

Your recordings and projects never reach us, so you control them directly on your computer.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or to the data protection authority where you live.

PointerCam is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

The extension asks for access to all websites for one reason: the pointer tracker and the recording controls must run on whichever page you choose to record. They are active only during a recording, and only in the tabs that recording can show. A separate part of the extension runs only on pointercam.com, where it passes finished recordings to the editor. It reads nothing from any other website.

Any new request PointerCam makes, to us or to another service, will be described on this page before the update that introduces it is released. When we change this policy, we update the date at the top of this page. See also our Terms of Service.