Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 6, 2026

Tapesmith runs entirely on your Mac. Your recordings, screen, camera, audio, and captions never leave your computer. We do not have servers that receive your content. The website counts ad-driven downloads so we know which ads are worth paying for, described below, and that is the only tracking here.

Who we are

Tapesmith is a macOS application made by bXb worX ("we", "us"). This policy explains what information the Tapesmith app and the tapesmith.app website handle, and how.

What the app does with your data

Everything Tapesmith does with your recording happens locally on your Mac:

• Screen capture, camera, microphone, and system audio are recorded to files on your own computer.
• Captions are transcribed on your device. Your audio is not sent anywhere to be transcribed.
• Editing steps such as removing filler words, trimming dead air, and reframing all run locally.

Tapesmith does not upload, transmit, or store your recordings, audio, video, transcripts, or projects on any server we control. We never see them.

Livestreaming

If you choose to go live, Tapesmith sends your composited video and audio directly from your Mac to the third-party platform you select (such as Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, or a custom RTMP server). That transmission is governed by that platform's own terms and privacy policy. Your stream keys are stored only on your Mac.

Permissions the app requests

macOS asks your permission for Screen Recording, Camera, and Microphone. Tapesmith uses these only to capture the recording you ask it to make, on your device. You can review or revoke these at any time in System Settings under Privacy and Security.

Activating your subscription

Licensing is the one part of Tapesmith that talks to us. When you start a trial, activate a Mac, or the app quietly re-checks your subscription (about once a day), it sends three things to tapesmith.app:

• Your account email, so we can match the machine to your subscription. Trials do not send an email address at all.
• A machine code: a one-way hash of a hardware identifier. We never receive or store the identifier itself, and the hash cannot be reversed back into it. It exists so a license can be tied to your Macs and so we can enforce the two-Mac limit.
• The app version, so we can issue the right license and support older builds.

We store the machine codes activated against your subscription, and when each was last seen, so we can enforce the two-Mac limit and spot a license being shared. You can ask us to reset your machines or delete this record at any time using the contact address below.

None of your recording data is involved. No audio, video, transcript, project, filename, or screen content is ever sent as part of licensing, and the checks above are the only reason the app contacts us. Once activated, your license is stored on your Mac and Tapesmith keeps working offline for a grace period, so it does not need a connection to record.

The app also checks a small file on tapesmith.app for a newer version. That request sends nothing about you or your machine.

The website

• Waitlist. If you submit your email address on tapesmith.app, it is processed and stored by our form provider, Formspree, and used only to email you about Tapesmith (for example, to tell you when it launches). We do not sell or rent your email. You can ask us to delete it at any time using the contact address below.
• Advertising measurement. When we run paid advertising, tapesmith.app loads the Google Ads tag, which sets a cookie so we can tell that someone who clicked one of our ads went on to download the free trial. We use it to see which ads are worth paying for, and nothing else. It tells us that a download happened, not who you are: we do not learn your name, your email, or your identity from it, and we do not sell or share this data. Google processes it under its own privacy policy. If you would rather not be counted, blocking cookies for this site or using any standard content blocker prevents it entirely, and the download works exactly the same either way.
• Nothing else. There is no other analytics, no session recording, no profiling, and no advertising network beyond the one measurement described above.

Purchases

When paid purchasing is available, payments are handled by a third-party payment provider. We never receive or store your full payment card details. That provider processes your payment under its own privacy policy.

Children

Tapesmith is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Your responsibilities

You are responsible for what you record and stream, including obtaining any consent required to record other people, and for following the rules of any platform you stream or post to.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date above reflects the current version.

Contact

Questions, or want your waitlist email removed? Email hello@tapesmith.app.