Blinkshot Privacy Policy

Who is responsible

OnBoardConnect publishes Blinkshot and is responsible for the app and for this policy. The Blinkshot website is hosted at blinkshot.onboardconnect.io, and Blinkshot is published by OnBoardConnect. You can reach us at blinkshot@onboardconnect.io.

If you buy Blinkshot

The website makes no request to anyone but itself until you choose Buy Blinkshot. Clicking it loads Paddle’s checkout, which brings in Paddle and the analytics and error reporting services they use. If you never click it, none of that is contacted and Paddle never sees your visit.

Paddle.com Market Ltd is the merchant of record for the sale. They take your payment and handle what comes with it, under their own privacy policy. We receive your email address and the order, so that a licence key can be sent to you and a refund honoured. We don’t receive your card details and never see them.

Your licence key is checked inside the app, on your Mac. Entering it sends nothing anywhere, which is why Blinkshot works offline once you own it. See the terms of sale and the refund policy.

Summary

• Blinkshot doesn’t collect personal information. Nothing about you or your screenshots is sent to us or to anyone else.
• Everything Blinkshot creates is stored on your Mac.
• Descriptions and suggested filenames are created on your Mac, using Apple Intelligence.
• Blinkshot has no accounts, advertising, analytics, or tracking.
• Blinkshot makes one network connection: it looks for a new version of itself on this website, and asks before it does so on its own. See Looking for new versions.

Information Blinkshot uses

To do its job, Blinkshot works with the following information on your Mac:

• Screenshot files. Blinkshot reads new images in the screenshot folder you choose, to show previews, recognize text, and create descriptions. It doesn’t copy your screenshots anywhere else. It changes a file only when you ask it to: when you rename, move, move a screenshot to the Trash, or delete one, when a screenshot you marked Temporary reaches its time, or when you choose to rename screenshots with a suggested filename when the popup closes on its own. Blinkshot uses the Trash unless you turn on one of the settings that skip it.
• File information. Blinkshot reads information that macOS stores with each file, such as whether it’s a screenshot, its size, creation and modification dates, and where on the screen it was captured. This is used to detect new screenshots, follow screenshots you rename or move, and show the popup on the right display.
• Recognized text. Text found in a screenshot, when you extract text or when analysis is turned on.
• Descriptions and suggested filenames. Created from a screenshot and its recognized text, when analysis is turned on and Apple Intelligence is available.
• The macOS screenshot location. Blinkshot reads the name of the folder where macOS saves screenshots, so it can open that folder for you and tell you if it differs from the folder Blinkshot watches. Blinkshot changes this setting only when you choose Save Screenshots Here in Settings and confirm, and it offers Undo afterwards. It changes no other macOS setting.
• Your settings. Your Blinkshot preferences, keyboard shortcut, and the access you granted to your screenshot folder.

Where information is stored

Blinkshot stores its information only on your Mac, in its app container at ~/Library/Containers/com.blinkshot.app. This includes:

• A list of the screenshots Blinkshot is tracking. For each screenshot, the list contains the file’s location, when it arrived, its status and any deletion time, recognized text, description, suggested filename, and information used to find the file again if it’s renamed or moved.
• Your settings.
• When Blinkshot last looked for a new version, and any version you chose to skip.

If the list can’t be read completely, or was saved by a newer version of Blinkshot, Blinkshot keeps a backup copy of it in the same place instead of overwriting it. New images you create by cropping are saved as files in your screenshot folder.

Blinkshot doesn’t send this information anywhere. Like other files on your Mac, it may be included in backups you make, such as with Time Machine.

How long information is kept

• When you move a screenshot to the Trash in Blinkshot, the file moves to the Trash and Blinkshot removes its record. Putting the file back from the Trash doesn’t restore the record.
• When a Temporary screenshot reaches its time, the file moves to the Trash and Blinkshot removes its record.
• When you choose Remove from Inbox, Blinkshot removes the record for that screenshot. When you choose Clear Inbox Records in Settings, it removes every record. The files stay where they are.
• When Blinkshot finds that a screenshot was deleted or moved to the Trash outside Blinkshot, it removes the record.
• The record of a screenshot you keep remains until you remove it or the screenshot is deleted. If Blinkshot can’t reach a file, for example because its disk isn’t connected or access to its folder was removed, the record is kept and marked Unavailable.

To remove everything Blinkshot stores, quit Blinkshot, delete the app, and then delete the folder ~/Library/Containers/com.blinkshot.app. Your screenshot files stay in their folders.

Apple Intelligence and on-device processing

When analysis is turned on, Blinkshot uses the on-device language model that’s part of Apple Intelligence to describe screenshots and suggest filenames. The screenshot and its recognized text are processed on your Mac. Blinkshot doesn’t send them to us, to Apple, or to any cloud service. Text recognition also happens on your Mac.

Apple Intelligence is provided by Apple and is subject to Apple’s terms and privacy policy. To turn off analysis in Blinkshot, choose Blinkshot > Settings, click Intelligence, then turn off Analyze screenshots.

Looking for new versions

Blinkshot comes from this website rather than the App Store, so it looks for new versions itself. This is the only network connection Blinkshot opens. One other thing can put a file on the wire, and it is worth naming: if a screenshot's image is in iCloud rather than on your Mac, choosing Download asks iCloud Drive to fetch it. That transfer is between your Mac and iCloud, over the connection macOS already uses for your iCloud Drive, and Blinkshot never starts one on its own. It reads a small file on this website that lists the current version, and downloads the new disk image from this website if you agree to install it.

Nothing about you or your screenshots is sent with that request. It carries which version of Blinkshot is asking, so it can be told whether that version is current, and it reaches the website with your IP address, as any web request does. See This website for what the host of this site processes. Blinkshot sends no description of your Mac, no identifier, and nothing about what you have captured.

Blinkshot asks you before it checks on its own, and never on a first launch. When you allow it, it checks about once an hour while Blinkshot is running. To change your answer, choose Blinkshot > Settings, click General, then turn Automatically check for updates on or off. With it off, Blinkshot looks only when you choose Check for Updates from the Blinkshot menu. Either way, it shows you the version and what changed, and installs nothing until you choose Install Update.

The updating is done by Sparkle, an open source updater, which is the one piece of software in Blinkshot that we didn’t write. It runs only when Blinkshot looks for a version, it stores nothing on your Mac beyond when it last checked and any version you chose to skip, and it checks that a downloaded update was signed by us before installing it.

What Blinkshot doesn’t do

• It doesn’t collect, sell, or share personal information.
• It doesn’t track you across apps or websites, show advertising, or use analytics.
• It makes no network connection except the version check described above. Links to this website and to email open in your browser or email app.
• It doesn’t record your screen or ask for Screen Recording permission.
• It doesn’t read your clipboard. It copies to the clipboard only when you choose a copy command.
• It doesn’t require an account.

Access to your files

Blinkshot runs in the macOS App Sandbox. It can work only with the folder you choose, files you choose in a save dialog, and its own app container. It doesn’t open at login unless you turn on that option in Blinkshot settings.

Crash reports from Apple

If you choose to share analytics with app developers, macOS may send crash reports and usage information about Blinkshot to Apple, and Apple may make them available to us. This is controlled by macOS, not by Blinkshot. To change it, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Privacy & Security, then click Analytics & Improvements.

This website

This website doesn’t use cookies, analytics, or tracking, and it doesn’t load content from other websites. It’s hosted by Vercel, which processes technical information, such as IP addresses, to deliver pages and keep the service secure. If you email us, we use your message and email address only to reply to you.

Children

Blinkshot doesn’t collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated policy will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Contact

If you have questions about this policy, email OnBoardConnect at blinkshot@onboardconnect.io.