Privacy policy

1. Who we are

CaptureFlow is an independent product built and operated by Burhan Hasanfatta ("we", "us"). Contact: support@captureflow.pro. This policy covers the CaptureFlow browser extension and the website at captureflow.pro.

2. What we collect, and when

CaptureFlow is deliberately split in two. Everything you can do without an account collects nothing at all; the account exists only because cloud storage and share links cannot work without one.

2.1 Without an account — nothing

Screenshots, the annotation editor, exporting and printing all run entirely inside your browser. No network call is made, and none of the following is collected:

• Personally identifiable information — address, age, phone number or identity documents
• Health, financial or payment information
• Authentication information — passwords, credentials or security questions
• Personal communications — emails, texts or chat messages
• Location data of any kind
• Browsing history, page contents, or the URLs of sites you visit
• User activity — clicks, mouse position, scroll behaviour or keystrokes

There is no analytics library, no crash reporter, no advertising SDK and no third-party script anywhere in the extension package. All of its code ships inside the package; nothing is fetched or evaluated at runtime.

2.2 With a free account — your name, email and country

Screen recording, cloud uploads and share links require an account. You create one by signing in with Google on captureflow.pro. We never show you a form. From that sign-in we receive and store:

• Your name and email address, as they appear on your Google profile, together with your profile picture URL and Google account identifier. These identify your account and are how we send you important notices about the service — a change to these terms, a problem with your stored files, or the end of a plan.
• Your country, worked out from the IP address of the sign-in request. We use it for tax and regional obligations and to understand where the product is used. We never ask you for it.

We do not ask for or store a phone number, a postal address, a date of birth, or a password — sign-in is handled entirely by Google, so there is no CaptureFlow password to lose. We do not send marketing email, and we do not use your data to train machine-learning models.

2.3 Your microphone, camera and audio

A screen recording can include sound from two places: the audio the tab itself is playing, and your microphone. The microphone is off by default and is only ever opened after you switch it on with the microphone button in the CaptureFlow popup. Chrome asks for microphone permission the first time, and you can withdraw it at any point in Chrome’s site settings.

Audio is captured only while a recording is actually running, and it stops the moment you press Stop. It is written into the video file itself — the one that lands on your own machine — and nowhere else. We do not stream it anywhere, we do not store it separately from the recording, and there is no transcription, no voice analysis, and no listening of any kind outside a recording you started.

Camera (CaptureFlow Studio only). Studio can put your face in a small bubble on your lesson video. The camera is opened only when you choose a camera in Studio, and Chrome asks your permission first. Its picture is shown to you as a preview and written into your lesson video on your own machine — it is never streamed or sent anywhere, and there is no face detection or analysis of any kind.

If you never press Upload, that audio and video never leave your computer at all.

2.4 What you upload

A recording or screenshot is uploaded only when you press Upload & get link on that specific capture. Nothing is uploaded automatically, ever. For each upload we store the file itself plus its title, size, dimensions, duration, the page address it was captured from, a view count, and the share code that addresses it.

Anyone holding a share link can view that capture and leave a comment — that is what the link is for. Comments store the name the commenter typed, their message, the point in the video they attached it to, and a one-way hash of their IP address used only to rate-limit spam. You can delete any comment on your own captures, and you can turn comments off entirely.

Deleting a capture removes the file from our servers immediately and breaks its share link at once.

3. What stays on your device

Two kinds of data are stored locally on your own machine using the browser's chrome.storage API:

• Your preferences — default image format, quality, capture delay, your recording quality and source, whether the microphone is on, and your last used colour and stroke width.
• The capture in flight — the image you just took, held briefly so the editor tab can pick it up. It is discarded once the editor has it.

CaptureFlow Studio also keeps your lessons — the recorded parts, their order and your drawings — in the browser’s own database (IndexedDB) on your computer, so you can come back, redo a part and export again. Lessons can be large, so the extension asks Chrome for unlimited local storage. They stay there until you delete the lesson in Studio.

None of this ever leaves your device unless you press Upload. Uninstalling the extension removes all of it.

4. Permissions and why each one exists

Chrome shows a permission list at install. Every one is used for the narrow purpose described here and nothing else.

Optional permission — “read and change data on all websites” (<all_urls>). CaptureFlow does not have this at install. Chrome asks you for it only the first time you press Draw on this tab in CaptureFlow Studio, because drawing over a page you are teaching from (Google Slides, a PDF, any site) means placing a transparent ink layer on that page. It is used only for that drawing layer, only on the tab you are recording, and only while you draw. It never reads page content, and you can remove it at any time from Studio’s settings or from Chrome’s extension page. Saying no only turns off on-page drawing; Freeze & Draw and the whiteboard still work.

CaptureFlow does not use remote code.

5. The website

captureflow.pro sets no advertising or tracking cookies and runs no analytics. It stores cf-theme in localStorage to remember your light or dark preference, which never leaves your browser. If you sign in, it also sets one strictly necessary cookie, cf_session, holding a random session token so the site knows you are signed in. It contains no personal information and is cleared when you sign out.

Web fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which means your browser makes a request to fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. Google may log the IP address of that request under its own privacy policy. We receive nothing from it.

Our hosting provider keeps standard web server logs — IP address, timestamp, requested URL, user agent — for security and troubleshooting. These are retained for a short period and are not used to profile visitors.

6. Who else sees your data

• Google — only during sign-in. Google tells us your name, email, profile picture and account id; we tell Google nothing about you. Their handling is covered by Google’s privacy policy. You can revoke CaptureFlow’s access at any time from your Google account permissions.
• Our hosting provider — the servers that store your account and your uploaded files, and that keep standard access logs.
• Anyone you give a share link to — because that is what sharing means. Links are unguessable but public: treat one like a key.
• Nobody else. We do not sell, rent or trade your data, we run no advertising, and we do not pass your information to data brokers.

7. How long we keep it

• Captures — until you delete them. Deleting one removes the file straight away.
• Your account — until you ask us to close it. Email support@captureflow.pro and we delete the account, every capture in it, and every comment on those captures.
• Sign-in sessions — up to 180 days, or until you sign out.
• Server access logs — a short retention period set by our host, used for security and troubleshooting only.

8. Your rights

If you have never signed in, we hold nothing about you and there is nothing to hand over. If you have an account, you can request access to, correction of, export of or deletion of your data by emailing support@captureflow.pro, and we will respond within 30 days. You can also delete individual captures yourself at any time from My captures. If you are in the EEA or UK, these rights are yours under the GDPR; if you are in California, the CCPA gives you comparable rights — including the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them.

9. Children

CaptureFlow is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly create accounts for them. If you believe a child has signed in or uploaded something, write to us and the account and its contents will be deleted.

10. Security

The website is served over HTTPS. When cloud features launch, uploads will be transmitted over TLS, passwords hashed with bcrypt, all database access parameterised, and uploaded files kept outside the public web root and served only through an access-checked handler. No system is perfect; if you find a vulnerability, please report it privately to support@captureflow.pro rather than disclosing it publicly, and you will get a prompt reply.

11. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, the date at the top will change and — once accounts exist — registered users will be emailed before the change takes effect. Continuing to use CaptureFlow after a change means you accept the updated policy.

12. Contact

Questions about privacy, or a request about your data: support@captureflow.pro.