Privacy policy
GameplayCap is a desktop app that records gameplay to your own disk. This page says what little data we handle and why. The app does not upload your recordings, clips or markers anywhere.
Data at a glance
| Feature | What we handle | Where it is stored | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recording and clips | Nothing leaves your machine. Recordings, clips, markers, profiles and settings stay local. | Your computer, in folders you choose | So the app can do its job | Until you delete them |
| Install ping | Random install id that is not linked to your account, app version, release channel, operating system and version, CPU architecture, install type, Free or Plus, GPU vendor. Our servers add the country Cloudflare infers. The IP address is not stored. | Our servers on Cloudflare | To count active installs and see which versions are in use | The install record is deleted 90 days after its last ping. Daily counts are kept with no personal data. |
| Plus account (Clerk) | Your account details, your licence and the machines it is activated on | Clerk and our servers on Cloudflare | To sign you in, and to issue and check your licence | Until you ask us to delete the account. Licence and sales records are then kept without your name or email. |
| Payments (Stripe) | Billing, card and tax data, held by Stripe. We never see card numbers. | Stripe | To take payment and handle taxes, as merchant of record | Financial records are kept as long as tax law requires; Stripe keeps its own records under its policy |
| Emails (Resend) | Your email address and the message we send you | Resend | To send sign-in emails, receipts, licence notices and the build email you asked for | Build-notice addresses are deleted once the one email is sent; sign-in and receipt emails are not stored by us beyond Resend's delivery logs |
| Website sign-up form | Your email, chosen platform, your consent, your browser language, the time, and a hash of your IP address (not the IP itself) | Our database on Cloudflare | To send you one email when the build is ready, and to limit abuse of the form | Email deleted once the one email is sent; IP hash deleted within a day. |
| Website visits | Cloudflare request logs only. No analytics cookies. | Cloudflare | To run and protect the site | Our servers do not store your IP address. Cloudflare may keep it briefly in request logs. We run no analytics. |
| Codec download (Cisco) | Your IP address, which Cisco sees during the download. Nothing else about you is sent. | Cisco's servers | The OpenH264 licence requires the codec to come from Cisco | Set by Cisco. We receive nothing from this download. |
The app on your computer
Recordings, clips, markers, profiles and settings stay on your machine, in folders you choose. We never see them. The app does not need an account to record.
Game detection
The app detects the running game on your computer by reading process names, window titles and local game library files. In the current beta this stays on your machine. If we add online game artwork later, the app will fetch the whole catalogue rather than tell our server which game you play, and this page will say so.
Install ping
The ping is on by default and is shown once during onboarding.
When the app's engine starts, and then at most once a day, the app sends one small message to our server so we can count active installs and know which versions are in use.
It contains an install id, app version, release channel, operating system and version, CPU architecture, install type, whether the app is Free or Plus, and GPU vendor. Our servers add the country Cloudflare infers. The install id is a UUID generated at install. It is not derived from your hardware, and reinstalling makes a new one. Your IP address is not stored.
The ping carries a random install id that is not linked to your account. It is only ever sent by the ping itself, never at sign-in, linking or activation, and nothing on our servers joins it to an account.
The ping never contains game names, window titles, file paths, hardware serials, your email or anything from your recordings.
The install record is deleted 90 days after its last ping. Daily counts (day, version, OS, country, tier) are kept with no personal data.
You can turn it off in Settings under Privacy ("Send anonymous daily ping"). Turning it off also stops the id from being created. Debug builds never send it.
Update checks
With the ping off, the app still checks for updates. That check carries no id, only the version, platform, channel and a rollout number from 0 to 99. The app may also report whether an update installed correctly, again without an id. Update checks and update reports carry nothing from the install id, and update reports are stored only as daily counts.
Codec download
On first use the app downloads the OpenH264 video codec from Cisco's servers, as its licence requires. This means Cisco sees your IP address for that download. Nothing else about you is sent.
Outbound connections
The app connects to these places:
- api.gameplaycap.com for licence, ping and updates.
- releases.gameplaycap.com for downloads.
- ciscobinary.openh264.org for the codec download, when needed.
For a purchase, your browser opens gameplaycap.com and Stripe pages.
Crash reports
None are sent in the beta. If we add them later they will be opt-in, and this page will say so.
Stream Deck and OBS plugins
The Stream Deck and OBS plugins are designed to talk to the app over a local connection only; neither sends anything to us.
Accounts
An account exists only after you sign in or buy Plus, through Clerk, our sign-in provider, using an email code, Google or Discord. We store your Clerk user id, your email, your name if Clerk provides it, your Stripe customer id, the date the account was created and the date you started checkout.
To delete your account, email support@gameplaycap.com and we do it by hand. When you delete your account, we erase your email and name from our account record and delete your devices and sessions. Your licence and sales records are kept without your name or email, and our backups clear within 30 days. Stripe keeps its payment records under its own terms.
Licences
We keep your plan, its status, the renewal date, and licence events (purchased, renewed, cancelled, payment failed, refunded, disputed, expired) with amount and currency.
The licence token the app stores contains your user id and a device id so the app can verify Plus offline.
Devices
For each machine you activate we store a label, its operating system, a device id, a device public key, and the activation, last check-in and removal dates. Devices check in about once a day while Plus is active. A device is released automatically after 45 days without a check-in.
Each device is listed under a generic name such as Linux PC, Windows PC or Mac; we do not read your computer's hostname.
Payments
Stripe Managed Payments is the merchant of record for Plus purchases and handles invoices, taxes and refunds. It holds billing, card and tax data. We never see card numbers.
Emails
We send emails through Resend: sign-in emails, receipts and licence notices, and, if you asked for it on this website, one email when the macOS or Linux build is ready. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. We do not send a newsletter unless you opt in.
This website
The sign-up form on this site sends and stores your email, your chosen platform, your consent, your browser language and the time, in our own database on Cloudflare. We use your email only to send that one email. We delete your email as soon as that one email is sent. If you unsubscribe first, we keep only a note not to email you again. To be removed earlier, email support@gameplaycap.com. We also keep a hash of your IP address (not the IP itself) to limit abuse of the form; it is deleted within a day. The site has no advertising trackers and no analytics cookies. Our servers do not store your IP address; our hosting provider Cloudflare processes it to deliver requests and may keep it briefly in request logs. The sign-in linking step uses your IP in memory only to limit repeated attempts. We run no analytics.
Processors we use
- Cloudflare provides hosting and our database.
- Clerk handles sign-in.
- Stripe handles payments as merchant of record.
- Resend sends our email, from updates.gameplaycap.com.
- Cisco provides the OpenH264 codec download.
Where data lives and how long
Our servers run on Cloudflare. Account data is kept until you ask us to delete the account. Licence and sales records are then kept without your name or email, and financial records are kept as long as tax law requires. Sign-up emails are deleted once the one email is sent. The install record is deleted 90 days after its last ping, and daily counts are kept with no personal data. Nightly encrypted backups of account data are kept for 30 days, so deleted account data is gone from backups within 30 days.
Children
GameplayCap is not directed at children under 13.
Your rights
You can ask us to show, correct or delete your data at any time by emailing support@gameplaycap.com. If you are in the EU, UK or California you have the rights given by GDPR, UK GDPR or CCPA, and we honour them for everyone.
Changes
We will post changes here with a new date. Big changes get an email to Plus users.