Privacy in plain words.
Updated October 24, 2026.
Screenshot and voice workflow
Circl captures the display you select from, keeps the selected crop, and discards the full-screen capture after selection. Unsent prompts stay in memory for the app session. On-device speech recognition transcribes your microphone input; Circl does not save or upload raw audio. Circl places your crop and transcript on the system clipboard when it pastes them into your AI app, and puts your previous clipboard back when it can confirm the paste went in (otherwise you can bring it back with Restore Previous Clipboard in Circl’s menu). Other apps may access clipboard content under macOS rules. For text-only places, Circl saves the screenshot in its own folder on your Mac and pastes its file path; it keeps at most the 40 newest, for up to 3 days.
When Circl submits your screenshot and words to your AI app, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Codex, Claude Code or Cursor (or you do, with Review before sending on), that content is handled by that service and its policies. Circl does not include that service or its model usage.
No AI service in Circl
Circl has no hosted AI service and no AI features of its own, and capture, dictation and sending never use one. Your audio is transcribed on your Mac and never uploaded. Circl’s servers never receive your prompts, transcripts or screenshots.
Billing and activation
Stripe processes payments, purchase emails, subscription status, and billing details. Circl creates a random install ID on your Mac (not derived from your hardware) and keeps it in your Keychain. When you start a trial, Circl’s server attaches that ID to your Stripe subscription so the app can activate itself, then issues short-lived activation confirmations from your subscription status. After checkout, the confirmation page can open Circl through a local circl:// link. No screenshots, transcripts, audio, or hardware identifiers are needed for activation. Payment card information is handled by Stripe, not stored by Circl’s app.
Feedback you choose to send
If you use Send feedback, Circl transcribes your voice on your Mac and sends only the text you approve, with your app version, macOS version, plan, the first characters of your install ID and your approximate country from the web host. Audio and screenshots are never sent. Feedback is stored privately for the developer to read and is used only to improve Circl. Your captures and the words you dictate for Codex are never part of it.
Website, updates, and diagnostics
Vercel hosts this website and may process ordinary request information such as IP address and browser details. We do not add advertising trackers or analytics scripts. Checkout uses a first-party cookie to reuse your checkout session. Update checks contact the update host for available releases. Circl keeps bounded local workflow logs containing event stages and word counts, not your dictated words, screenshots, credentials or sign-in tokens. Diagnostic summaries are copied only when you choose that action.
Your controls
You can revoke macOS permissions or stop using Circl. Clipboard content remains until replaced. You can review invoices and manage your subscription through the billing portal.
See the setup guide for app controls and Manage billing for subscription controls.
Contact
Questions? Email ryan@ontrail.ai.