Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 17, 2026
In short: kilde runs entirely on your Mac. Your recordings are written to your own disk and are never sent to us or anyone else. kilde has no account, no telemetry and no analytics, and this website sets no cookies and runs no tracking scripts.
1. Scope of this policy
This policy explains how personal data is handled in connection with kilde,
an open-source screen and audio recorder for macOS, and with this website
(kilde.site). It covers two separate things:
- the kilde command-line tool and menu bar application that you install and run on your own Mac, and
- the website you are reading now.
kilde is distributed under the MIT License. This policy describes the software as it is published by the kilde project; if you build or modify it yourself, or obtain it from a third party, the behavior described here may not apply.
2. The kilde application
No data is collected
kilde does not collect, transmit or sell any personal data. It has no user account, no sign-in, no telemetry, no crash reporting and no analytics. The application does not contact a kilde server, because there is no kilde server.
What stays on your Mac
| Data | Where it lives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Recordings (video and audio files) | The output path you choose, or your configured output directory | They are the product of the tool. They are written directly to your local disk. |
| Settings | ~/.kilde/config.json (or the directory set via KILDE_CONFIG_DIR) |
Persistent recording defaults such as output directory, audio sources, codec and hotkey. |
| Monitor-mode state | monitor-state.json in the same directory |
Lets kilde restore your audio device configuration after a monitored recording. |
| Recent recordings shown in the menu bar app | Read live from your output directory | Displayed in the panel so you can reveal a file in Finder. Nothing is copied elsewhere. |
You control all of this. Deleting a recording, editing the configuration with
kilde config, or removing the ~/.kilde directory removes the data
from your machine.
Recordings may contain personal data
A screen or audio recording can capture whatever is visible or audible at the time — faces, voices, names, documents, messages and other people's contributions to a meeting. kilde never sees or receives that content, but you become responsible for it once it is on your disk, including for obtaining any consent the law or your organization requires before recording. See the Terms of Service for more on that responsibility.
3. macOS permissions
macOS, not kilde, controls access to capture. kilde asks the system for the permissions it needs, and macOS asks you:
- Screen & System Audio Recording — required to capture a display or a window and the sound the system is producing.
- Microphone — required only when you record a microphone or another input device.
- Notifications — optional; used by the menu bar app to tell you a recording finished.
- Launch at login — optional; registered through Apple's
SMAppServicewhen you enable it in the menu bar app.
These permissions are used only to perform the recording you asked for. You can review or
revoke any of them at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
Running kilde doctor shows which permissions are currently granted.
4. This website
This site is a set of static pages. It sets no cookies, uses no local storage, embeds no advertising or analytics scripts, and loads no third-party fonts or trackers.
The site is hosted on Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes technical request data — such as your IP address, the requested URL, the time of the request, and your browser's user-agent string — in order to deliver the page and to protect the service from abuse. That processing is governed by Cloudflare's privacy policy. We do not use this data to identify or profile visitors.
5. Third-party services
Some things you may do around kilde take you to services operated by other companies, each with its own privacy policy:
- GitHub — the source code, releases, issues and documentation are hosted on GitHub. Downloading a release, filing an issue or opening a pull request is subject to GitHub's privacy statement.
-
Homebrew — installing via
brewdownloads release artifacts from GitHub. Homebrew's own behavior, including any analytics it performs, is governed by the Homebrew project, not by kilde.
The kilde project does not receive personal data from these services beyond what any public repository owner can see, such as the GitHub account name attached to an issue or a pull request you choose to submit.
6. Your choices and rights
Because kilde collects nothing, there is no personal data held by the project for you to access, correct, export or erase. The data kilde produces is on your own machine and under your control, and you can remove it at any time.
If you contact the project — for example by opening a GitHub issue — the content of that message is public and is retained by GitHub for as long as the repository exists. Ask via the same channel if you would like something you posted removed.
7. Children
kilde is a developer tool and is not directed at children. No data is knowingly collected from anyone, including children.
8. Changes to this policy
This policy may change as the software changes. The current version is always published at this address, with the date at the top updated. Material changes will be noted in the project's release notes on GitHub.
9. Contact
Questions about privacy can be raised as an issue at github.com/takezou621/kilde/issues. Please do not include sensitive personal data in a public issue.