ShowRunner privacy policy

Last updated: July 14, 2026

ShowRunner doesn't collect or transmit any personal data. Everything it does — recording, editing, exporting — happens locally on your Mac. No analytics, no telemetry, no accounts.

What ShowRunner does on your machine

Steps and documents. A .showrunner document stores the scenes, steps (move, click, hold-release-drag, type, wait, switch-app), and recordings you create. These files live wherever you save them and are never uploaded anywhere.
Capturing real input. When you use Capture to record your own clicks, typing, and cursor movement into editable steps, ShowRunner reads that input locally via the macOS Accessibility API and writes it directly into the document you're editing. Nothing is sent off-device.
Driving the cursor live. To perform a live run — moving the real cursor, clicking, and typing on your behalf — ShowRunner synthesizes input events via CGEvent, which also requires Accessibility permission.
Screen recording. The live ScreenCaptureKit backdrop (used for WYSIWYG target-picking, with ShowRunner's own window excluded) and the screen recording captured during Run & Record both require macOS Screen Recording permission. Recordings are written to disk where you choose to save them and are not transmitted anywhere by ShowRunner.
Webcam and microphone. If you add a webcam bubble or narrate with your microphone in the Recording Editor, that video/audio is captured locally and mixed into your exported file. It's never uploaded or sent anywhere by the app.
Exporting. Rendering to MP4 or a PNG sequence happens entirely on-device via AVFoundation. Exported files go wherever you tell them to.
Preferences. Settings — hotkeys, export defaults, recording options, and whether onboarding has finished — are stored in your local UserDefaults and never leave your device.

Permissions

Accessibility — required to capture your input during recording and to drive the real cursor during a live run. Grant this in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
Screen Recording — required for the live backdrop and for Run & Record. Grant this in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording.
Camera and Microphone — optional, only requested if you enable a webcam bubble or mic narration.

ShowRunner ships unsandboxed — the Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions it depends on aren't available inside the App Sandbox, which is why there's no Mac App Store build.

Network connections ShowRunner makes on its own

Update checks. The Sparkle framework periodically fetches https://bendansby.com/apps/showrunner/appcast.xml to see if a newer version is available. The request carries only a User-Agent string and the current ShowRunner version. No identifiers, no telemetry, no tracking.
License activation. Buying or entering a license is handled by Lemon Squeezy at checkout; ShowRunner itself doesn't collect payment details. There's no account and no subscription — the license is tied to your purchase.

What we don't do

No analytics or telemetry of any kind inside the app.
No user accounts. No login, no remote configuration.
No advertising, third-party tracking SDKs, or fingerprinting.
No cookies, no server-side logs about you.
No screen recordings, webcam footage, or microphone audio uploaded anywhere — everything stays in the document and export files you control.

Contact

ben.dansby@gmail.com

Changes

If anything material changes about what ShowRunner collects, this page updates and the next version's release notes call it out explicitly.