FrameShotPrivate by Design: Why FrameShot Keeps Your Files Local
How FrameShot captures and records without servers, accounts or tracking, what each permission is for, and how to check it yourself in a minute.
Shahriar AhmedDeveloper of FrameShot3 min read
Screenshots and screen recordings capture whatever is on your screen: emails, chats, dashboards, customer records. Many capture tools send that to a server so they can give you a share link. FrameShot doesn’t, and can’t. Here is how it works without a server, what each permission is for, and how you can check it yourself in about a minute.
Why privacy matters for captures
A screenshot is a copy of your screen at one moment, often including things you never meant to share. When a capture tool uploads it, a copy now sits on someone else’s computer, under their security, their retention rules and their business model. Even when that company is careful, you’ve lost control of where your data lives.
FrameShot takes the simplest approach to that problem: your captures never leave your computer unless you take them somewhere yourself.
How FrameShot works without a server
Everything FrameShot does happens inside Chrome, using features Chrome already provides:
- Capturing uses Chrome’s screenshot function for the tab you’re on, and FrameShot stitches the parts together on your computer.
- Recording uses Chrome’s own screen sharing and video recording. The video is saved in small pieces as you record.
- Storage is your browser’s built-in database for the extension, on your computer. It isn’t synced to your Google account.
- GIFs, PDFs and ZIP files are built on your computer, too.
- Downloads go through Chrome’s normal download system into your Downloads folder.
On top of that, FrameShot’s pages run under a strict content security policy that only allows connections to the extension itself. Even if someone wanted to add an upload later, the extension’s own rules would block it, and an automated test checks that no requests leave the extension during a capture, an edit and an export.
Every permission, explained
| Permission | What FrameShot uses it for |
|---|---|
activeTab | Captures the tab you’re on, and only after you click the icon, use the right-click menu or press a shortcut. |
scripting | Scrolls the page during a full-page capture and shows the area and element selectors. |
storage, unlimitedStorage | Keeps your settings and your library on your computer, including long recordings. |
downloads | Saves the files you export. |
contextMenus | Adds FrameShot to the right-click menu. |
offscreen | Plays the shutter and countdown sounds when you capture from the toolbar or a shortcut. |
Just as important is what’s missing: FrameShot asks for no access to your websites in advance, and it reads no page until you start a capture. The microphone and camera are only used when you switch them on in the recorder, after Chrome asks for your permission.
Check it yourself
You don’t have to take our word for it:
- Go offline. Turn off Wi-Fi and capture, edit and export as usual. Everything still works, because nothing depends on a server.
- Watch the network. Open the FrameShot library, right-click and choose Inspect, then open the Network tab. Make a capture, edit it and export it. No requests to other websites appear.
- Read the permissions. Open
chrome://extensions, find FrameShot and click Details to see exactly what it’s allowed to do.
Deleting your data
Delete single screenshots, recordings or collections from the library. To remove everything at once, open Settings → Storage → Clear all local data. Uninstalling FrameShot also deletes all of its data from your browser. Files you already downloaded are yours and stay where you saved them.
The honest trade-off
Keeping everything local means FrameShot has no share links and no cloud sync. To share a capture, you download it or copy it and paste it wherever you like: an email, a chat, a ticket or your own cloud drive. To keep a copy somewhere else, select your captures in the library and export them as a ZIP.
We think that’s the right default for a tool that sees your screen. You decide where every file goes, and nothing gets there by accident.
How FrameShot stays free
There are no ads, no data to sell and no paid version. FrameShot is kept going by people who rate it, recommend it and, if they want to, donate. Donating unlocks nothing: every feature is already free for everyone. You can read the full privacy policy for every detail.
