Privacy

Privacy

Flashback is local-first. Recording, screenshots, editing and your Library work entirely on your PC and never need an account. This page lists every network request the app makes, what it never does, where your data lives, and how to share diagnostics safely.

The full policy, which also covers Flashback Cloud and the website, is at flashbk.gg/privacy. If anything here differs, that page is the one that applies.

Local by default

Without Flashback Cloud, Flashback does not upload your recordings, screenshots, filenames, game names, settings, diagnostics, hardware details or feature usage. A clip or screenshot leaves your PC only when:

• you upload it to Flashback Cloud yourself,
• you've turned on Cloud's automatic uploads for that game, or the "Flashback upload" voice command, or
• you share the file yourself, for example by dragging it into Discord.

Everything the app sends, and when

Request	When it happens	What it contains	How to stop it
Update check	Once when you open the Flashback window, when you press Check for updates, or when it downloads an update you approved. Never while running only in the tray; never downloads without a click.	A request for the signed release information on flashbk.gg	Updates are never forced; nothing downloads unless you click
Anonymous active status (on by default)	When the app starts, then about every ten minutes while it runs	A random token that changes every day. No clip, game name, hardware, account, setting or feature history.	Settings > Privacy & integrations > turn off Share anonymous active status
Discord status (on by default)	While Discord is running on your PC	Your replay status (such as "Instant replay ready" and how long it's been running) with Get Flashback and Why Flashback links to the Flashback website, passed to the Discord app on your PC. Discord shows it to people who can see your Discord activity. Never your game, clips or settings.	Turn it off in Settings, or use Ghost Mode
Cloud tab	Only when you open it	A check whether Cloud is open. If you're signed in, your account, plan and clips.	Don't open the Cloud tab
Uploads	Only for clips you choose, or games you picked for automatic upload	The clip or screenshot you chose	Don't upload; automatic and voice uploads are off by default

About the anonymous active status

This setting powers an approximate count of devices running Flashback in the last 30 minutes. It isn't an account count and isn't treated as an exact user total.

• The secret used to make the daily token never leaves your PC. It is protected for your Windows user with Windows DPAPI.
• The server keeps only the rotating token and when it expires. It doesn't add your connection address or browser details to its records. (Like any HTTPS request, the hosting network processes the connection itself.)
• Turn it off and future signals stop at once; your previous signal drops out of the count within 30 minutes.

What Flashback never does

• No ads, no analytics. The app carries no third-party ad or analytics code, and Flashback never sells your data or builds an advertising profile.
• No game memory. Flashback never reads or injects into a game's memory. Game detection reads only the game's file path.
• No keyboard hooks. Shortcuts use the Windows RegisterHotKey API, not low-level keyboard hooks.
• No automatic crash reports. Diagnostics are shared only when you choose to share them.
• Your voice stays on your PC. Voice commands are recognized locally and your voice is never sent anywhere.

Features that stay local

Feature	What it does with your data
Voice controls (off by default)	Opens only the microphone you selected and runs a small keyword model locally. Game audio, Discord, videos, browser audio and desktop sound are never fed to it. Speech is processed in memory and never stored, uploaded, or written to logs.
Input overlay (off by default)	Uses Windows Raw Input only while enabled, and keeps a bounded list of the selected keys and mouse buttons in memory. A saved clip's matching timeline goes into private local metadata, never into the video itself, never into diagnostics, and is never uploaded. No input injection, no low-level hooks.
Add editable audio tracks (on by default)	Writes temporary WAV files only inside the private replay buffer folder, cleaned up along with the buffer. Discord copies and Cloud uploads use only the Flashback mix.
Microphone continuity	Counts the dropouts your microphone and Windows report while recording, to warn you and for a clip's Capture health. Only the counts are kept, with each clip's local metadata; no audio.
Capture health and storage Review	Run only when you open them, read local files only, and never upload anything. Review never deletes a file by itself.

Two honest notes:

• If microphone recording is on for clips, a voice command you speak can be heard in the saved clip, because clip audio is a separate recording you turned on.
• A virtual microphone, a "Stereo Mix" input, or speakers leaking into a physical mic can carry desktop sound into your microphone. Headphones and a physical microphone give the cleanest separation.

Where your data lives

Data	Default location
Saved clips and screenshots	%USERPROFILE%\Videos\Flashback
Settings, logs, an optional custom clip sound	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Flashback
Overlay timelines, clip tags, Cloud upload records	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Flashback\ClipMetadata
Rolling replay buffer	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Flashback\Buffer
Cloud session, paused upload, upload queue (after you sign in)	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Flashback\Cloud
Copy of your pre-0.8 settings, for going back to an older version	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Flashback\settings.schema21.json

Uninstalling or updating Flashback never silently removes your saved clips.

Logs and diagnostics

Flashback keeps a small rolling log on your PC, at most five files of 2 MB each, under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Flashback\Logs. Logs never leave your PC on their own.

Because they're written for troubleshooting, raw logs can name the game you were recording, your audio devices, and file paths that include your Windows user name. They never contain captured audio or frames, environment variables, tokens, or full command lines with private paths.

Share diagnostics the safe way

When support asks for diagnostics, use the Diagnostics button at the bottom of Settings instead of sending log files. It shows the newest log entries (up to 512 KB) in a window before anything is copied or saved, with private details already replaced:

Replaced	Kept, because support needs it
Names of your captures and games, and audio device names (each becomes a numbered placeholder such as <game 1>)	Times
Your Windows user name and computer name	Flashback's own events and errors
Your profile, Flashback data and clip folders, and the folder and file names inside other paths (the drive and file type are kept)	App and Windows versions
Email addresses, network addresses with a port, and Windows account IDs	Encoder and GPU names, display numbers

You can edit the text before you press Copy or Save as, and exactly what's in the window is what gets shared. Flashback doesn't send it anywhere. Open data folder in the same window opens the full, unredacted local files, so don't send those.

More on reading and sharing logs is on Diagnostics and Logs.

If you use Flashback Cloud

Cloud is optional. When you use it:

• You sign in with Discord, or Google where offered. Your date of birth is used for the age check and isn't stored; only an age band is kept, plus the year you turn 18 if you're 13 to 17.
• Only what you choose is uploaded. New uploads start as Only me. Screenshots have hidden details (text notes, EXIF and XMP camera and location data, timestamps) removed before upload.
• Only me and Friends clips are kept off the public media host and served only through expiring links checked for each viewer.
• Payments go through Link (Stripe). Flashback never receives your full card number.
• Your IP address is turned into a secret-keyed rotating value for rate limits and view counts instead of being stored raw. Operational logs are normally kept no more than 30 days.
• The website uses one essential session cookie, plus a 10-minute cookie while you sign in, and no analytics or advertising cookies.
• Uploaded content isn't used to train AI models or to target ads.
• You can download your data, sign out everywhere, or delete your account at any time. Deleting takes your clips off the web at once and deletes them after seven days unless you sign in and keep the account. A safety record (a one-way code made from your sign-in, never your name or clips) is kept for a year so deleting can't undo bans or blocks.

Exactly what Cloud stores, and for how long, is on Cloud Account and Data.

Ghost Mode

Ghost Mode keeps Flashback's window closed at launch, mutes its sounds and notifications, and turns off its Discord status while the replay buffer keeps running. The tray icon stays so you can reopen Flashback, turn Ghost Mode off or quit. Flashback can't control activity you set up manually inside Discord itself.

Related pages: Security · Cloud Account and Data · Diagnostics and Logs · Sharing and Visibility