VidNo sends exactly one type of data to an external service: text content to Anthropic's Claude API for script generation. Nothing else. Here is a precise accounting of what is and is not transmitted.
What IS sent to Claude's API: extracted text from OCR (code visible in your editor, terminal output, comments, file names as they appear on screen), git diff summaries (text descriptions of what changed between frames, like "+47 lines in src/api/route.ts"), file path information visible on screen, and a prompt instructing Claude to generate a narration script. The total payload is typically 3,000-8,000 tokens of text — roughly 2-6 pages of plain text.
What is NOT sent anywhere: video frames or screenshots from your recording (OCR happens locally, only the resulting text is transmitted), audio from your recording, your voice sample or voice model, the rendered output videos, your local file system contents beyond what is visible on screen, any identifying information about your machine or network, and telemetry or usage analytics of any kind.
VidNo does not have analytics, tracking pixels, crash reporting, or any form of telemetry. There are no background network calls. The only outbound network request VidNo ever makes is the single HTTPS POST to Anthropic's API during the script generation step.
Anthropic's API data handling policy is clear: inputs sent via API are not used to train models and are not retained beyond the processing window. This means the text from your coding session is processed, the script is generated and returned, and Anthropic discards the input. You can review their current data policy at anthropic.com for the latest terms.
If your work involves classified material, highly sensitive client data, or code under strict data handling agreements, you can use VidNo's --offline flag to skip the Claude API call entirely. In offline mode, VidNo generates a structured outline from the OCR analysis and you write (or dictate) the full script yourself. All other features — voice synthesis, editing, rendering — work normally in offline mode.
For the vast majority of developers, the text-only API call represents a minimal and acceptable privacy surface area. No visual or audio content ever leaves your machine.