Privacy policy

The short version

Basecut runs locally on your machine. Your footage never leaves your computer unless you opt in to a cloud backend, and when you do, the footage goes directly from your machine to the cloud provider you chose, using your own API key. We never see it. We don't run an account system, we don't collect analytics on the app, and we don't store your files on any server we control.

What stays on your machine

• All source footage you ingest.
• Generated metadata: scene cuts, tags, transcripts, embeddings, ratings, marker positions, color sidecars.
• Proxy and preview files Basecut creates during analysis.
• The Basecut library database (SQLite) that powers the search index.

By default these live under your home directory. You can point Basecut at an external SSD in Settings; nothing else changes.

What leaves your machine (only if you opt in)

Basecut supports two backends for the AI analysis step:

• Local (default on Mac). A Qwen multimodal model runs on-device via MLX. No network calls. No data leaves your machine.
• Cloud (opt-in, default on Windows). Basecut sends video chunks and frames directly to Google's Gemini API using the API key you supplied. The request goes machine-to-Google. Basecut has no relay server in the middle. Google's data handling for Gemini API calls is governed by their terms. Basecut does not retain, log, or proxy the content.

Whisper transcription runs locally regardless of backend choice.

License validation

When Basecut starts, it verifies your license key against Gumroad's license API. The request includes your license key and the product ID. Gumroad receives the request and may log it per their privacy policy. We do not run a server that receives this call, so we do not collect or store license-check telemetry.

Version check

Basecut fetches a static /version.json file from this site to tell you when an update is available. The request hits our hosting provider (Vercel) and is subject to their default access logs (IP, timestamp, user agent). We do not add tracking, fingerprinting, or analytics to this endpoint, and we do not associate the request with your license key.

This website

The basecut.app site is hosted on Vercel. Vercel captures standard server access logs (IP, request path, user agent, timestamp) for every request, which we cannot fully turn off. We have not added any analytics, tracking pixels, ad scripts, or third-party embeds. We do not use cookies for tracking. The site sets no persistent cookies of its own.

Payments

All purchases run through Gumroad. Gumroad collects the information needed to process payment and deliver the license: name, email, billing details, and payment method. We receive name, email, and order info via Gumroad's seller dashboard. Card numbers and full payment details are handled by Gumroad and their payment processors and never reach us.

Email

If you contact us by replying to your Gumroad receipt, we retain that correspondence so we can support you. We do not enroll you in any marketing list. We do not sell or share email addresses.

Your rights

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of any personal information we hold about you (essentially: your email and order record) by replying to your Gumroad receipt. Because footage and analysis live entirely on your machine, deleting that data is a matter of deleting the Basecut folders on your disk; we cannot do it for you.

Changes

If we change this policy in a material way, we'll update the date at the top and post a note in the next release. Continued use of Basecut after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Privacy questions: reply to your Gumroad receipt email and a human answers.