01What leaves your machine
SiftVid is a 100% local Windows desktop application. There is no account, no login, no cloud storage, no telemetry, no analytics, and no content scanning built into the app, and there is no upload path in the software — no video, frame, thumbnail, tag, or search index can leave your machine. Five things, and only five, cause any network traffic to or from SiftVid. Three of the five never happen unless you ask for them:
- Update checks — a periodic HTTPS GET request to our release feed, hosted on gitlab.com, to see if a newer version exists. See Section 02.
- Licence checks — once each time you start the app, a single anonymous GET request to that same gitlab.com location, to download a short public list of deactivated licence keys. It carries no personal data and not even your licence key; the comparison happens on your computer. See Section 02.
- Optional component downloads — the FFmpeg binaries and the on-device AI model, fetched once, only after you agree, when a feature that needs them is used. See Section 03.
- Optional metadata lookups — off by default. If you switch them on and then explicitly run a lookup on a video you picked, SiftVid sends a file fingerprint to a third-party service you chose. See Section 03.
- Purchases — handled entirely on this website via Stripe. The desktop app itself has no purchase flow and never transmits payment data. See Section 04.
No telemetry. No account. No content scanning. No upload path.
SiftVid contains no analytics or crash-reporting SDK of any kind. It does not report what you open, tag, search for, or how long you use it. It does not require you to create an account. It cannot see or scan the videos in your library, and it has no mechanism to upload any file, thumbnail, tag, or search index anywhere. Everything you do inside the app stays on your PC.
What SiftVid does do on its own is contact one host, gitlab.com, for two things: to ask whether a newer version exists, and once per launch to fetch the public list of deactivated licence keys. Neither request carries anything that identifies you or your files. We would rather name those two requests plainly than claim the app never touches the network at all.
02Update and licence checks
These are the only two requests SiftVid makes without being asked. Both go to the same host, gitlab.com, where we publish releases, and neither carries anything that identifies you.
Update checks. SiftVid periodically sends an HTTPS GET request to our release feed to determine whether a newer version is available. This request carries only what is technically required to identify a compatible release (such as the app's own version number and operating system). It does not carry your name, email, licence key, file names, folder paths, or anything about the videos in your library.
Licence checks. Once per launch, shortly after the app window has finished opening, SiftVid makes a single anonymous GET request to that same gitlab.com location to download a small public list of licence keys that have been deactivated — for example, keys refunded under the 14-day policy. This is not a periodic poll and not a background heartbeat: it happens once per run of the app and no more, and nothing is requested before the window has loaded.
That request sends no personal data, no licence key, and no device identifier. SiftVid downloads the public list and then compares your key against it entirely on your own computer. Your key is never transmitted for checking, so we cannot learn from this request who you are, whether you launched the app, or how often.
If either request fails or is blocked (for example, on an offline machine or behind a restrictive firewall), SiftVid keeps working normally. Both are best-effort and neither blocks app functionality; a failed licence check simply leaves the previously downloaded list in place.
03Optional downloads & metadata lookups
Nothing in this section happens by itself. Each item below is off until you turn it on or agree to it, and none of it runs in the background.
Component downloads
Two components are downloaded, once, only when a feature that needs them is used, and only after SiftVid asks you and you agree:
- FFmpeg binaries — used locally for video reading, transcoding, and export.
- The on-device AI model — used for local, on-device classification. The model runs entirely on your machine after download; no video, frame, or classification result is ever sent back to us.
These downloads fetch the component files themselves. They do not send any information about you or your video library.
Metadata lookups
SiftVid can look up information about a video from third-party services, so you do not have to tag everything by hand. This is the one part of the app that sends anything derived from your files anywhere, so we want to be exact about it.
It is off by default, twice over: the feature itself is hidden behind a setting that ships disabled, and network lookups are a separate opt-in that also ships disabled. Even with both enabled, nothing is sent automatically — a lookup runs only when you open a specific video and start one yourself. There is no timer, no startup scan, and no bulk background fetch. If you never turn these on, SiftVid never contacts any of the services below.
When you do start a lookup:
- StashDB — SiftVid computes a short “oshash” fingerprint of the file on your own machine and sends that fingerprint, plus the video's approximate duration and the StashDB API key you supplied, to stashdb.org. A fingerprint is a short identifier, not the file: the video itself, and every frame of it, stays on your computer. If you point SiftVid at a different stash-box server, it goes there instead.
- Scraper definitions you enable — SiftVid can run small JSON “scraper” recipes against a website. Every network recipe we ship is switched off, and one of the two is a non-functional template pointing at an example address, so nothing here runs unless you turn it on or write your own. When you do, the recipe decides what gets sent: typically a fragment taken from the file name — a scene code, or a web address the file name already contains — to the site you configured. The file name is the input, so treat a recipe you did not write with the same caution as any other script.
SiftVid no longer includes a general web search. Earlier versions could send a phrase built from your file and folder names to a search engine; that feature was removed in August 2026 and no replacement ships. Nothing derived from a folder name leaves your machine any more.
These lookups go to companies that are not us, and what they do with a query is governed by their privacy policies, not ours. We do not receive a copy, and no lookup is ever performed for a video you did not choose.
04Purchases
SiftVid is a $14.99 one-time purchase with a 7-day full-access free trial. Purchases happen entirely on this website (siftvid.com) through Stripe Checkout — the desktop app has no purchase screen, no payment form, and no ability to transmit card data.
When you buy a license, we (through Stripe) collect the email address and payment details needed to process the purchase and deliver your license key. We never see or store your full card number — that is handled entirely by Stripe. This purchase record (email, order date, license key) is retained for support, refunds, and license administration; see Section 09.
05What we never collect
Never collected, from the desktop app
Video content, thumbnails, or frames. Filenames, folder paths, or any metadata about your files. Search queries or tags you create. Usage analytics or feature-usage telemetry of any kind. Any personally identifiable information. There is no account, so there is nothing to attach any of the above to even if we wanted to.
One clarification, because “never” should mean never: if you switch on the optional metadata lookups in Section 03 and run one, text derived from that video's file name and nearby folder names is sent to the third-party service you chose. That is the single exception, it is entirely under your control, and even then the data goes to that service — never to us.
06Local processing & your content
Search, tagging, thumbnailing, and AI classification all run locally on your machine, using the on-device model described in Section 03. SiftVid has no technical ability to view, verify, moderate, or delete any user's local content, and no code path anywhere in the app transmits video data, a decoded frame, or a thumbnail off your machine. Your library is yours alone.
One point of precision, because it is the sort of thing a careful reader should be told rather than left to discover: the fingerprint used by the optional lookup in Section 03 is computed by reading bytes from the start and end of a file. It is a fixed-length number, it cannot be turned back into video, and it reveals nothing about what the file shows. But it is derived from file contents rather than from the file name, so we will not claim that “nothing derived from your files ever leaves the machine” — if you run that lookup, that number does, to the service you chose.
We hold no copy of your library
SiftVid operates no storage vault, no media hosting, no backup service, and no web version of SiftVid. Browser-based versions offered in the past have been retired. There is therefore no server-side copy of anyone's videos to be breached, subpoenaed, mis-shared, or handed over — not because we promise to keep it safe, but because it does not exist.
See the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy for how this shapes what we can and cannot do in response to a legal notice.
07Website analytics
This section is about siftvid.com, not the app
The SiftVid desktop app has zero analytics of any kind (see Section 05). This section describes analytics on our marketing and purchase website only, which is a separate system from the software that runs on your PC.
siftvid.com uses Google Analytics to understand aggregate traffic to the website (pages viewed, general location/region, device type). This is standard, cookie-based website analytics — it has no connection to anything you do inside the desktop app, and it cannot be used to identify what is in your video library, because the app never sends that information anywhere.
You can decline website analytics using the cookie-consent banner shown on your first visit, which disables Google Analytics tracking for your browser session.
08Cookies & tracking
The SiftVid desktop app does not use cookies — it is not a web browser and has no browsing session to track. On siftvid.com, we use a small number of cookies:
- Essential cookies — required for checkout and basic site function (cannot be disabled).
- Analytics cookies — Google Analytics, described in Section 07 (can be declined via the cookie banner).
We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking, or social media tracking pixels on siftvid.com.
09Data retention
- In the desktop app: nothing is retained by us, because nothing is ever sent to us. Your library lives only on your PC, for as long as you keep it there.
- Purchase records: email address, order date, and license key are retained for the life of the license, to support license lookup, refunds (14-day window), and legal-notice revocation (see the Terms of Service).
- Website analytics data: retained by Google Analytics under Google's standard retention settings; it is aggregate and not tied to any SiftVid license or purchase record.
10Your rights
Because SiftVid has no account and no server-side copy of your library, most data-subject rights (access, correction, deletion, portability) simply do not apply to your video content — we never had it. They do apply to your purchase record:
- Access: request a copy of the purchase record associated with your license.
- Correction: update the email address on file for your license.
- Deletion: request deletion of your purchase record once it is no longer required for support, refund, or legal-retention purposes.
To exercise any of these rights, email reply@siftvid.com. Please write from the address you purchased with, or quote your licence key, so we can match the request to a record without asking you for more personal data than we already hold.
11Children's privacy
SiftVid is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors through this website, and the desktop app does not collect personal information from anyone. If you believe a minor has provided us with personal information through a purchase, contact reply@siftvid.com.
12Changes to this policy
We may update this privacy policy as the product changes. For significant changes we will post a prominent notice on this website and, where we hold an email on file for you (i.e. purchasers), notify you by email at least 30 days before the change takes effect.
Questions? Email reply@siftvid.com. That single mailbox reaches SiftVid for privacy, support, billing, licensing, and legal notices alike.