Privacy Policy
The short version
- Your screenshots, the text on your screen and the text you copy stay on your phone. They are never uploaded.
- Text is recognised on your phone, offline. No screenshot or text is sent to us or to any online service to be read.
- The Accessibility Service is used only for the volume-button shortcut, and to take the screenshot and read the screen's text at the moment you use it.
- The app never reads what you type, and never reads password fields.
- The app sends a small amount of usage data (an app ID, your phone model, Android version and how often features are used) so we can fix problems. No name, email, contacts or location from your phone.
- We don't sell data. The app shows one ad on its main screen through Google AdMob. Ads never appear in the screenshot editor, and the ad service never gets your screenshots or screen text. Pro and the first 3 days have no ads.
- Pro is bought through Google Play. We never see your card or payment details.
1. Who we are
Screenshot Copy Paste ("the app", "we") is an Android tool for taking a screenshot, selecting and copying the text in it, cropping part of it, drawing on it and sharing it. This policy explains what the app does with your information. By using the app you agree to this policy and to our Terms of Service.
2. What stays on your phone
These never leave your phone:
- Screenshots and crops. A screenshot is held in memory while you use the editor. It is saved to your gallery only when you tap Save. When you tap Copy or Share, the picture is written to a temporary file in the app's private storage so the app you paste or share into can read it; these files are deleted automatically after about 10 minutes.
- Search buttons. Only when you tap Lens, the picture is sent to Google Lens (part of the Google app); only when you tap Search, the selected words are sent to your phone's search app or a web search. Those services handle it under their own privacy policies.
- Text found in the screenshot. Text recognition (OCR) runs on your phone with built-in models: Google ML Kit's on-device text recognition (Latin, Hindi/Devanagari, Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and Tesseract models packaged inside the app (Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Russian, Thai). It works without internet, and no image or text is sent anywhere to be read.
- The text shown on screen. When you trigger a capture, the app may also read the text that is shown on screen, as Android provides it, so you can select exactly the right words. This text is used only inside the editor for that one screenshot and is then discarded.
- What you copy. Text or images you copy go to your phone's clipboard, like any copy. The app does not read your clipboard otherwise.
- Your settings (theme, trigger button, which buttons are shown) are stored in the app on your phone.
3. The Accessibility Service (Volume Button Trigger)
The app offers an optional shortcut: hold a volume button to take a screenshot. It needs Android's Accessibility Service, and the app asks you to accept a clear explanation before you turn it on. You can turn it off at any time in your phone's Accessibility settings.
What it is used for
- Seeing volume button presses. Only the volume buttons. A short press still changes the volume as usual; holding the button you chose (Volume Up or Volume Down) opens the screenshot editor.
- Taking the screenshot of the screen you are looking at.
- Reading the text shown on screen at that moment, so the words you select are copied exactly, without recognition mistakes.
What it is never used for
- It does not read what you type, and does not log keys other than the volume buttons.
- It does not read password fields.
- It does not watch your screen or collect your activity in the background, and does not read text when you are not using the shortcut.
- It does not tap, type or change anything in other apps.
- Nothing it sees is stored, uploaded, shared, or used for ads or profiling.
4. Default Digital Assistant
If you set the app as your phone's default digital assistant, Android opens it when you use the assistant gesture (for example, holding the Power or Home button). At that moment Android gives the app a screenshot of the current screen and, if your phone allows it, the text on that screen. The app uses both only to open the editor, exactly as described above, and keeps nothing afterwards. You can choose another assistant at any time in your phone's settings.
5. Data the app sends
To find bugs and see which features are useful, the app sends the following to our database (Google Firebase Cloud Firestore) and to Google Analytics for Firebase:
| What | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An app ID | a 10-digit number shown under My Account, made from a scrambled code of your phone's Android ID (or random if that isn't available), so it stays the same if you reinstall | To tell phones apart and find your report when you contact support. It can't be turned back into the Android ID and is not linked to your name or Google account. |
| Pro plan | free, monthly, yearly or lifetime, and whether it was bought on Google Play | To show your plan and give support with purchases |
| Phone model and Android version | "Samsung SM-A515F", "Android 14" | To fix problems that only happen on some phones |
| App settings | chosen mode, which buttons are shown | To improve defaults |
| Feature counts | number of screenshots, how often Save, Copy, Lens, Share or Brush were used | To see which features matter |
| Free-trial record | a scrambled code made from your phone's Android ID, and the date your free Pro trial started | So reinstalling the app doesn't restart the 3-day trial. The code can't be turned back into the Android ID and isn't linked to your app ID. |
| Activity times | last time the app was used, whether it is open | To understand usage and send messages at sensible times |
| Standard analytics data | app version, device type, approximate country | Collected by Google Analytics for Firebase to show how the app is used |
We never collect your screenshots, the text on your screen, the text you copy, your name, email, phone number, contacts, photos, files, or precise location.
Google processes Firebase data under its own terms; see Firebase privacy information. To stop analytics entirely, you can uninstall the app.
6. Ads (Google AdMob)
The app is free and shows one ad on its main screen (the screen with the shortcut cards), provided by Google AdMob. There are no ads in the screenshot editor, on top of other apps, or in notifications.
What AdMob collects
To show ads, measure them and prevent fraud, the Google Mobile Ads SDK in the app collects and sends to Google:
- Your phone's advertising ID (a resettable ID that Android gives for ads), or an app-set ID
- Your IP address, from which an approximate location (country or city) can be worked out
- Device and app details, such as phone model, Android version, language, app version
- How you interact with the ad (whether it was shown or tapped), plus diagnostics and crash data from the ad SDK
AdMob never receives your screenshots, the text on your screen, the text you copy, or anything the Accessibility Service or the assistant sees.
Your choices
- Europe, the UK and Switzerland: before any ad is shown, Google's consent message asks whether your data may be used for personalised ads. You can change your answer at any time in the app: Menu ☰ → Ad privacy choices. If you don't consent, you may still see non-personalised ads.
- Everywhere: you can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of personalised ads, in your phone's Settings → Google → Ads (or Settings → Privacy → Ads).
Google handles this data under its own policies: How Google uses information from apps that use its services and How Google uses data for advertising.
7. Pro purchases (Google Play)
Text copy, Search, Google Lens, Save, Brush and Share are Pro features. They are free for the first 3 days after install; after that they need a Pro plan (monthly, yearly or lifetime), bought through Google Play.
- Payment is handled by Google Play. Your card, billing address and payment details go to Google, not to us. Google's Google Payments Privacy Notice applies.
- What the app receives from Google Play: which plan is active and a purchase token, so it can unlock Pro on your phone and confirm the purchase. It is used only for that, and we don't receive your name or email from it.
- Restoring Pro: Pro belongs to the Google account you bought it with. Restore purchases on the Pro screen asks Google Play again.
- Cancelling: manage or cancel a subscription in Google Play → Payments & subscriptions.
8. Messages and support requests
- Messages from us. We may send app news or tips to the app's message inbox and as notifications (if you allow notifications). They are linked to your app ID.
- Feedback form. When you send feedback on our Support page, we receive the name you enter, your app ID, your topic and message, and the phone model and Android version stored for that ID. We use this only to answer and improve the app.
9. Android permissions the app uses
| Permission | What it is used for |
|---|---|
| Accessibility Service (optional) | The volume-button shortcut, as explained in section 3 |
| Default digital assistant (optional) | Opening the editor with your phone's assistant gesture, as explained in section 4 |
| Display over other apps | Opening the editor on top of the app you are using. Some phones block this without the permission. |
| Notifications | Showing messages from us |
| Battery optimisation exemption, wake lock | Keeping the shortcut ready so Android doesn't stop it in the background |
| Google Play Billing | Buying Pro and checking whether you own it, as explained in section 7 |
| Internet | Sending the usage data in section 5, loading the ad in section 6, receiving messages and settings, and the support form. Not used for text recognition. |
| Advertising ID | Used by Google AdMob to show and measure the ad, as explained in section 6 |
| Vibrate | A short buzz when the shortcut is triggered |
10. Sharing and selling
We do not sell or rent any data. Data is shared only with Google, as our cloud, analytics, ad and payment provider (see sections 5, 6 and 7), or if the law requires it. The advertising data in section 6 is collected by Google directly; we don't receive it.
11. How long we keep data, and deleting it
- Screenshots and screen text are never stored by us, so there is nothing to delete.
- The free-trial record is kept so the trial can't be restarted. Purchase records are kept by Google Play under its policies.
- Advertising data is kept by Google under its policies; you can reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in your phone's settings.
- Usage data stays linked to your app ID. Because the ID is made from your phone, reinstalling the app on the same phone keeps the same ID; after a factory reset the phone gets a new one.
- To have the data for your ID deleted, send a request through the Support page with your app ID (Menu ☰ → My Account). We delete it within 30 days.
12. Security
Data sent to Firebase travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Because screenshots and screen text never leave your phone, they cannot be exposed by our servers.
13. Children
The app is for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.
14. Changes to this policy
If the app starts handling data differently, we will update this page and change the date at the top. For important changes we will also tell you in the app.
15. Contact
Questions about privacy, or a data request: use the form on our Support page and choose any topic. Please include your app ID if the question is about your data.