Snow Shot
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      • Snow Shot privacy policy

      Last updated: October 19, 2026

      Snow Shot is operated by Chao Huang, publishing as Snow Apps. This policy explains how the app, its official online services, and this website handle your information.

      For privacy questions or requests to access, correct, or delete information, email chao@mgchao.top.

      Content on your device

      Screen capture, annotation, recording, standard text recognition (OCR), and QR code reading run on your device. Online features and connections to AI clients can send content elsewhere, as described below.

      Snow Shot works with the images, files, clipboard content, text, and annotations you capture, open, or select. Recordings can include system audio, microphone audio, webcam video, and keyboard or mouse overlays when you enable those features.

      Editable recording source files can retain mouse positions, clicks, and timing even when mouse effects are hidden. Keyboard key events are retained when the keyboard overlay is enabled.

      The app saves settings, screenshot history, pinned content, recordings, thumbnails, and temporary files locally. Screenshot history may include the original screen image, including areas outside the crop you export. Pinned history can contain images, text, recognition results, original file names and paths, window positions, and timestamps.

      You can adjust history limits, keep selected items, clear history and caches, and choose storage and output folders. The default limits for screenshot history and closed pinned history are seven days, 100 entries, and 1 GiB. Open pins are saved separately. Turning history off stops new history from being saved; it does not delete existing items and can pause automatic cleanup. Use the clear-history controls to remove saved items.

      Images kept for clipboard use are normally cleaned up after seven days when the app runs. Backups of damaged settings files are normally cleaned up after 30 days when the app runs. Recording source and recovery files can remain alongside your recordings and are outside the history limits. Remove them when you no longer need to edit or recover the recording. Files you export or keep in custom folders remain under your control.

      Online features and services you choose

      An online feature sends the content needed for the task to the selected service. Automatic actions you enable, such as translation, can also send requests. You can change the service or turn these actions off in Settings.

      • Table and formula recognition: the official service receives a prepared image for recognition on its private servers.
      • AI conversion and translation: the official service forwards the relevant images, text, instructions, and model options to its configured AI provider. Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (百炼) is the provider documented for this integration. Provider data handling depends on the service, region, and plan used; see Alibaba Cloud's privacy information.
      • Custom AI and translation services: the service you configure receives your submitted content and the credentials needed to process it. Its own terms govern processing locations, retention, and use of data for model training.
      • Cloud Upload: an exported image is sent to your chosen S3-compatible storage service. Depending on your settings, the uploaded file may be accessible through a public or CDN link. Manage or delete uploaded files through that service. Cancelling an upload request does not guarantee removal of a file already received.

      The official API uses HTTPS. With a custom service, the connection depends on the endpoint you configure. Before sending sensitive content to an online service, review the selected provider's terms, including its retention and model-training practices. Different providers and service plans can have different rules.

      Downloading recognition models contacts the model host, currently ModelScope, to retrieve files. It does not require sending your screenshots to that host.

      Information used to run the official service

      The official API receives your IP address as part of a network request. It uses an identifier derived from that address to apply usage limits and help prevent abuse. This identifier is pseudonymous, not anonymous. The service also records request times, the feature and model used, success or failure, and usage and accounting totals.

      The service database keeps these operational records rather than a content history of your submitted images, prompts, translations, or recognition results. Recognition workers process images in memory. Hosting systems, network logs, backups, and external AI providers are separate parts of the service, so this does not mean that every system handling a request has zero retention.

      Operational records are cleaned up automatically. The default period for operations and related records is 90 days from settlement. For usage summaries and eligible inactive identifiers, it is 400 days. These are configurable defaults, not a guaranteed maximum: unfinished work and records still needed by other operations can remain longer. Logs, backups, and external providers follow their own retention settings. Contact us if you need more information about retention or processing locations for the official service.

      Credentials, diagnostics, and connected AI clients

      Custom service keys and cloud-storage credentials are kept in local configuration files. These files and regular settings exports are not encrypted and can contain your credentials. Treat them and any backups as sensitive. Settings exported through MCP hide credential fields.

      Snow Shot keeps diagnostic logs and crash reports on your device to help diagnose problems. They can include app and session details, timings, image dimensions, model identifiers, and errors. The app tries to remove secrets and sensitive path or URL details, but a diagnostic archive or crash dump can still contain sensitive information, including data from app memory. Automatic crash-report uploads are disabled. You choose whether to export and share a diagnostic archive. The official online service also uses logs, metrics, and traces to maintain reliability and investigate problems.

      MCP, which lets an AI client work with Snow Shot, is off by default. When you enable it, an authenticated local connection can give that client access to supported captures, files, recognized content, settings, and app actions. The client may pass returned content to its own AI service. Review that client's settings and privacy terms, and disable MCP or disconnect it when you no longer need the connection.

      This website and app updates

      The website uses browser storage to remember your chosen language and appearance. Optional language troubleshooting information is kept in your browser session. You can remove these preferences by clearing this site's browser data. The website loads fonts from Google Fonts, which receives the network information needed to serve those files. Links to downloads, source code, and community pages take you to the relevant external service.

      Microsoft Store installations receive app updates through Microsoft Store. Depending on your settings, standalone installations can automatically check for and download updates from the selected release service, currently GitHub or Gitee. Model hosts, release services, and website hosting systems receive the network information needed to serve your requests and may keep their own access logs.

      Your choices and privacy requests

      You can stop using online features, remove service credentials and upload destinations, turn off MCP, clear local history, and delete files you have saved. Uninstalling the Microsoft Store app normally removes its package-managed data. Files in custom folders, exported recordings or images, and remote uploads need to be managed separately.

      Clearing local history does not delete official-service records or third-party uploads. To ask about information held by the official service, or request access, correction, or deletion, email chao@mgchao.top. Include enough information to help us locate the relevant records. We may need to verify your connection to those records; please do not send unrelated sensitive captures or service passwords.

      We will update this policy when the way Snow Shot handles information changes. The date at the top identifies the latest revision.