Privacy

What we store — and what never leaves your machine

FirstCut is built so your footage stays yours. The short version: your multi-gigabyte video files are never uploaded. Only the small audio track is sent, only to produce a transcript.

Last updated: 20 July 2026

Your video never uploads

When you add footage, your browser extracts just the encoded audio track locally and uploads only that. The video itself stays on your disk. To preview a cut, FirstCut reads the original video directly from your machine — the edit is a list of timecodes, and the pixels come from your own files.

What we do store

• Audio for transcription. The extracted audio track is uploaded to our storage and transcribed. The resulting transcript is saved to your account.
• Your sequences. The briefs you write and the edits (the ordered list of clips and timecodes) are saved so you can reopen and refine them.
• Account identity. If you sign in, we store the identifier from your sign-in method (Google, or a passwordless email link) to keep your work separate and private to you.
• Footage links (on your device only). On supported browsers, a tiny reference to where your video files live is stored locally so you don't have to relink every visit. This reference never leaves your device and no video bytes are copied.

What we don't do

• We don't upload, copy, or stream your video files.
• We don't sell your data or footage.
• Your work is isolated to your account — no other user can reach it.

Third parties

We use external providers to run the service in the backend.

We also use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used in aggregate. It sets cookies and reports anonymous usage and device information to Google; it never receives your footage, audio, transcripts, or sequences.

Deleting your data

You can clear your locally stored footage links and account data from the Account page. To request full removal of your stored audio and sequences, contact us.

Anonymous sessions

You can start using FirstCut without signing in — an anonymous session is created for you. If you later sign in, that work is merged into your account. If you never sign in, the anonymous session's data isn't linked to a personal identity.

This page is a plain-language summary of how FirstCut handles your data, not a substitute for a formal privacy policy or legal advice.