Screenshots and screen recording
Spectacle privacy rating
KDE's screenshot and screen recording app for Linux. It captures the desktop, a monitor, a window or a region, with annotation tools, and saves, copies or shares the result.
Summary
Spectacle scores 85 out of 100 (grade B) on the screenshots and screen recording criteria. It meets 5 of 6 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, saved locally by default and no account needed. It does not meet independent audit. It is based in Germany: Fourteen Eyes member; EU member (GDPR).
Score 85 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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Yes
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
GPL-2.0-or-later and LGPL, with some files under BSD-3-Clause.
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Yes
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
No third-party trackers, and KDE app telemetry is opt-in. KDE websites use self-hosted Matomo with cookies disabled and IP addresses anonymized.
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Yes
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Free open-source app with no ads, funded by donations to KDE e.V.
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No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published.
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Yes
Saved locally by default Weight 2 of 3
Are screenshots and recordings saved on the device unless you choose to upload them?
Captures are saved locally. KDE apps only send data as a result of an explicit user action, such as sharing a capture.
- Yes