Your footage stays yours.

The short version

Your footage isn’t uploaded to be searched. Sift indexes and searches it on your own computer; pictures, faces and speech are all analyzed right there. Footage only goes online when you choose: small copies of what you share with Link sharing, which come down when the link ends, or the results and previews an AI assistant you connect asks for.

Sift only sends things off your computer for the specific jobs below, and never sells personal information. Our website uses Google Analytics to count visits, and our ad landing page uses Meta’s pixel to measure our ads; you can opt out of both (see Analytics and ads below).

What the Sift app sends, and why

Search models (once). On first setup Sift downloads its search models from Sift’s own download server (downloads.siftclips.com) and checks each file before using it. Only the download request is sent; nothing about your footage.

Update checks. Sift checks siftclips.com for new versions every few hours, sending its version number.

Free trial. To keep the trial fair, Sift sends a one-way fingerprint of your computer’s hardware ID (not the ID itself), the trial’s terms (for example 3 days or 25 searches), when the trial started, when your first footage was ready to search, and how many searches you’ve run. From Sift 1.0.14 it also sends its version number and whether it’s a Mac or Windows. While Sift is open it checks in about every 30 minutes, also after you’ve bought a license, so we can see which versions are in use.

Trial milestones. During the free trial, Sift reports a few steps once each, so we can see where the trial is hard to get through: opened Sift, added a folder, how long the search models took to download (or the kind of problem that stopped them, like no internet or not enough space), first footage ready, first search (and how soon after opening Sift), whether a search found something, tried Spoken, People or a suggested search, played a result, saved to Selects, sent or exported Selects to an editing app, 10 searches left, saw the “trial ended” screen or a Buy card, and clicked Buy. Up to Sift 1.0.13 each report is just the step’s name. From Sift 1.0.14 it also carries a random id for that report (so a report sent twice counts once), a random id for that session of Sift, the same one-way fingerprint the free trial uses (so a new library on the same computer isn’t counted as a new computer), when it happened, the Sift version, and whether it’s a Mac or Windows. Never file names, folders, searches, people, your license or your email. Nothing is reported once you’ve entered a license.

License. When you activate or check a license, Sift sends your license key and a label with your computer’s name to Polar, our payment provider, which confirms it. If you use Link sharing, the key is also checked by our sharing service; it stores only the result and a one-way fingerprint, never the key.

Link sharing (only for footage you share). When you make a link, Sift uploads, for just the footage in it: small 540p copies of the videos (never your original files), a thumbnail of each, what’s said in them, the picture tags Sift uses for search (words like “beach” or “close-up”), file names, dates and timecode, and the names you’ve given people in them. It never uploads face data, and nothing you haven’t put in a link. This is stored by Cloudflare, our hosting provider, at a link made of 12 random letters and digits. Details are under Link sharing below.

Your Sift account (if you sign in). Signing in to Sift with your email keeps your links with you on another computer. Sift emails you a one-time code; there’s no password to store. We keep your email address and which computers are signed in.

.sift files. Sharing Selects with another editor creates a file on your computer that you send yourself. It lists clips and notes, not footage.

Bug reports. “Report a bug” makes a zip on your Desktop with your description, system details and recent logs, and opens an email for you to send. Nothing is sent unless you send it.

AI assistants (optional). If you connect an AI assistant (like Claude or ChatGPT) to Sift on your computer, what it asks for goes to that assistant’s provider under their terms: search results, clip names and folders, transcripts, clip details like length and frame rate, thumbnails and single frames, and the results of Sift’s shot checks (how a clip moves, its focus and sound). If your editing app’s Sift panel is open, it can also read the open timeline (which clips, where). Sift keeps a list of what each assistant changed in Sift, on your computer, so you can see and undo it. Sending to an editing app, exporting and sharing ask you first in Sift. Shot checks and everything else Sift measures happen on your computer.

Frame.io (optional). If you connect your Frame.io account, Sift signs in through Adobe as you, sees only the projects your account can see, and searches the ones you choose. It reads project, folder and file names and basic details like length and frame rate, and downloads Frame.io’s small preview copy of each video straight to your computer, where it’s indexed and then deleted. Originals are downloaded only when you send a clip to your editing app or choose Download, after Sift asks and shows where it will save them; each is downloaded once, as the whole file, to the folder you choose. The index and your Frame.io sign-in are kept on your computer. Only the sign-in step passes through our service: Adobe’s one-time sign-in code is held for a few minutes until your copy of Sift collects it, then deleted; we never store your sign-in, and your footage never passes through our servers. Sift never uploads anything to Frame.io; it only brings copies down to your computer, and Frame.io footage isn’t part of Link sharing. It doesn’t look for or recognize faces in Frame.io footage. Disconnecting (Integrations › Frame.io › Disconnect) deletes your Frame.io sign-in and everything Sift indexed from Frame.io on that computer (originals you downloaded stay where you saved them), and you can remove Sift’s access from your Adobe account at any time.

Link sharing

What’s online, and for how long. The footage in a link (above) stays online while a link uses it. Delete a link and it stops at once. Every hour, our service removes footage no link uses any more, so it’s gone from the cloud within hours. The free link closes after 3 days, and its footage comes down the same way.

When a plan or Sift ends. Links work while your Sift subscription or free trial is active, and keep working for 2 weeks after it, or after a Link sharing plan, ends. Then they pause. A paused link’s footage stays online for 30 days, so the link can come back if you renew; after that the links stop and the footage is deleted. You can delete a link sooner yourself.

The people you invite. When you invite someone by email, we keep their email address with the link, and when they were invited and first opened it, so you can see who has, until you remove them or delete the link. We send the invite through Resend, our email provider. Opening an invite sets a cookie that keeps that person signed in to that one link for up to 30 days, or until the link ends. For each link we also count how many times it was opened.

Selects sent back. When someone saves Selects on a link, we keep the clip list, any title and note, and who sent it, until your Sift collects them.

Reporting a link. Anyone who opens a link can choose Report this link. We keep the reason, any details and email address they add, and a one-way scrambled form of their internet address (so one address can’t send more than five reports an hour), and email the report to ourselves so we can look at it.

Keeping links private. To stop people guessing links, we note the internet address of anyone who tries a link that doesn’t exist; an address that tries many in an hour is blocked for that hour. These notes are deleted after an hour.

Older review links. Review links made before Link sharing keep working until they end, then everything in them is deleted. If one has a password, its title, notes, clip list and video addresses were encrypted with that password before upload, and the password was never stored.

AI assistants on shared footage

Only if the editor turns it on. For each link, the editor who shares it can let the people it’s shared with connect their own AI assistant (like Claude or ChatGPT) to search it. It’s off unless they turn it on, and they can turn it off at any time.

What the assistant gets. Only what that link shows the person: search results, clip names, transcripts, picture tags, people’s names the editor gave, clip details and thumbnails. Never original files, and never footage from other links. It may also send the editor Selects with notes, or ask for original files, which the editor decides on. What it gets goes to that assistant’s provider under their terms.

Signing in. People connect “Sift Clips” to their assistant once and sign in with the email a link was sent to and a one-time code we email them through Resend, or, coming from a link’s page, without a code. Someone who has a link but wasn’t invited by email is connected without an email: we give that connection a random id instead. We keep the email or id, the assistant’s name and web address, and when it connected. The sign-in passes, codes and tokens are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form: a pass lasts an hour and renews for up to 60 days, and expired ones are deleted within a day.

What the editor sees. For each link, the editor sees whose assistant connected and what it did: the words it searched for, the clips it opened, and the Selects or requests it sent, with when. We keep this for 90 days, and a daily count of each assistant’s requests for 7 days, so each can only make a limited number a day.

Keeping sign-in safe. To stop sign-in codes being sent to lots of people, we note a scrambled form of the internet address that asks for codes, and stop it after 10 an hour; these notes are deleted after 2 hours. Wrong assistant addresses count toward the same hourly block as wrong link codes.

Turning it off. When the editor turns assistants off, removes someone or their assistant, gives the link a new password, makes it invite-only, or the link ends, the assistants that depended on it stop at once.

Payments

Purchases are handled by Polar (polar.sh), the merchant of record, both for Sift and for Link sharing plans. Polar collects your payment and billing details under its own privacy policy; we never see your card number. We receive your name, email, what you bought and when it renews or ends, so we can turn your plan on and off and support you.

Who helps us run Sift

Cloudflare hosts our website, our sharing service and the footage you share (in the United States). Resend sends Sift’s emails: invites, sign-in codes, plan notices and setup tips. Polar handles payments. Google Workspace holds our own mailbox. Adobe’s Frame.io is used only if you connect it. Each handles data for us under its own terms, only to do that job.

This website

siftclips.com uses Google Analytics on every page, and Meta’s pixel on our ad landing page (siftclips.com/try/), both described under Analytics and ads. It is served by Cloudflare, which processes visitors’ IP addresses to deliver and protect the site.

Videos. Some pages show a tutorial from our YouTube channel. Until you press play you only see a picture from our own site; pressing play loads the video from YouTube (youtube-nocookie.com), under Google’s privacy policy.

We record each click on “Try it free” and each installer download it starts: when, the page it came from, whether it was on a phone or a computer and, if you arrived from one of our ads, which ad (from the tags in the ad’s link). To tell your click and its download apart from other visitors’, the site makes a random id for your visit, kept in your browser only until you close the tab, and passes it along with the download. We count requests for the emailed download link by day. None of this stores your IP address, a cookie or anything that identifies you.

Our own page counter. Each page on siftclips.com also tells our sharing service (share-api.siftclips.com) which page was viewed, the name of the site you came from (for example google.com, never the full address or what you searched), whether you’re on a Mac, Windows or a phone, and, when you click a link or button, its text and where it goes. It carries the same random id for your visit as “Try it free”, so we can tell visits from page views. It sets no cookie and we don’t keep your IP address; we keep these records for 90 days. It’s off if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, or if you’ve opted out under Analytics and ads.

Setup emails (only if you ask). If you give your email on the install page (“Get the 2-minute setup guide”), on the phone page, or in Sift (“Where should we send your setup tips?”), we send a few short emails through Resend, our email provider: the setup guide, a couple of tips while you try Sift, a reminder near the end of the trial, and, if your trial ends without a purchase, one later offer. If you give it in Sift, it’s linked to your computer’s one-way trial fingerprint, so the emails follow how far your trial got. We keep your email, where you signed up, your country, which emails we sent and whether you clicked the link in them. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and the trial emails stop when you buy Sift, unsubscribe, or an email can’t be delivered.

When you buy Sift. Polar tells us your email, that you bought, and when your subscription renews. We send a short welcome (where your key is and how to set up), and a reminder a week before each yearly renewal so it’s never a surprise. Unsubscribe any time.

On a phone, “Try it free” offers to email you the download link, since Sift runs on a Mac or PC. If you ask for it, we keep your email address (and the country your request came from) to send the link, sent through Resend, and to avoid sending it twice. We don’t add you to a mailing list. Ask any time and we’ll delete it.

If you sign up for the beta, we keep your email, name, country and the version you downloaded, to send your founding-tester key and product updates. Ask us any time and we’ll delete it.

Analytics and ads

On our homepage, Google Ads conversion tracking measures clicks on the Mac and Windows download buttons so we can see which ads lead to download interest. Google may receive page, browser and device information and use cookies to attribute those clicks to an ad. Ad personalization is disabled. This measures a button click, not a completed download, installation or purchase. The “Don’t share my information” choice below and Global Privacy Control also disable this Google Ads tracking.

Every page on siftclips.com loads Google Analytics. It tells Google which pages you viewed, how you arrived (for example from a search or a link), and your browser, type of device and approximate location, so we can see how people find and use the site. Google sets cookies to tell visits apart and receives your IP address, under Google’s Privacy Policy. We’ve turned off Google signals and ad personalization, so this data isn’t used for Google’s advertising.

When you come to siftclips.com/try/ from one of our ads on Facebook or Instagram, the page loads Meta’s pixel (opening it from our own site doesn’t). It tells Meta that the page was viewed, and whether you asked for the download link or clicked “Try it free”, so we can see which ads work and Meta can show them to people more likely to find Sift useful. Meta may use cookies and receive your IP address and browser details, under Meta’s Privacy Policy. No other page on siftclips.com loads it.

Under some US state laws this counts as “sharing” personal information for advertising. To opt out of Google Analytics, Meta’s pixel and our own page counter, click Don’t share my information (it remembers your choice in this browser), or turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser, which we honor automatically. Opting out turns all three off in this browser and doesn’t change anything else on the site.

Keeping and deleting

Shared footage is removed within hours of no link using it, as described under Link sharing. Invited people’s email addresses are deleted when you remove them or delete the link, and Selects sent back once your Sift collects them. Assistant activity on a link is kept 90 days, as described under AI assistants on shared footage. Trial fingerprints are kept so trials stay fair. Beta sign-ups, emailed-link requests and setup-email sign-ups are kept until you ask us to remove them; after you unsubscribe, we keep only enough to make sure you aren’t emailed again.

To ask what we hold about you, correct it or delete it, email support@siftclips.com. We’ll reply within 30 days.

Changes

If Sift starts sending anything new, we’ll update this page before the version that does so is released, and change the date below.

Who we are

Sift Clips is a product of Boatner Studios. Questions about privacy go to support@siftclips.com.

Updated 2026-10-28 · Questions: support@siftclips.com