What stays on your PC

The short version

With the standard settings, your recordings, manuals, PDFs and records never leave your computer. They are ordinary files in your library folder. Only two writing options send anything, and you have to choose them yourself. Even then they send the pictures of the steps being described, not your manuals.

What always happens on your PC

Whichever writing option you pick, these happen on your computer:

Recording the screen, and your voice if you turn it on.
Finding the steps and naming what you clicked. Sopycat gets the names from Windows, or reads the words on the screen itself.
Drawing the pictures, with the highlight box, the step number and any blurring.
Writing the steps with Simple sentences (recommended), the standard option.
Turning your voice into words, once you have downloaded voice transcription.
Search, the PDF editor, redaction, signatures and making scans searchable (OCR).
Follow along, the records of who read or completed a manual, the audit log and backups.

Your library is a folder of ordinary files on your PC. If you put that folder in OneDrive, Dropbox or a shared drive, those services copy it the way they copy any other folder. Apart from the online writers described below, Sopycat itself uploads nothing. See Where your files live and Share a library with your office.

The four ways the words get written

Recording, finding the steps and taking the pictures are the same in every option. The option only changes who writes the sentence for each step.

Settings › How the words get written

Option	Who writes the sentences	What leaves your PC
Simple sentences (recommended)	Sopycat, on your PC. This is the standard option.	Nothing.
Smarter writing, on this computer	A writing helper that runs on your PC.	Only the one-time download of the helper. After that, nothing.
Sopycat account	Sopycat's online writing service.	The pictures of the steps being described, and the step details needed to describe them.
My own Anthropic key	Anthropic's service, billed to your own Anthropic account.	The same as Sopycat account, sent straight to Anthropic.

More about each option, and how to set up the helper, is in Choose how the words get written.

What the online writers are sent

With Sopycat account or My own Anthropic key, Sopycat sends this for each step it needs written:

A picture of the screen before and after the click, with a red circle where you clicked. The pictures are made smaller first, to at most 1280 pixels wide.
What you clicked, the window title and program, and the web address, if you were on a web page.
What you typed, if Write down what I type is on. If it is off, the writer is only told that you typed something.
The words of your narration for that step, if you recorded your voice.
The title you gave the recording and the titles of the steps before it.

With Sopycat account, your key goes along so the service knows your plan. These are not sent: your finished manuals, the rest of your library, your PDFs and other documents, your records, and your voice itself (only the typed-out words of a step's narration).

Blurring personal details before anything is sent

Turn on Blur personal details in the pictures automatically. Sopycat then reads each picture on your PC for email addresses, phone numbers, card numbers and social-security numbers, and pixelates them. It adds a few seconds per step.

Settings › Buttons while recording › Blur personal details in the pictures automatically

With an online writer, the pictures are blurred on your PC before they are sent. If the check cannot run for some steps, Sopycat writes those steps with simple sentences instead of sending the pictures unchecked.

The automatic blur finds those four kinds of details only. Names, addresses, balances and anything else on the screen are not found. Blurs you add by hand with Blur something are drawn after the steps are written, so they do not change what an online writer already saw. For screens with other private details, use Simple sentences (recommended) or Smarter writing, on this computer.

Typing is separate from the pictures. If you type private details while recording and use an online writer, turn off Write down what I type in the same Settings section. Passwords typed into password boxes are never written down: the step just says Enter the Password.

The unblurred originals stay in the manual's folder

Sopycat keeps the untouched frames from the recording in each manual's folder on your PC. That is how you can change or take away a blur later. It also means anyone who can open your library folder can see what was on screen before blurring, and a backup or a shared library folder includes those frames too. Keep the library folder somewhere only the right people can reach. See Fix the pictures.

Regulated-office mode

For offices with strict rules, one switch keeps all writing on the PC and records more.

Settings › Regulated office › Regulated-office mode

When it is on:

Sopycat account and My own Anthropic key are switched off, and ignored even if a key is filled in. Sentences are written on this computer only.
Share as a web page is hidden.
Automatic update checks and crash reports are turned off, and the Send button for problem reports cannot be used.
Every view, edit, export, redaction, signature and record is written to the audit log in the library folder.

Sopycat helps you keep data on your PC. It does not make your office compliant with any rule on its own, so check with whoever sets your office's rules. See Set up Sopycat for an office.

Other times Sopycat uses the internet

Update checks. Sopycat checks the Sopycat release page at start-up and every few hours, and downloads new versions quietly. This is the only thing it does online on its own. To stop it, untick Check for updates automatically and press Check now when you want to.
Crash reports. Off unless you turn them on. A report holds the Sopycat and Windows versions, the error, and the last lines of Sopycat's log. It never holds a document, a key or the location of your library.
Problem reports. Sent only when you type a description and press Send. They hold your description and the last lines of the log.
Downloads you start. The Office pack comes from LibreOffice's publisher, The Document Foundation. Voice transcription and the smarter-writing helper come from their publishers on GitHub and Hugging Face. Each is downloaded once and then runs on your PC.
Links in a manual. Clicking a link opens that web page, inside Sopycat or in your usual browser.
Your Sopycat key. Once licensing is in place, a key is checked when you enter it and refreshed now and then. See Buying and your key.

Settings › Updates, and Settings › If something goes wrong

Your keys

Keys you paste into Sopycat are kept in Sopycat's settings on this computer, not in the library folder, so they are not shared with your team or put in backups. Sopycat shows only the last four characters, and reports hide them. An Anthropic key is only ever sent to Anthropic.