frename privacy policy

Last updated: 2026-10-02

frename is a desktop app for reviewing, tagging and renaming video clips. It is made by one developer, Eugene Zelenov (github.com/Zelenov). This policy covers every build of frename: the Microsoft Store app, the installer and the portable zip from GitHub, and the Linux AppImage.

The short version

frename has no account, no analytics, no ads and no telemetry. The developer receives no data from you. Your videos, tags, comments and settings stay on your computer. Only the optional AI features send data off your computer, to two services (Anthropic and Soniox), and only with an API key of your own. The Store app contacts no other server.

What stays on your computer

  • Your videos and what you write about them. Tags are written into file names. Comments, markers and in/out points are written into the video files or into files next to them (.comment.txt, .srt, .frename), in the folders you open.
  • Settings and history: the folders you opened recently, the last clip in each, window size, volume and your choices in Settings. They are kept in a local database (frename.db) in the Microsoft Store app's private storage (Windows keeps it under %LocalAppData%\Packages\, in the app's LocalCache\Local\frename-store folder), %LocalAppData%\frename (installed version), the portable folder, or ~/.local/share/frename (Linux).
  • A log file (frename_debug.log) next to that database, recreated at every start. It holds technical messages such as file paths and errors. It is never sent anywhere.
  • API keys you enter in Settings, kept in your operating system's password store (Windows Credential Manager, or a keyring on Linux), never in files, logs or the database.

What leaves your computer, and when

No video data is sent until you run one of these actions on the videos you select (or on a marker), and the batch panels show what they will send and about what it costs before you start:

Action What is sent To whom Needs
Describe with AI (in batch mode, and ✨ / Ctrl+F2 on a marker) frames taken from each selected video (at most 60 per clip, chosen where the picture changes) or from around the marker, and the video's subtitles (.srt), if it has them Anthropic (the Claude API) your own Anthropic API key
Generate subtitles the audio track of each selected video, under the video's file name (which holds its tags) Soniox (speech-to-text API) your own Soniox API key

Two more requests to Soniox, without any video data, while a Soniox key is saved: opening Settings asks for its list of supported languages, and the Generate subtitles panel asks for your account's usage of the last 30 days to show the price. Both send only your key.

The request goes directly from your computer to that service over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), under your API key and your account with that service. The developer of frename never sees it. What the service does with the data is governed by its own terms and privacy policy:

The results (descriptions, markers, subtitles) are written back to your files on your computer.

Updates

  • Microsoft Store app: the Microsoft Store installs and updates frename. frename itself makes no update requests.
  • Installer and portable zip from GitHub: frename asks GitHub (api.github.com, github.com) whether a newer release exists: when you click Check for updates, and at most once a day at start-up unless you turn that off in Settings. The request carries nothing but what any web request carries (your IP address, the app's user agent). An update is downloaded only when you click Update and restart. See GitHub's privacy statement.

Children

frename is a general-purpose tool, not directed at children. The developer collects no personal information from anyone; the optional actions above send data only to the service they use, with your key.

Removing your data

Uninstalling the Microsoft Store app or the installed version removes its database and log. The Store app keeps its own copy: on its first start it copies the settings of an installed version, if there is one, and leaves that version's data as it was; settings of a portable version can be imported in Settings. The portable version keeps its data in its own folder, which you delete. API keys can be removed in Settings (or in Windows Credential Manager, the entries with frename in their name). Tags, comments, markers and subtitles are part of your files and stay with them.

Changes

A change to this policy is published here, in frename's public repository, with the date above updated. The history of this file is the record of every change.

Contact

Questions: open an issue at https://github.com/Zelenov/frename/issues.