Privacy, in plain English
Buttons works by looking at your screen and acting on it — that's the whole product. It also means privacy here isn't boilerplate. This page tells you exactly what Buttons captures, where it goes, and what we keep. If anything on this page is unclear, that's a bug; tell us.
What Buttons captures, and when
While a run is active, Buttons captures the entire screen of the display you choose — everything visible on it, on every step of the run. It does not blur, crop, or redact anything.
That capture happens only while a run is active. Buttons does not watch your screen in the background, at idle, or between runs.
Practical consequence: if a password manager, a private document, or a terminal window is visible on that display during a run, it is part of what's captured. Close or hide anything you wouldn't want seen before you start a run.
Where those images go
Captured images are sent to Anthropic's API — the company behind Claude, the AI model that decides each click and keystroke. That is how Buttons "sees" your screen. This data is not used to train models.
Run logs stay on your Mac — and are off by default
Buttons can keep a local log of runs — the screenshots it took and the text it typed — which is useful for seeing what happened. This is off by default. If you turn it on (Settings → Privacy), logs are stored only on your own Mac, limited to your most recent runs, and never uploaded anywhere.
What your account stores
You sign in with Apple or Google. Your account stores:
- your email identity from Apple or Google sign-in, and
- a per-day count of runs, which is how the daily limit works.
That's it — no screen contents, no task text, no browsing history. You can delete your account from inside the app, which removes it.
Why macOS asks for those permissions
During onboarding, macOS will ask you to grant Buttons two permissions:
- Screen Recording — so Buttons can see the screen it's working on.
- Accessibility — because Buttons moves the pointer and types on your behalf, and macOS rightly treats that as sensitive.
Both can be revoked at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Revoking them stops runs from working, but the app will tell you that rather than fail silently.
The formal legal documents
Buttons is made by Blastoise, LLC, and is covered by the company-wide Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions at blastoise.app. This page is the plain-English version of how Buttons specifically handles your data — if this page and the formal policy ever seem to disagree, tell us; that's a bug too.
Last updated: July 2026