Every system built without privacy-by-default is infrastructure that can be weaponized later. Even if it's not being used that way now.
A company builds a product and collects data "for analytics". The data sits there. It gets normalized. Then one day, a government realizes they can just request all of it. Or the company pivots and sells the data. Or they get acquired by someone with different values. The infrastructure gets built first, the abuse comes later.
This happens constantly.
Most companies ask you to trust them. "We promise we won't look at your data. We promise we won't sell it. Read our privacy policy."
But trust is a liability. It requires believing a company will stay good forever, under all possible pressures, in all possible futures. That's not a bet worth making.
We're taking a different approach.
Most web-based video editors run on the cloud. Every file you upload gets sent to their servers, stored in their database, processed on their machines. Your project lives with them for however long they decide to keep it.
OpenCut runs completely locally. We don’t see your videos because we never receive them. Everything happens locally on your machine. No cloud uploads. No server-side processing.
You don't have to trust us. The code is open source.
Your work isn't your identity
Your identity shouldn't be linked to the tools you use. We don't need your name, email, or phone number to let you edit videos.
You're nobody to us, and that's exactly how it should be.
Our commitments
We will never store user-uploaded content
We will never sell your data (we don't have any to sell)
We will never add watermarks to your projects (we don't own your work)
OpenCut will remain open source forever (so you can always verify these claims)
Building surveillance infrastructure, even accidentally, is irresponsible. That's why we don't.