This page explains exactly what ShortGeek sends over the internet, to whom, and what it keeps on your computer. It applies to ShortGeek 2.0.0 and later. Last updated 26 September 2026.
The short version
- Your videos, screenshots, background clips and music never leave your computer. Every video is rendered locally.
- Your narration text does leave your computer when you use an online voice. The default voice, Edge Neural, sends the text of your script to Microsoft’s online speech service to be turned into audio.
- ShortGeek has no account, no telemetry and no analytics. TechyGeeksHome does not receive, see or store anything you make.
Microsoft Edge text to speech (the default voice)
Out of the box ShortGeek narrates with Microsoft’s Edge Neural voices, using the open source edge-tts library. When you render a short with this voice, the narration text of that short is sent to Microsoft’s online speech service, which returns the audio and the timing of each word. No API key is involved and nothing identifying you is added by ShortGeek. Microsoft processes that text under the Microsoft Privacy Statement; ShortGeek has no control over how long Microsoft keeps it.
If you would rather no narration text left your computer, choose the offline voice in Settings. See “Offline voice” below.
ElevenLabs (optional)
Only if you add your own ElevenLabs API key and choose an ElevenLabs voice, the narration text is sent to ElevenLabs instead of Microsoft, authenticated with your key. ElevenLabs processes it under the ElevenLabs Privacy Policy and your agreement with them. Without a key, nothing is ever sent to ElevenLabs.
Anthropic and OpenAI
ShortGeek 2.0.0 and later do not contact Anthropic or OpenAI at all. Versions 1.x had an optional script polish step that, only if you added your own key, sent your script text to Anthropic (privacy policy) or OpenAI (privacy policy). That feature was removed in 2.0.0. If you are still on a 1.x version, updating removes it.
Offline voice
The offline voice runs entirely on your computer and sends no text anywhere. The first time it is used it may need to download its voice model (about 120 MB) from GitHub. That download sends nothing about you or your script; it is an ordinary file download.
Other connections
- Check for updates: only when you click it, ShortGeek asks GitHub’s public API for the latest release number. No identifiers are sent. GitHub handles the request under the GitHub General Privacy Statement.
- Screenshots from a web address: if a beat’s screenshot is given as a web link rather than a file, ShortGeek downloads that image from the address you supplied. Screenshots you attach as files are never uploaded.
How your API key is stored
If you add an ElevenLabs key, it is saved in a settings file on your computer, %LOCALAPPDATA%\ShortGeek\config.json. It is stored as plain text, not encrypted, so anyone who can sign in to your Windows account can read it. It is only ever sent to ElevenLabs when you use an ElevenLabs voice, and ShortGeek masks it whenever it is shown on screen.
Retention and deleting your data
- On your computer: settings, your video library, cached audio and any downloaded voice models live under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ShortGeekand%LOCALAPPDATA%\TechyGeeksHome\ShortGeek. They are kept until you delete them. Uninstalling leaves them in place on purpose, so a reinstall keeps your work; delete those folders to remove everything. To remove just your API key, clear it in Settings. - With TechyGeeksHome: nothing is kept, because nothing is sent to us.
- With Microsoft, ElevenLabs or GitHub: their own retention and deletion policies apply. See the links above.
Questions
Open an issue on GitHub or use the contact page. Back to the ShortGeek product page.