Security

How Deck Clipboard Protects Your Data

Deck is built with a defense-in-depth approach to clipboard security: your history stays on your Mac by default, with optional layers like biometrics, encryption, and screen-share awareness.

Security pillars

Local-first storage

Clipboard history is stored in a local SQLite database on your Mac — not uploaded to Deck servers by default.

Touch ID protection

Lock sensitive clips behind biometric authentication so they are harder to access if someone else uses your Mac.

AES-GCM encryption

Protected entries use modern authenticated encryption; encryption keys are stored in the macOS Keychain.

Screen-share protection

Deck can hide its window during screen recording and sharing so your clipboard UI does not appear on stream.

What Deck does not do

  • No clipboard upload to servers by default
  • No ad or third-party tracker SDKs
  • No server storage of your AI API keys
  • No account or sign-up required
  • No selling or monetizing clipboard data

Sensitive content handling

  • Detects sensitive patterns (e.g. cards, passwords)
  • Per-app exclusion — skip capture entirely
  • Password-manager clipboard type awareness
  • Smart Rules for automatic filtering

Comparison with common alternatives

CapabilityDeckMaccyPaste
Local-first defaultYesYesNo (uses iCloud sync)
Touch IDYesNoNo
EncryptionAES-GCM (protected items)NoNo (uses iCloud sync)
Screen-share hideYesNoNo
Ad / tracker SDKsNoneNoneNone

Frequently asked questions

Try Deck on your Mac

Download Deck and read the privacy deep-dive when you want more detail.

Requires macOS 14.0 or later