The security-first video editor
Edit confidential footage without uploading it. Built for legal teams, medical comms, corporate communications, and journalists working with sensitive sources.
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Most video editors require you to upload your footage to a cloud server. For confidential material — client discovery footage, patient case studies, pre-release product reveals, source interviews — that upload is the entire problem.
AetherCut is the security-first video editor that solves it. The editor runs entirely in your browser. Your footage is read into memory via the File API and never traverses the network. The claim is verifiable in 30 seconds: open Chrome DevTools, switch to the Network tab, import a video, and watch zero outbound traffic carrying media data.
This is the falsifiable privacy claim that no upload-based editor can make. The architecture isn't an opt-in privacy mode bolted onto a cloud product. It's the default and only mode of operation.
Who this editor is for
Legal teams reviewing confidential discovery footage that can't be uploaded to a third-party processor without breaching client privilege.
Medical communications teams editing patient case studies covered by HIPAA-equivalent regulations in their jurisdiction. AetherCut doesn't claim HIPAA certification — but reducing the data processing surface to zero is more defensible than any vendor BAA.
Corporate communications handling unreleased product footage, M&A material, or internal-only content where Slack-message-level scrutiny applies to where the files live.
Journalists working with confidential sources who explicitly require that their footage not be uploaded to any third-party service. AetherCut delivers this without a workaround.
Any creator subject to client NDAs that restrict third-party data processing.
Architecture: the why
The editor is built on standard browser APIs — File API for media import, Canvas API for the timeline preview, WebCodecs for video decode and encode, MediaRecorder as a fallback for older browsers. None of these APIs require network access. The export runs entirely on your hardware via WebCodecs.
AI features that genuinely need cloud inference (Whisper auto-captions, ElevenLabs voiceover, Sora 2 B-roll generation) are opt-in per feature, clearly labelled in the UI, and disabled entirely by Privacy Mode — a one-click toggle in the header that severs every network-touching AI call.
When Privacy Mode is on, the editor continues to work using on-device AI features only (background removal, scene detection, motion tracking, color match). For high-security environments where any outbound network call is a non-starter, Privacy Mode delivers the full editor experience with zero cloud dependencies.
Compliance posture
Compliance is a property of how you deploy and use software, not a property of the software itself. AetherCut doesn't claim HIPAA, SOC 2, or GDPR certification — those certifications apply to data processors, and AetherCut isn't a data processor for your media.
What AetherCut delivers is a smaller compliance surface. No Business Associate Agreement is needed for media processing because we don't process your media. No Data Processing Agreement is needed for footage because we don't receive footage. No EU data residency rider is needed because the data never leaves your jurisdiction.
What you give up
Cloud editors have one architectural advantage: their servers are typically faster than a mid-tier laptop for heavy video encoding. AetherCut export speed scales with your local hardware — modern desktop machines beat cloud editors easily because they skip the upload step, but older laptops will be slower than CapCut's render farm.
If absolute render speed matters more to you than data residency, a cloud editor is the right call. For everyone whose footage genuinely needs to stay private, AetherCut is the editor.
Frequently asked questions
Is AetherCut HIPAA compliant?
HIPAA compliance is a property of how you deploy and use software. AetherCut reduces the compliance surface to nearly zero by never receiving your media — there's no data processor to sign a BAA with. Whether your specific deployment is HIPAA-compliant depends on your organization's policies.
Can I verify the no-upload claim?
Yes. Open Chrome DevTools, switch to the Network tab, and import a video. You will see zero outbound requests carrying media bytes. The claim is falsifiable in 30 seconds.
Does Privacy Mode break any features?
Privacy Mode disables cloud AI features only — Whisper auto-captions, ElevenLabs voiceover, Sora 2 B-roll, AI dubbing, and the Claude-powered AI Director. The full timeline editor, on-device AI tools, and export continue to work normally.
Try AetherCut now — no signup required.
Open the editor and verify the no-upload claim yourself in Chrome DevTools.
Free tier · Pro $14.95/mo · $129.88/yr · Lifetime Pro one-time
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No signup. No upload. Verify privacy in DevTools in 30 seconds.