TechSmith Screencast Policy Change - May 2018

Hi TechSmith Community!

Since its launch, TechSmith Screencast has been a valuable hosting service that millions of our desktop software users utilize daily and we are please to have been able to provide that service to them. As customer needs evolve, so too must TechSmith Screencast and we are here to announce a few important changes to the service; if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post them below or contact our TechSmith Community Forum administrator, Robert, at r.risdon@techsmith.com

We are making Screencast better!
As part of our effort to make your experience better and to modernize the Screencast platform, we are making changes to our content retention approach beginning September 5, 2018. These changes make way for improvements that will benefit all Screencast users, including:

New, faster platform for storage and delivery
Security improvements, including HTTPS secure content delivery

Screencast Pro customer will soon enjoy more bandwidth! We are increasing Pro bandwidth and storage limits by about 20% by the end of 2018.

This platform investment will enable us to add to the unique benefits already provided by Screencast:

Easy integration with our desktop products Snagit and Camtasia
Quizzing and interactivity support
Large File/lossless video source storage
Ad-free platform
Open commercial use

We will begin deleting inactive content from free Screencast accounts
To help make these improvements, we need to delete inactive content in free Screencast accounts. To arrive at this retention policy, we sought customer input and chose an approach that impacts as few customers as possible.

We will base retention on usage of the content - if twelve consecutive months have passed without free user content being viewed, we will consider the content inactive and permanently delete it. Starting September 5, 2018 TechSmith we begin deleting free Screencast content not viewed within the past year (twelve months). This means any free Screencast content that has not been viewed since September 4, 2017 will be permanently deleted as early as September 5, 2018. Going forward, we will continue this practice of deleting inactive free Screencast content on a regular basis. The new retention policy means we will store free Screencast content for a minimum of one year after the upload date, but it will be deleted if not viewed for one year. This deletion will be permanent. Once it is deleted, you will not be able to view, download, or access the content in any way, and we will be unable to retrieve it.

If you do not want your inactive content, then no further action is needed. We will delete it, thus freeing up additional space in your account.

If you have a free Screencast account, you must act by September 5, 2018 to avoid content loss. You can keep inactive content with any one of these three options:

Upgrade to a paid Screencast Pro account. You will keep all of your content, regardless of how often it is viewed. See all the ways Screencast Pro will benefit you. To help with this transition, from now until September 5, 2018 we are offering 25% off the first year of a Screencast Pro subscription (new Screencast Pro customers only, annual subscription only, promotional discount ends September 2018).
Click to view each older item you want to keep. Focus on items created more than twelve months ago.
Save your content to a local drive. How to download your content.

Note: "Last viewed date" is not currently shown in Screencast. We are working on this feature and expect to have it ready by July, see here for more information.

Screencast Pro content stays indefinitely
Your Screencast Pro content will not be deleted, regardless of when it was last viewed as long as you maintain Pro account status. All of your video and image links will continue to work.

Make sure to keep your Screencast Pro account active. If a Screencast Pro account is not renewed, then it will revert to a free Screencast account. Starting as soon as sixty days after the missed renewal date we will begin treating it as a free Screencast account and will delete any content not viewed within the past twelve months. We recommend checking your account status to confirm you have a Pro account and to confirm your renewal date.

We are excited to make these platform improvements and build benefits for all Screencast users. We thank you for your patience as we continue to provide the best experience possible and look forward to adding even more functionality in the future.

-Team TechSmith

Permanently deleted user

July 18, 2020 21:45

Thanks Robert. Very reasonable changes.

I'm curious about if there will be any automated "forewarning" of content pending deletion? For example, say a person is about to lose two videos. Will there be any automated message generated that advises of this? So that the owner can decide whether to act to save the content if they so choose?

Thanks... Rick :)

Robert R.

Community Manager

Hi Rick!

I'm not 100% sure so I'm going to look into whether we will be sending "forewarning" emails, though I do not believe so. I could be wrong on that account so before I give out misinformation, I'll double-check with the appropriate team.

Thanks!

-Robert

Wendy Hamilton

We prefer not to because there is an out-of-pocket cost for us to send emails in the volumes required; we have millions of free accounts. However, we are working on product interface updates that would provide a view of which content will expire when.

Fred W. Grover

Thanks for letting us know Wendy.

ofaison

Do you also deactivate/close the free account when you delete unused content?

Thanks

Ollie

Hi Ollie!

We will not be deactivating free accounts when the system removes inactive content.

Thanks!

-Robert

Just to add to Robert's correct comment, nearly all screencast accounts are physically the same as techsmith accounts so they also store other product information for the user like desktop license keys. So, although our EULA states we can delete the account as well as the content, we won't because of the broader negative impact to customers.

Thanks once again Wendy for the added information and explanation. I can understand why this might need to be done and I am sure the customers appreciate not having their account deleted which could cause a negative impact. Have a great day/night.

Thanks to Robert and Wendy for posting this great information on this update for the TechSmith Product Users.

TheMathsTutor.ie

Hi,

Wondering when is HTTPS going to be standard?

I have thousands of embedded links in the form http://www.screencast.com/t/*******
e.g. http://www.screencast.com/t/qsMkcsbEK
and incidentally this is the form presented in Screencast.com when I grab the share link on the videos.

When these are clicked, they don't convert automatically to https://

so the customer is seeing "Not secure" in their browser. Not good.

Can you advise please?

Thank you,

Eamonn

Kurrykid

Sounds good and necessary. Thanks for keeping us informed!

Off-topic thread

Please reference the new conversation here: HTTPS for Screencast?

Richard Campbell

January 20, 2023 22:22

I just bought a Screencast Pro yearly subscription, but I can't find the URL to the Screencast Pro site, even after reading my purchase receipt. I can only find the link to the legacy site. Why don't you make it easy to find the URL by updating the Techsmith website to find the Screencast Pro home page?

TechSmith Screencast Policy Change - May 2018

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