Is hiding a window from a screen share allowed? When it is fine, and when it is not

Is hiding a window from a screen share allowed?

Usually, yes. Hiding a window from a screen share is allowed when the rules of the setting permit outside help and you are hiding a tool of your own, such as notes, a password manager or an AI panel. It is not allowed where outside assistance is banned, or when the hiding misrepresents whose work the viewer is looking at.

The technology does not decide this; the rules of the room do. The same feature that keeps a presenter’s notes out of a webinar is misuse anywhere outside help is banned. Kopya is a desktop AI assistant for macOS and Windows that answers questions about what is on your screen when you press a hotkey; its panel is excluded from supported screen shares and recordings. This page explains where that is appropriate, where it is prohibited, and what Kopya’s own terms require. The feature itself is described on the screen-share privacy page, and how far it reaches on each operating system on the compatibility page.

When is it fine to keep an AI panel out of a screen share?

It is fine when the audience is entitled to see your work and not your tools, and the setting allows AI assistance. Presenting, demos, webinars, teaching, recording tutorials and everyday meetings where AI help is permitted all qualify. Where the exclusion holds, the panel stays on your display only — test your setup first.

The common thread: hide your tools, never your work. If the viewer has a right to know how the work was produced, the panel being off the share changes nothing about your obligation to tell them.

When is hiding a window from a screen share not allowed?

It is not allowed in exams, interviews, assessments or any other setting whose rules prohibit outside assistance, and it is not allowed as a way to conceal help or misrepresent your work. Kopya’s terms prohibit all of these, and you are responsible for checking whether assistance is permitted before you use the app.

Four situations are always off limits:

• Settings that ban outside help. Exams, interviews, assessments, certifications, timed tests and any supervised session. If you are unsure, the answer is no until you have checked.
• Concealing prohibited assistance. Using the panel’s capture exclusion so that someone who is entitled to know about the help does not see it.
• Misrepresenting your work. Submitting or presenting AI output as unaided work where that matters: graded work, hiring processes, certifications, client deliverables with disclosure requirements.
• Circumventing another service’s rules. Many platforms, employers and institutions restrict AI assistance. Kopya’s terms require you to respect those restrictions rather than route around them.

Exam software has its own tooling, and it is not this: on macOS, Apple’s engineers point assessment apps to the Automatic Assessment Configuration framework, not to a window-level capture flag. Kopya is not built for that setting, and its terms exclude it.

Do I need to tell people I am using an AI assistant?

Often, yes. Keeping the panel off a share protects your workspace; it does not replace disclosure. If a workplace policy, a client agreement, a course or a meeting host requires you to disclose AI use, you must do so whether or not the panel is visible. Kopya’s terms say privacy controls do not exempt you from those requirements.

Recording adds a second layer. Consent rules for recording a call vary by country and by organisation, and they apply to the recording itself, not to which windows appear in it. Kopya does not join calls, does not record audio and takes a screenshot of your primary display only when you press the capture hotkey, so it does not change your recording obligations. The AI output you then use in the meeting is still yours to disclose where disclosure is expected.

A practical check before you share:

• Read the policy that applies: your employer’s AI policy, the course rules, the client contract, or the event’s rules for speakers.
• If AI use must be disclosed, say so once at the start. A single sentence covers it.
• If the session is recorded, follow the meeting’s recording consent rules, not the visibility of your panel.
• If you would be uncomfortable with the audience knowing the panel was open, treat that as a signal that this is not a setting to use it in.
• Where nothing is written down, ask the host. Assistance that is fine in one team is off limits in the next.

What do Kopya’s terms actually say?

Kopya’s terms describe the app as a productivity and privacy tool for your own work where AI assistance is permitted. You agree not to use it where outside assistance is prohibited, not to use screen-share privacy to conceal prohibited help or misrepresent your work, and not to circumvent another service’s rules on AI assistance.

Permitted settings only

You may not use the service in exams, interviews, assessments or other settings whose rules prohibit outside assistance. Checking whether assistance is permitted is your responsibility, not Kopya’s.

No concealment, no misrepresentation

Screen-share privacy may not be used to conceal prohibited assistance or to misrepresent your work. Disclosure and consent requirements apply in full; privacy controls do not exempt you from them.

Other services’ rules stand

You may not use Kopya to get around another service’s terms, including its restrictions on AI assistance.

Lawful capture only

You may only capture material you have the right to capture. Screenshots go to Kopya’s server and on to the AI provider to generate the answer; Kopya does not intentionally retain them after processing, and provider retention rules may apply. See the privacy policy.

The full wording is in the acceptable-use section of the terms; usage limits and abuse are set out in the fair use policy. Screen-share privacy itself is on by default on every plan, including the free plan, and the panel always shows whether it is hidden or visible in screen shares, so you can always see the state you are in.

Is capture exclusion a hack, or a normal operating-system feature?

It is a normal, documented operating-system feature. Windows exposes it as SetWindowDisplayAffinity with WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE, and Microsoft’s documentation gives the example of “windows that show video recording controls, so that the controls are not included in the capture”. Password managers, messengers and streaming software use the same flag for the same everyday reasons.

• Signal Desktop turned on “Screen security” by default on Windows 11 in May 2025 to keep messages out of screenshots and Windows Recall.
• KeePassXC added screen capture protection in version 2.7.0, using WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE on Windows and NSWindowSharingNone on macOS.
• Bitwarden documents an “Allow screen capture” setting for its desktop app and hedges the claim to most screenshots and screen shares.
• OBS Studio hides its own windows from capture on Windows 10 version 2004 and newer with the same flag.
• Zoom documents sharing your screen without showing windows from the Zoom desktop app itself.
• Microsoft’s Recall guidance tells app developers to use display affinity to keep sensitive content out of Recall snapshots.

Kopya uses the same mechanism through Electron’s setContentProtection. Microsoft also states that the flag is not a security feature or DRM: it does not stop someone photographing the screen, and other software can read the flag from any process. Apple goes further on the macOS equivalent: its documentation calls the constant a legacy one that macOS no longer uses and tells developers not to use it to hide or omit content from being captured. The APIs, precedents and limits are covered in how screen capture exclusion works; the five ways to keep a window out of a share, most of them built into your operating system or the meeting tool, are compared in hide a window from a screen share.

Why doesn’t Kopya call itself undetectable?

Because it is not, and no operating-system feature makes it so. Kopya’s panel is excluded from capture through a documented flag that some capture methods honour and others, especially on recent macOS, do not. “Undetectable” would claim that no person, tool or method can notice the assistant. That claim is false for every app, so Kopya does not make it.

Capture exclusion does not hide:

• The menu-bar or tray icon and its menu, or the sign-in window.
• The Kopya process in Task Manager or Activity Monitor, or anything that monitoring or endpoint software inspects.
• A phone camera, a projector or mirrored display, or a person looking at your screen.
• Capture paths that do not honour the flag. On macOS 15.4 and later, apps that capture through ScreenCaptureKit, including built-in screen recording, have been reported to capture such windows; see what works on a Mac now.
• The flag itself: on Windows, other software can read a window’s display affinity from any process.

The distinction between “excluded from capture” and “undetectable” is set out in full on what is an invisible AI overlay. The honest wording is “excluded from supported capture”, and the honest habit is the 60-second self-test before you rely on it. The same honesty is why this page exists: a tool that belongs only where the rules allow it should say so plainly. Shorter answers to the questions people ask most are collected on the answers page.

Common questions

Sources

1. Microsoft Learn — SetWindowDisplayAffinity
2. Microsoft Learn — GetWindowDisplayAffinity
3. Microsoft Learn — Recall guidance for app developers
4. Apple Developer — NSWindow.SharingType.none
5. Apple Developer Forums — screenshots vs recording, assessment mode pointer (Dec 2024)
6. Signal blog — Screen security on Windows
7. KeePassXC PR #6030 — screen capture protection
8. Bitwarden Help — app settings
9. OBS Studio PR #5698 — hide OBS windows from capture
10. Zoom Support — advanced screen sharing and window filtering