privacy_mask 1.0.3

A lightweight Flutter widget to protect sensitive content by preventing screenshots and screen recording at the OS level on Android and iOS.

Privacy Mask 🛡️

A lightweight, high-performance Flutter widget that protects sensitive information by preventing screen recording and screenshots at the OS level.

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🌟 Why Privacy Mask?

In 2025, mobile security is more than a feature—it's a requirement. Whether you're building a Banking, Healthcare (HIPAA), or Private Messaging app, privacy_mask ensures that sensitive data stays on the user's screen and out of their camera roll.

• Android Support: Uses FLAG_SECURE to block screenshots and screen recordings system-wide.
• iOS Support: Utilizes a secure layer hack (isSecureTextEntry) to black out recordings and screenshots.
• Lifecycle Aware: Automatically enables/disables protection as the widget enters or leaves the screen.

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📸 See it in action

Protection States

You can toggle protection dynamically. When enabled, the OS prevents the UI from being captured in the screen buffer.

Protection Disabled	Protection Enabled
App behaves normally	Ready for sensitive data

Screenshot Prevention

When a user attempts to take a screenshot or record the screen while protection is active, the OS intercepts the action.

Result of Screenshot/Recording
Android records a black screen/ iOS shows a security error

Web Protection Disabled	Web Protection Enabled
App behaves normally	Ready for sensitive data

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⚠️ Warning

Note on Testing: Screenshot prevention is a hardware-level feature. It will not work on the iOS Simulator because the Simulator bypasses the iOS Render Server. To verify iOS protection, you must use a physical device and test using Screen Recording or Screen Mirroring.

Web support

Platform Security Matrix

Feature	Android	iOS	Web
Block Screenshot	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No*
Block Screen Recording	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No*
Blur on Inactivity	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Block Text Selection	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Block Context Menu	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Block Printing	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes

*Note: Browsers do not permit hardware-level blocking of screenshots or recordings. Web support provides the highest level of software-level deterrence possible.

🛑 Known Limitations & Security Disclosure

While privacy_mask provides robust protection, no software solution is 100% foolproof. Developers should be aware of the following platform-specific constraints:

📱 Mobile (iOS & Android) iOS Simulator: Screenshot prevention does not work on the iOS Simulator. Apple’s render server only applies security layers on physical hardware.

External Hardware: This plugin cannot prevent someone from taking a physical photo of the device screen using another camera.

System UI: On some Android versions, the "Recent Apps" switcher may still show a snapshot of the app if the mask was not active before the app was minimized.

🌐 Web (The "Browser Sandbox") OS-Level Tools: We cannot block the system's "Print Screen" key, Snipping Tool (Windows), or Grab (macOS).

Browser Extensions: Malicious browser extensions with "screen capture" permissions can bypass web-level event listeners.

Developer Tools: An advanced user can open the Browser Inspector (F12) and manually disable the CSS blur or hidden styles.

Intellectual Honesty: Web protection is a deterrent, not a total lock. It prevents 99% of casual "right-click save" or "accidental tab leak" scenarios but will not stop a determined attacker.

🚀 Getting Started

Add the dependency to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  privacy_mask: ^1.0.3