How it plays out on a deal
No browser-based tool can fully prevent screenshots, and a phone camera defeats any software control. What screenshot protection does well is raise the effort and leave traces: blurred or blank captures, logged attempts and watermarks on whatever does get through.
Buyers should treat vendor claims carefully. A claim that screenshots are impossible is not credible. A claim that common capture shortcuts are blocked and that every view carries the reader's name is, and it is the combination that matters.
What to check in a review or demo
- 1What exactly happens on a common capture shortcut in the browser viewer.
- 2Whether protection extends to mobile apps, where screenshots are easiest.
- 3Whether the vendor describes the limits of the feature honestly in its documentation.
Read alongside
- Fence viewA viewing mode that hides most of the page and shows only a narrow band around the cursor, so the full document cannot be captured in one screenshot or read over a shoulder.
- Dynamic watermarkingAn overlay stamped on a document at the moment it is viewed, printed or downloaded, showing details such as the reader's name, email, IP address and the time.
- Secure viewerThe in-browser document viewer a data room uses to display files without handing the reader the original, so protections such as watermarks and copy limits can apply.
- Mobile appA native phone or tablet application for reading documents, answering questions and checking activity in the data room, as opposed to using the website in a mobile browser.