Screenshot Protection: What's Blocked and What Isn't

Screenshot protection is a dropdown with three modes — No, Basic, and Advanced. It blocks native screenshot shortcuts and screen recording on supported desktop browsers and works together with dynamic watermarks.

Basic covers supported desktop browsers. Advanced (marketed as Screenshield) uses a fence view to shrink the capturable area and extends protection to mobile — iPhone, iPad, and Android — and is available on the Data Room tier and up.

What It Does

When set to Basic or Advanced on a group, Peony:

• Blocks native screenshot shortcuts on supported desktop platforms. Cmd+Shift+3, Cmd+Shift+4, Print Screen, and Win+Shift+S produce a blank or blurred capture.
• Blocks screen recording on the same platforms. QuickTime, Loom extensions, and OS-level recording all get a blurred or blank document area.
• Blocks the capture and locks the view. When a screenshot shortcut is detected, the document area blurs and the clipboard is cleared, so the capture comes out blank or blurred. Capture attempts are not recorded as a separate Audit trail event.
• Works with dynamic watermarks. If a capture does get through, the viewer's identity is burned into every page. A phone photo of the screen still carries the watermark.

Basic is best-effort desktop protection. In the app it carries the note "May be ineffective on mobile and some desktop devices." For mobile coverage, choose Advanced.

Coverage Matrix

On supported desktop browsers, Basic or Advanced produce a blurred/blank/no image. On mobile, only Advanced (Data Room tier and up) applies protection, and it reduces rather than fully eliminates capture — see the note below.

Advanced Mode (Screenshield)

Advanced is the mobile-capable mode, marketed as Screenshield. It uses a fence view to shrink the capturable area, which adds a little friction but is an effective deterrent. In the app it carries the note "Uses fence view to reduce the screenshottable area. Adds slight friction, but it's an effective deterrent." Available on the Data Room tier and up.

Mobile protection is desktop-optimized and has inherent limits — Apple and Google don't give web apps a hard block on OS-level screenshots, so Advanced reduces the capturable area rather than guaranteeing a fully blank capture. For anything truly sensitive, pair it with dynamic watermarks (a phone camera pointed at the screen can always take a photo, but the watermark still burns the viewer's identity into that photo). The highest-security stack is NDA + dynamic watermark + Advanced screenshot protection.

To turn it on, choose Advanced in the group's Screenshot protection control (see Setting It on a Group below).

Known Issues

• Chrome + macOS arrow-key navigation blur bug. The navigation blur state doesn't always clear when arrow-keying between pages. Fix in progress.
• Very old browsers. Browsers more than two major versions behind may not run screenshot protection correctly.

If a viewer reports it's not working, confirm: (1) the group's Screenshot protection is set to Basic or Advanced (not No), (2) they're on a supported desktop browser, (3) they're not on mobile with Basic (mobile needs Advanced, and even then has inherent limits). Most "it's not working" reports are mobile users or groups where the mode was left on No.

Setting It on a Group

Screenshot protection is a Security control card on the group, not a toggle under Permissions. Permissions is the separate per-folder visibility and downloads grid.

1. Open your data room, go to the Permissions tab, and open the group you want to protect.
2. In the group's Security control cards, click the Screenshot protection card.

3. In the dialog, open the Screenshot protection dropdown and choose a mode:
   • No — protection off.
   • Basic — desktop-only best-effort blocking.
   • Advanced — fence-view mode that also covers mobile (Data Room tier and up).

4. Save the group.
5. Test from an incognito window on a supported desktop browser. Try to screenshot — you should see a blank/blurred capture.

The Screenshot protection card itself is available on Business and up; the Advanced mode is Data Room and up. For a fundraising deck or M&A room, the typical stack is: email verification + watermark + Advanced screenshot protection + downloads off.

Pricing

• Business ($30/admin/month) — Basic screenshot protection on all supported desktop browsers
• Data Room ($52/admin/month) — Basic desktop protection + Advanced mode (Screenshield, mobile coverage on iOS, iPadOS, Android)
• Deal Team ($64/admin/month) and Enterprise (custom) — everything in Data Room, including Advanced mode

Viewers never count toward admins.

Common Questions

Screenshots still work on mobile even with protection on — can I stop mobile capture?

Screenshot protection is desktop-optimized, and mobile has inherent limits — Apple and Google don't hand web apps a hard OS-level screenshot block. Do three things: (1) set the group's Screenshot protection to Advanced (Screenshield), which makes mobile content much harder to capture (Data Room tier and up); (2) turn on dynamic watermarks as the strongest deterrent — a second camera can always photograph a screen, but the watermark burns the viewer's identity into that photo; (3) for the highest security, layer NDA + dynamic watermark on top.

Screenshot protection is too restrictive for our workflow — can I loosen it?

There's no partial setting between the modes. To loosen it, switch the group's Screenshot protection from Advanced or Basic down to a lighter mode, or to No to turn it off for that group. Because it's set per group, you can keep strict protection on sensitive groups and relax it on others without changing the whole room.

Related

• Dynamic Watermarks: Setup and Limits — burned-in identity protection that works on every platform including mobile
• NDA Gates: Signed Before Access — legal deterrent layer
• Access Control Layers — layering strategy for combining NDA, email, watermark, and screenshot protection