[FEATURE] - Option to disable background desktop previews/thumbnails for GDPR/privacy compliance

[jstb24]

Description

First of all, thank you for this amazing project! ControlR is incredibly smooth, fast, and a fantastic modern alternative to older tools like MeshCentral.

However, when deploying ControlR in professional environments (especially within the EU / Germany), the background preview/thumbnail feature on the dashboard is a major blocker. For legal reasons (GDPR compliance and strict worker council regulations), administrators are not allowed to visually monitor users or see their active screens while no support session is active.

Currently, the agent automatically captures and transmits screenshots to display them as dashboard previews.

Proposed Solution

It would be highly appreciated if we could get a global configuration setting (ideally via an Environment Variable in the docker-compose.yml or a server-wide setting) to completely disable these periodic background screenshots.

Expected Behavior when disabled:

• The background agent stops taking periodic screenshots when no active remote session is running.
• The dashboard displays a generic computer icon or a placeholder image instead of a live preview of the client's desktop.
• Network bandwidth is reduced since no periodic image updates are transmitted.

This feature would make ControlR 100% compliant with strict corporate privacy policies and would massively boost its adoption in professional self-hosted environments.

Thank you for your hard work and for considering this enhancement!

[bitbound]

@jstb24 Thanks for the kind words! 🙂

I will add this to #76 , which I'm working on right now. So there will be a global disable, plus granular control. I also planned to make this require user consent, even if enabled.

Just for clarity, though. The agent doesn't capture previews automatically in the background, and they aren't display on the main dashboard. An authorized user must be on the Remote Control page and manually click the Preview button. I understand that this is still a privacy/GDPR issue, though, which is why I already had plans to change it. :)

Please let me know if that covers your request, or I'm missing something.

Thanks!

[jstb24]

Oh, that would be really cool. I’d like to use it in a production environment after the initial tests and once the preview feature is ready. I also think the planned requirement for user consent makes a lot of sense. That reminds me: in this context, the notification on the remote PC could be displayed for a longer duration or made "sticky" during the session.

You are right, of course, regarding the preview function. The authorized user has to take active action to view the remote machine—something the remote user currently doesn't notice.

Yes, that covers my request; nothing was missed.

Thanks!

[bitbound]

@jstb24 Quick update on this.

This will be shipping in the next release, under the ControlR_AppOptions__DisableDesktopPreview environment variable. When this is set, the Preview button is removed in the UI. If the API endpoint is called through some other means, it short-circuits and returns NotFound.

[jstb24]

Hi Jared, perfect—that’s exactly it! There’s a lot of potential in this project. I only became aware of it thanks to Devolutions. I’m curious to see how it goes when I onboard the first beta group of about 20 devices. That should work without any issues using a PowerShell script via Intune, with just a few minor modifications. Do you follow a fixed release cycle, or is it more dynamic?
Thanks!