Privacy Policy

SpeakMind is a macOS dictation app: you hold a hotkey, speak, and it types clean text wherever your cursor is. This policy explains exactly what data SpeakMind handles, where it goes, and the choices you have.

We designed SpeakMind to keep your words yours. We do not sell your data, we do not show ads, and we do not use third‑party advertising or analytics trackers.

1. How your words flow

Every dictation follows the same short path. Two cloud AI providers can be involved — one to turn your speech into text, another to clean that text up:

• 1 · Capture. Audio is recorded only while you hold the dictation hotkey. Release the key and recording stops.
• 2 · Transcription (speech → text). By default the audio is sent through SpeakMind's secure proxy to OpenAI (gpt‑4o‑transcribe), which turns it into raw text. Turn on Privacy Mode to use Apple's on‑device recognition instead — then audio never leaves your Mac.
• 3 · Cleanup (text → clean text). The raw transcript is sent to a language model to remove fillers, fix punctuation and format it. By default this runs on Cerebras (our primary cleanup provider), with OpenAI as a fallback. A China‑domestic route to Volcengine (Doubao) also exists for lower latency and is used only where enabled.
• 4 · Insert. The finished text is typed at your cursor. Neither provider keeps your audio or text after returning your result.

Bring your own key (BYOK): point transcription and cleanup at your own provider account (OpenAI, Groq, Cerebras, OpenRouter, Gemini, DeepSeek, or a custom endpoint). Your audio and text then go directly to that provider, not through our proxy. Ask mode: when you ask a question by voice, your question is sent to OpenAI's Responses API and may trigger a web search to answer it.

2. What SpeakMind processes

Your voice (audio)

Audio is captured only while you hold the dictation hotkey, and is used only to produce your transcript (the pipeline above shows exactly where it is sent). The cloud provider that transcribes it does not retain it after returning the text.

On your Mac, a recording is written during each capture. Depending on your History settings, a copy may be kept locally so you can re‑transcribe it later; you can turn this off and delete recordings any time in Settings.

Your transcribed text (cleanup)

After transcription, the raw text is sent to a cleanup language model to remove filler words, fix punctuation and format it. By default this is Cerebras, with OpenAI as a fallback (and Volcengine / Doubao on the China route, where enabled). Cleanup is faithful — it tidies what you said, it does not invent content. You can lower the cleanup strength or use lighter modes in Settings to keep more work on‑device.

Your account / billing

• If you enter an email to check your subscription, that email is sent to our license service (backed by Stripe for payments) to look up your plan. Payment card details are handled entirely by Stripe — SpeakMind never sees or stores your card.
• A randomly generated device identifier is used to manage your free trial and usage quota.

Stored on your Mac (local only)

The following stay on your device (in macOS preferences / Keychain) and are not uploaded by SpeakMind:

• Dictation history and the text you've dictated (you can disable history, and set auto‑deletion, in Settings).
• Your Memory Dictionary, snippets, transforms, and app settings.
• Any API key you provide (stored in the macOS Keychain, device‑only).

Diagnostics

SpeakMind can capture local crash logs on your Mac. If you choose to export a diagnostics report, it is written to your Downloads folder for you to share manually — emails and account tokens are stripped from that report before it is written. SpeakMind does not automatically transmit crash logs.

3. Companies that process your data

Each processor handles data under its own privacy terms. We send them only what is needed to provide the feature you invoked. If you use Bring‑your‑own‑key, your audio and text go directly to the provider you choose instead of the defaults above.

4. Your choices

• Privacy Mode (on‑device): keep transcription on your Mac with Apple's on‑device recognition, so audio never reaches a cloud provider.
• Bring your own key (BYOK): route transcription and cleanup through your own provider account (OpenAI, Groq, Cerebras, OpenRouter, Gemini, DeepSeek, or a custom endpoint) instead of our proxy.
• Reduce cloud use: lower the cleanup strength or use lighter modes to keep more processing on‑device.
• History off / auto‑delete: disable saving, or auto‑delete older entries and recordings, in Settings.
• Permissions: SpeakMind only listens while you hold the hotkey and only needs Microphone, Speech Recognition, and Accessibility permissions, which you grant in macOS and can revoke any time in System Settings.

5. Security & data retention

• Audio: not retained by the transcription or cleanup providers after your text is produced. On your Mac, recordings are kept only as long as your History settings allow — disable history or set auto‑delete to remove them.
• History / dictionary / settings: kept locally until you delete them (or per your auto‑delete setting).
• Account/billing: retained by Stripe per its policies for as long as you have an account.
• Keys & secrets: any API key you provide is stored in the macOS Keychain on your device only; traffic to our services and processors is sent over encrypted connections.

6. Children

SpeakMind is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your region) and we do not knowingly collect their data.

7. Changes

We may update this policy; the "Last updated" date above will change and, for material changes, we will surface a notice in the app.

8. Contact

Questions or data requests: hello@speakmind.app.

SpeakMind is operated by Kanverse APP, based in Sydney, Australia.