Privacy Policy

Last updated: 26 October 2026 · Applies to Dictera 0.9 and later

What changed: Dictera now lives in the notch. This version of the Policy adds the notch's online features (the weather, cover art, synced lyrics and Recognize Song), clipboard history, screenshots and screen recordings, and a table of every feature at a glance. It also sets out the new privacy defaults - automatic answers start off, attendee names go to cloud engines only if you switch that on, and a meeting countdown you don't answer records nothing - plus how long AI Assistant sessions are kept, your license key and purchase email moving into the Keychain, and what happens when your trial or subscription ends. The section on tutorial videos is gone: the Website no longer has any, so nothing on it loads from YouTube.

The short version:

Every feature at a glance

These tables follow the four groups of About Dictera ▸ Privacy Details in the App, which shows the same list for your copy as it is set up right now. Sections 2 to 8 give the detail.

On This Mac

FeatureWhat leaves your MacRecipientWhenHow to switch it offLegal basisRetention
Speech recognition
dictation, the AI Assistant, meetings
Nothing. Your voice is never uploaded. None Never Nothing to switch off We receive nothing Audio is never kept
What Dictera keeps
transcriptions, AI Assistant sessions, clipboard history, screenshots, recordings, statistics, notch settings
Nothing, unless a feature uses an engine that isn't on your Mac (AI Engines, below) None Never Each has its own switch or Clear button in Settings (Section 2) We receive nothing On your Mac, for as long as you choose (Section 8)
Calendar
off until you connect it
Nothing. Dictera reads it on your Mac and never changes it. None Never Switch off "Connect my calendar" in Settings ▸ Calendar We receive nothing A meeting's title, time, join link and attendee names are kept with its session
Reminders
off until you connect it
Nothing. Dictera reads your reminders in the Reminders app on your Mac, and adds, completes or moves one only when you ask. None Never Turn off Dictera in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Reminders We receive nothing Your reminders stay in the Reminders app; Dictera keeps no copy

AI Engines

On Dictera's built-in model, or on a server on your Mac such as Ollama or LM Studio, none of these send anything. The rows below apply only to a feature you point at a cloud provider, a server on another computer, or Claude Code (Section 3.3).

FeatureWhat leaves your MacRecipientWhenHow to switch it offLegal basisRetention
Cleanup
with Correct Selection and Edit Selection
Your dictated text, and the text you correct or edit by voice, with your instruction The provider you picked Each time you use the feature Pick the built-in model in Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ Cleanup We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy
Translation The text you translate, dictated or selected The provider you picked Each time you translate Pick the built-in model in Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ Translation We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy
Assist The call's transcript, what you ask, the latest screenshot, and your template The provider you picked When you ask for an answer, and on each question the other person asks while "Answer questions automatically" is on (off by default) Pick the built-in model in Settings ▸ AI Assistant ▸ Models We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy
Meeting Notes The meeting's transcript, your Meeting Setup, the latest screenshot, and what you ask The provider you picked Each time a recording stops, and when you ask Pick the built-in model in Settings ▸ AI Assistant ▸ Models We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy
Chat What you write, and any pictures you add The provider you picked Each message Pick the built-in model in Settings ▸ AI Assistant ▸ Models We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy
Session titles The opening of a finished session's transcript, and up to 12 of your series names The engine of that session's mode When a saved session ends, on its own Switch off "Save Assistant Sessions", or use an engine on your Mac We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy
Attendee names The names on a meeting's invite, never email addresses The Assist and Meeting Notes engines With that meeting's requests Off by default: "Send attendee names to remote engines" in Settings ▸ Calendar We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy
Claude Code Your conversation and the files it reads in the folder you picked; it can also search and open web pages, and use the connectors you ticked Anthropic, or the platform your Claude Code settings send it to Each request; and a connector check at launch, at most about once a day Don't pick Claude Code for a feature We don't receive it; you choose the provider The provider's own policy

Online Features

FeatureWhat leaves your MacRecipientWhenHow to switch it offLegal basisRetention
Weather The coordinates of the place you asked about - the approximate location of your Mac, or a town you typed - or the name you typed, to find it Apple Weather; Apple Maps, to name the town and its time zone When you open the notch and the last reading is over 15 minutes old, or you refresh the Weather page. Nothing until you connect a location. "Show the Weather" in Settings ▸ Notch Contract: the feature you use Apple's own policy. On your Mac: the last reading and its place.
Cover art The title and artist of a song streamed from Apple Music, and your region Apple's music catalog For each new streamed song, once you have let Dictera use Music, while "Show What's Playing" is on "Find Cover Art Online" in Settings ▸ Notch ▸ Music (on by default) Contract: the feature you use Apple's own policy. On your Mac: the last 20 covers, in memory only.
Synced lyrics The title, artist, album and length of the song, and which version of Dictera is asking LRCLIB (lrclib.net) While the notch shows that song's lyrics Off until you switch on "Synced Lyrics" in Settings ▸ Notch ▸ Music Contract: the feature you switched on What LRCLIB keeps. On your Mac: in memory only.
Recognize Song A fingerprint of the sound, not a recording. "Add to Shazam" sends the song to your Shazam library. Shazam (Apple) Only when you press Recognize Song, for up to 15 seconds Don't press it Contract: your request Apple's own policy. Your Shazam library keeps what you add.

Weather data is provided by Apple Weather. Its sources are listed on the Apple Weather attribution page.

Dictera Itself

FeatureWhat leaves your MacRecipientWhenHow to switch it offLegal basisRetention
License A hashed identifier of your Mac; once you have one, your license key and activation identifier; when you activate, the name of your Mac Our licensing service
Google Cloud, EU; it checks with Lemon Squeezy
At launch, then about once a day - also after your trial or subscription has ended It can't be, while Dictera runs: quit and delete the App to stop it Contract; legitimate interests (one trial per Mac) Up to 12 months after your license ends; trial data up to 36 months (Section 8)
Software Update Only the request for the update feed, with the technical data any web request carries, such as your IP address dictera.app
Google Firebase Hosting
Automatically, and when you choose Check for Updates… "Automatically Check for Updates" in Settings ▸ General Contract: delivering updates Hosting server logs (Section 4.5)
Model downloads Only the download request: no audio, no text Hugging Face; Apple, for the speech model macOS downloads When you download a speech or language model Don't download one Contract: the model you chose Their own server logs

1. Who we are (Data Controller)

Dictera (the "App") and the website at https://dictera.app (the "Website", together the "Services") are operated by Zahorulko Yevhen (TIE: Z2053423B), an independent professional (Autónomo) established in Spain ("we", "us", "our"). For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable Spanish data-protection law, we act as the data controller for the personal data described in this Policy.

Business address: Calle Pla de la Ramona 4, 46500 Sagunto, Valencia, Spain.
Contact: info@dictera.app.

2. What stays on your Mac

Dictera keeps what it makes on your Mac. None of the following is sent to us, and we have no way to read it. It goes to no one else either, except where Section 3 says so - for example, the text a feature sends to an AI engine you connected yourself.

You control this data. Your transcriptions can be exported or deleted in Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ History and your AI Assistant sessions in Settings ▸ History, your vocabulary edited in Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ Vocabulary, your statistics reset in Settings ▸ Dictation ▸ Statistics, and the clipboard history, recent screenshots and picked colors cleared in Settings ▸ Notch.

Removing it. If you have a license, first deactivate it in Settings ▸ License: that frees the activation for this Mac and removes your license from the Keychain. Then quit Dictera and delete ~/Library/Application Support/Dictera/ (your history, sessions, clipboard history and recent screenshots), ~/Library/Application Support/FluidAudio/ (the speech models, which other apps built on FluidAudio may share), ~/Library/Preferences/app.dictera.plist and ~/Library/Caches/app.dictera/, then delete the app. Screenshots and recordings you saved stay where you saved them. Two items stay in the Keychain on your Mac until you remove them in Keychain Access: any AI provider API keys you added (app.dictera.remote-llm, also removed when you remove that engine in Settings ▸ Engine Models), and the date your free trial started (app.dictera.trial). The trial date is kept there on purpose, so that reinstalling doesn't restart the trial. If you didn't deactivate your license, it stays there too (app.dictera.license).

3. What leaves your Mac, and where it goes

Everything in this section goes straight from your Mac to the service named. Only the license check and the update check reach services we run. In the App, About Dictera ▸ Privacy Details shows this list for your copy as it is set up right now.

3.1 Dictera itself

3.2 The notch's online features

Everything else on the notch works on your Mac and sends nothing: clipboard history, screenshots and recordings, the color picker, timers, the calculator, emoji, apps, System Monitor, battery, the microphone switch, Keep Awake, Lock Keyboard and Focus, and Downloads, Displays, Wallpaper, other apps' notifications, Camera Mirror and Lock Screen. Reminders sends nothing either: your reminders stay in the Reminders app (Section 2).

3.3 AI engines you connect (optional)

Cleanup, translation and the AI Assistant run on Dictera's built-in model, on your Mac, unless you change that. In Settings you can point each feature at a different engine. The features are Cleanup (which also covers Correct Selection and Edit Selection), Translation, and the AI Assistant's three modes: Assist, Meeting Notes and Chat. The engines are:

When a feature runs on a cloud provider or Claude Code, this is what the provider receives:

Two things never go to a cloud engine: your voice, and the text around your cursor that Dictera looks at to place dictated words. That text is only ever handled by the built-in model or a server on your Mac. With a Claude Code engine selected for the AI Assistant, Dictera also asks Claude Code which connectors it can use when Dictera starts, if it last asked more than a day ago or found none the last time. That is one short request on your account.

Dictera warns you when you set up an engine that isn't on your Mac, and none of this happens unless you set it up yourself. You choose these providers and deal with them directly, and their own terms and privacy policies apply (Section 6).

Links in the App open in your browser or mail app, and are not requests Dictera makes. They include a meeting's join link, a song's page on Apple Music or Shazam, the Apple Weather attribution page, a link from your clipboard history, the checkout and customer portal, and the license pages of the components and models in About ▸ Acknowledgements.

4. Information we do process

4.1 Licensing, activation & trial data

To run your free trial, activate your subscription, and check that it is still valid, the App communicates with our own licensing service (hosted on Google Cloud in the European Union), which in turn communicates with our payment provider, Lemon Squeezy (see Section 6). For these purposes the App sends, and our licensing service processes:

When the App checks. At launch, and then about once a day while it runs. It keeps checking for as long as it is installed and running, including after your trial or subscription has ended. When the trial or the subscription ends, dictation, the AI Assistant and the notch stop until you subscribe: the notch opens onto a single page that says so. Nothing you saved is deleted, and Settings, your dictation history and your saved AI Assistant sessions stay open. To stop the checks, quit Dictera and delete it.

What our licensing service stores. The device identifier together with the trial start and last-seen dates and, for an active subscription, your license key, subscription status, plan, renewal/expiry date, order and subscription identifiers, and the email address associated with your purchase.

What stays on your Mac. Your license key, the activation identifier and the purchase email are kept in the Keychain on your Mac (app.dictera.license), and are removed from it when you deactivate the license or it ends. If you update from an earlier version of Dictera, which kept them in its preferences file, they are moved into the Keychain the first time the new version starts; if the Keychain ever refuses them, Dictera keeps them in its preferences file until it can move them. Your plan, its renewal or expiry date, how many of your activations are in use, when your trial ends and the date of the last successful check are kept in Dictera's preferences file. The date your trial started is kept in three places: the preferences file, a small file in Dictera's folder, and the Keychain. The Keychain copy stays after you delete the App (Section 2).

4.2 Purchase data

When you buy a subscription, the purchase is processed by Lemon Squeezy acting as the "Merchant of Record". They collect the data needed to complete the sale (such as your name, email address, billing country, and payment details) and provide us with limited order information (such as your email address, name, and country) so we can deliver your license and meet our tax and accounting obligations. We do not receive or store your full payment-card details.

4.3 Support communications

If you email info@dictera.app, we process your email address and the contents of your message solely to respond to you. If you write from the link in About Dictera, the message starts with a short report of your setup, which you can read and edit before you send it: Dictera's version, the macOS version, the chip and model identifier of your Mac, the speech model, the model each feature uses and the kind of engine it runs on ("this Mac", a provider's name, or "remote server" - never an address or a folder name), and the App's language.

4.4 Enterprise customers

If your organization is interested in, or purchases, an Enterprise plan, we process the business contact details of the people who deal with us (such as name, work email address, company, and role) to prepare quotes and manage the relationship. Where an Enterprise purchase is invoiced directly by us rather than processed through Lemon Squeezy, we also process the organization's billing details (such as its legal name, address, and VAT/tax number) to issue invoices and meet our tax and accounting obligations. To issue and manage team licenses, we process the names and/or work email addresses of the team members the organization designates; this information is provided to us by the organization, which is responsible for informing its team members about this processing. (Legal bases: performance of a contract or steps prior to a contract; legal obligation; legitimate interests in managing our business relationships.)

4.5 Website & update technical data

When you visit the Website, download the App, or the App checks for updates, our hosting provider automatically logs standard technical data (such as IP address, browser or app version, and timestamps) for security and to operate the service. Our licensing service's request logs record the same kind of data. No audio or text is sent with these requests.

4.6 Website analytics

The Website uses Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are useful - for example how many people reach the download page, and where they came from. It is off until you allow it. We ask on your first visit, and Google's analytics code isn't loaded and no analytics cookie is set unless you choose "Allow". Either way, your answer is remembered in your browser's local storage (dictera-consent) so we don't ask on every page. You can change your mind at any time using Analytics settings in the footer of any page; declining also deletes the analytics cookies already set.

If you allow it, Google Analytics sets first-party cookies (_ga and _ga_*) and processes your IP address, approximate location at country/city level, device and browser type, the pages you view and the links you click. We have turned Google Signals off, so this is not joined to Google account profiles or used for advertising or remarketing, and we do not run Google Ads. Nothing you dictate, type or process in the App is ever sent to Google Analytics - the App contains no analytics code at all, as described on our Security & data handling page. The Website uses no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

5. How we use this information and our legal bases

6. Third parties and sub-processors

Providers we use to run Dictera:

Services the App contacts on your behalf. We don't receive what they receive, and their own privacy policies apply:

Providers you choose. If you connect your own third-party AI provider, or enable the Claude Code engine (Anthropic, or wherever your Claude Code settings send requests, such as Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI or Microsoft Foundry), as described in Section 3.3, that provider is not our sub-processor: you choose it, you contract with it directly, and its own privacy policy applies to the text you send it.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for advertising.

7. International transfers

We are established in Spain, and our licensing data is stored in Google Cloud's EU region. Some of the services in Section 6 - Lemon Squeezy, Google, Apple, Hugging Face and LRCLIB - may process data outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where we transfer personal data outside the EEA through a provider we use, we rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where that provider is certified, or on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Services the App contacts at your request, and providers you choose yourself, transfer data under their own arrangements. You may contact us for more information.

8. Data retention

9. Other people's information

Some things you do with Dictera involve other people: a call the AI Assistant transcribes, the names on a calendar invite, a screen recording, or something you copy. Dictera keeps all of it on your Mac, and we never receive it. Deciding to record or transcribe a conversation, telling the people in it, and getting their consent where the law requires it is up to you (see "Recording and your responsibilities" in the Terms of Use). If you connect a cloud AI engine, their words can go to that provider, and so can the names on an invite if you switch that on. Section 3.3 explains how.

10. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal data, and to data portability. To exercise these rights, email info@dictera.app. We will respond within one month, as required by the GDPR; if a request is particularly complex we may extend this period as the GDPR allows, and we will tell you if so.

What you make with Dictera is kept on your Mac, so we can't access, export or delete it for you. You can do all three yourself in Dictera's Settings (Section 2). For data a service received directly from your Mac - Apple, LRCLIB, Hugging Face or an AI provider you chose - contact that service, because we never receive it. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting what was done before.

If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you may also lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority - in Spain, the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD, www.aepd.es). If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the CCPA/CPRA, including the right to know and to delete; we do not sell your personal information.

11. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. What Dictera keeps on your Mac is protected by the security of your Mac. Dictera doesn't encrypt its files itself, so turn on FileVault if that matters to you. The clipboard history and recent screenshots folders can be read only by your macOS user account. AI provider API keys, and your license key, activation identifier and purchase email, are kept in the macOS Keychain (Section 4.1). The details are on the Security & data handling page. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

12. Children

The Services are not directed to children. If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland you must be at least 16 (or the minimum age in your country) to use the Services. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact info@dictera.app.

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. We will revise the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Continued use of the Services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

14. Contact

Questions, requests, or complaints about this Policy or our data practices:
Email: info@dictera.app
Zahorulko Yevhen (Autónomo) · Calle Pla de la Ramona 4, 46500 Sagunto, Valencia, Spain.