Privacy Policy

Offline Edition · Last updated: June 2026

Dictara's Offline Edition is built so there is almost nothing to protect on our side, because almost nothing reaches us. No account, no sign-up, no email, no login. Speech recognition, speaker separation, your special words, your diary and the AI insights all run entirely on your Mac (Apple Silicon). Your audio and your text never leave the device — not even for transcription. We keep no recordings, no transcripts and no profile of you. The only thing that ever goes to us is an anonymous device check (version & an anonymous usage signal) — never content. Dictara is made in Germany and GDPR-aligned by design.

1. Controller

2. Everything runs on your device

When you dictate, hold a meeting or let Dictara separate speakers, the speech recognition (NVIDIA Parakeet) and speaker separation (sherpa-onnx) run locally on your Mac's chip. There is no transcription provider, no cloud service and no server involved in turning your speech into text. The resulting text is inserted at your cursor or written into your local diary.

• Your audio is processed only on your device and is never transmitted to us or to any third party.
• Your text is produced on your device and stays on your device.
• No AI is trained on anything you say or write. There is no upload that could be used for training.
• Flight mode works: dictation and meeting transcription function with no internet connection at all.

Legal basis: Not applicable — this processing happens solely on your own device and does not involve us as a controller.

3. Your diary and files

Every dictation and meeting is stored as a Markdown file in a folder on your Mac (and, only if you choose, in your own Dropbox). These are your files, in your storage, under your control. We have no access to them. You can read, edit, move or delete them at any time with any tool you like.

4. The only contact with our servers

So we can offer update notifications and understand roughly how many people use Dictara, the app contacts our server (CW Apps GmbH, hosted in Germany at Hetzner) in two minimal ways:

• Update / version check: the app asks whether a newer version is available.
• Anonymous usage ping: a short signal that the app was used. It contains an anonymous device ID, the app version and the edition — and never what you dictated, never any content.
• Anonymous usage figures (optional, on by default, can be switched off): two plain numbers per day — words dictated and active minutes — so we can tell whether Dictara runs reliably and is actually used. These are numbers only, never text, names or recordings, and you can turn each off in Settings (then that number is never sent).
• Setup progress: during first-run setup the app reports which of the three permissions you have granted, so we can see where setup gets stuck. Anonymous, content-free.

Technically necessary connection data (in particular the IP address) is processed for the duration of each request to deliver the response and prevent abuse; it is not used to build a usage profile.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in providing updates and in basic, anonymous reach figures for a stable product).

5. The anonymous device ID

For the checks above the app uses an anonymous device identifier — a one-way hash (SHA-256) derived from your Mac's hardware identifier. It contains neither your name nor any plain personal data and does not let us identify you. You can view it in the app (“Copy device ID”) if you ever want to reference it in a request to us.

6. AI insights use your own AI

The optional insights feature is read by your own AI — Claude Cowork or OpenAI Codex — which you run yourself and point at your local diary folder. Dictara does not send your diary anywhere; the reading happens between your AI tool and your local files. Whatever data-protection terms apply to your AI tool are between you and that provider.

7. This website

This website is delivered via Cloudflare Pages. When you visit, technically necessary connection data (in particular IP address, time, requested page) is processed for delivery and security. This website uses no tracking cookies and no analytics tool.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure, fault-free delivery).

8. Payment

During Early Access, Dictara is free — there is no payment, no card and no payment provider involved. When a paid one-time licence is introduced later, payment will be handled by a dedicated payment provider, and this policy will be updated to describe exactly which data is processed for that purpose before any purchase is possible.

9. Recipients / processors

Because dictation is fully local, the list of processors is short:

There is no transcription provider and no payment provider in the Offline Edition. Your audio and text are processed by no one but your own Mac.

10. Transfers to third countries

The only third-country element is Cloudflare (website delivery, USA), based on appropriate safeguards under Art. 46 GDPR (EU Standard Contractual Clauses) and, where certified, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Your dictation, meetings and diary are never transferred anywhere — they stay on your Mac.

11. Retention

We do not store your audio, transcripts or diary — they live only on your device. On our side we keep, at most, anonymous request logs (device-ID hash, app version, timestamp) for as long as needed to provide updates and basic reach figures, and then delete or aggregate them. Any statutory records (e.g. once paid licences exist) are kept for the legal retention periods.

12. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21). Because we hold no account and only an anonymous device ID, there is in practice very little tied to you on our side; to act on a request about the anonymous ping data we generally need the relevant device ID (available in the app via “Copy device ID”). You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, e.g. the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

13. Contact for privacy matters

For any questions about data protection, contact us at dictara@dictara.ai.