SayWrite security and privacy architecture

• Your audio. It exists only as a temporary file while it's transcribed, then it's deleted, including when you cancel or something fails. Leftovers are swept when SayWrite starts.
• Your text. Dictations, AI rewrites, History and file transcripts are never uploaded.
• Your screen. SayWrite never takes screenshots or reads the screen to add “context”. Per-app tone uses only the name of the app you're typing in.
• Usage data. There are no analytics, crash reporters or telemetry SDKs. The app's own logs record state names, durations and byte counts, never audio or transcript text.
• Your identity. There's no account, sign-in, license server or email capture.

1. Speech model download, once, when you ask. Clicking Download Model fetches the Core ML version of Parakeet (about 465 MB) from Hugging Face. Hugging Face sees an ordinary download request, including your IP address. After that, dictation needs no internet at all.
2. Update check, once a day, if you allow it. SayWrite fetches a small appcast file from the public releases repository on GitHub. It sends no system profile. Turn it off in Settings › General and check by hand instead.
3. Your own AI server, only if you turn it on. With Ollama or LM Studio selected, the text to rewrite (never audio) goes to 127.0.0.1 on your Mac. Apple Intelligence makes no network request at all.

None of these carry anything you say or write off your Mac.

A local model is only private if the app can't be talked into sending text somewhere else. SayWrite's AI client enforces that in code:

• It accepts only 127.0.0.1, ::1 or localhost, and rewrites localhost to 127.0.0.1 so DNS can't redirect it.
• LAN addresses, other hostnames, 0.0.0.0, decimal IP spellings and look-alikes such as localhost.example.com are refused, even if you type them in Settings.
• The URL is re-checked right before every request, HTTP redirects are refused, and system proxies, cookies and caching are off.
• AI is off until you turn it on. While it's off, SayWrite makes no AI requests of any kind.

More on choosing a model: Bring your own model and AI Polish with Apple Intelligence.

• History (text, time, target app, length) is on by default so you can search and paste past dictations. Choose 7, 30, 90 or 365 days or forever, or turn it off. Password managers (1Password, Bitwarden, Apple Passwords, Keychain Access) are excluded by default, and spoken AI instructions aren't saved.
• Stats store numbers: words, durations and filler-word counts without the text. Typing speed is opt-in and records keystroke timing only, never which keys you press.
• File transcripts keep the text and timestamps, never the audio.
• Everything lives in ~/Library/Application Support/LocalDictation/, a folder only your user account can read, plus the app's preferences. Nothing syncs to iCloud.
• Delete it all from inside the app, or remove the folders. The privacy policy lists each one.

• Microphone: to hear you. Recording only happens while you hold or have tapped the trigger, and the pill shows a red live dot the whole time.
• Accessibility: to type the text at your cursor and to notice the Fn key while another app is in front. Without it, SayWrite copies the text to the clipboard instead.

Those are the only two privacy permissions SayWrite asks for. It doesn't request Screen Recording, Full Disk Access, Contacts, Calendars or Location, and the Control-Option-D shortcut is a standard hot key that needs no extra permission.

• Updates use Sparkle. Every update archive is signed with an EdDSA key, and the app checks that signature against the public key built into it before installing anything.
• Builds use Apple's hardened runtime, and each release is published on GitHub with its notes.
• Not notarized yet. During early access SayWrite isn't notarized by Apple, so the first launch needs Open Anyway in System Settings. Updates installed by the app don't need that step again.

1. Turn off Wi-Fi and dictate a paragraph. It still works.
2. Install a network monitor such as LuLu (free, open source) or Little Snitch and watch SayWrite while you dictate and Polish.
3. Or, in Terminal, while dictating:

   lsof -i -n -P -c LocalDictation

   The process is still called LocalDictation internally. Expect no connections, or only 127.0.0.1 when AI uses Ollama or LM Studio.

• Speech model: NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v2 by NVIDIA, licensed CC BY 4.0. SayWrite downloads the Core ML conversion published by FluidInference on Hugging Face. Attribution: “Parakeet TDT 0.6B v2” © NVIDIA, used under CC BY 4.0; converted to Core ML by FluidInference.
• Speech runtime: FluidAudio, licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
• Updates: Sparkle (MIT-style license). Shortcuts: KeyboardShortcuts (MIT).
• AI models you run in Ollama or LM Studio are yours, under their own licenses. Apple's on-device model is part of macOS.

• SayWrite holds no HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001 or other certifications, and it isn't a compliance product.
• It hasn't had an independent security audit.
• The source code is private, so you're trusting this description and your own network checks.
• On-device doesn't protect against malware on your Mac or someone with access to your user account.

Found a vulnerability? Email hello@saywrite.app with steps to reproduce. Please give us a reasonable chance to fix it before you disclose it publicly. We'll reply, credit you if you want, and note the fix in the changelog.