Dictave
Privacy
What happens to what you say
Last updated 19 August 2026. This applies to Dictave for macOS, and to this website.
Dictation is unusually personal. You use it for messages you have not sent yet, notes you have not finished thinking, and things you would not type into a search box. So the short version matters more than the long one, and here it is.
The short version
- Your voice never leaves your computer. It is turned into text on your own Mac.
- The app has no way to send it. The version you download is built without the ability to open a network connection.
- Recordings are not kept. Audio exists while you are speaking and then it is gone, unless you switch recording on yourself.
- Your history stays on your machine, encrypted, for as long as you choose — including not at all.
- No account, no sign-in. The app reports nothing unless you switch usage statistics on, and they never contain anything you said.
What Dictave handles
| What | Where it lives | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your voice | In memory on your Mac, while you hold the shortcut | Until you stop speaking. Never written to disk unless you turn on recording, which is off when you install it. |
| The text it produced | Delivered to whatever app your cursor was in, and kept in your own history on your Mac, encrypted | Thirty days by default. You can make that longer, shorter, or nothing at all, and delete any entry at any time. |
| Words you taught it | With your history, on your Mac, encrypted | Until you remove them. |
| Your settings | On your Mac | Until you change them. They contain no secrets and nothing you dictated. |
What leaves your computer
Nothing. Not your voice, not the text, not the words you taught it, not a count of how often you used it, not a note that you launched it.
This is worth being precise about, because “we don’t sell your data” is a promise about intent and this is not. The application you install is assembled without the parts required to make a network request, and an automatic check refuses to produce a release if that ever stops being true. It is not that Dictave chooses not to send your voice anywhere. It is that it has nothing to send it with.
Your history, and getting rid of it
Everything you dictate is written to a private history on your own Mac so that you can find it again — encrypted where it sits, using a key held by your Mac rather than by us, so that a copied disk or a stray backup does not hand it over.
- Search it, and delete any single entry, from the history window.
- Change how long it is kept, or keep nothing at all, in Settings.
- Removing the application removes its data along with it.
Permissions, and why each one is needed
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Microphone | To hear you. By default the microphone is opened only while you are actually dictating, and closed the moment you let go. |
| Accessibility | macOS requires this before any application may watch for a keyboard shortcut or type into another application. Dictave needs it for exactly those two things and nothing further. It does not read your screen. |
If you refuse either one, Dictave says so plainly and keeps working in a reduced way rather than pretending to work.
If an online option ever appears
There may one day be an optional online mode for people who want it. If it arrives, it will be off when you install, switched on deliberately by you and never by an update, clearly shown while it is active, and reversible in one click. It will name exactly what would leave your machine before it takes anything. Until you turn such a thing on, the paragraphs above are unconditional.
This website
Every file on these pages is served from this site’s own origin — no fonts, scripts, images or styles are loaded from anyone else’s servers, and the pages carry a policy instructing your browser to refuse any third-party request.
The server that hands you this page sees the request that asked for it, including your IP address, in the ordinary way that every web server does. We keep those ordinary records for thirty days and use them for keeping the site working and for aggregate counts of visits and downloads. They are not used to build a profile of you and are not shared or sold. After thirty days they are deleted. Downloading the app is a request to the same place, so it discloses nothing further.
If this website ever begins to store anything in your browser or to use any analytics service, this statement will describe it first and the site will ask for whatever consent the law requires before doing it.
Cookies and stored choices
When you first visit, the site asks what it may store on your device, in two categories:
- Essential — remembering the choice you made, on your device only, so you are not asked again. This is the one thing stored without asking, because it is how asking works.
- Measurement — would permit first-party counting of visits if such a thing is ever added. It is off unless you switch it on, and nothing of the kind runs today.
You can change or withdraw your choice at any time with the “Cookie choices” link in the footer of every page, which is exactly as easy as giving it was.
If you write to us
The contact form on the About page sends exactly what you typed — your message, and a name and email address if you chose to give them — over this site’s own connection to the people who build Dictave. No third-party form service is involved. What you send is used to read and answer your message, is not added to any list, and is not shared. If you include an email address it is used to reply, and for nothing else.
Children
Dictave is not directed at children and collects nothing from anybody, including them.
Your rights
Laws such as the UK GDPR give you the right to see the personal data an organisation holds about you, correct it, or have it deleted. In this case there is nothing to exercise those rights against: your voice, your text and your history are held by you, on your own machine, and are not transmitted to us. Deleting them is something you do in the app rather than something you have to ask for.
Changes
If this statement changes, the date at the top changes with it. A change that weakened any promise above would be a change to the product, not a change to the wording, and would be announced as such.
Contact
Questions about any of this: privacy@dictave.app.