ZenVoicePrivacy statement
Your voice stays on your Mac.
ZenVoice has no account, no cloud speech engine, no cloud formatting and no analytics. It never sends your audio, your dictations, your clipboard or how you use it anywhere. This page lists everything it does touch, and you can check it with a network monitor.
Effective October 26, 2026. Applies to ZenVoice for Mac and getzenvoice.com.
01 · Network
Every connection the app makes, listed in full.
| Host | Why | When | What it sends |
|---|---|---|---|
| huggingface.co | Model downloads | Only when you click Download on a model | A normal HTTPS request for the model file. Hugging Face may serve large files from its own storage servers. Every file is pinned to a reviewed revision and checked by SHA-256 before it's used. Models come from the publishers' or converters' repositories there, including, from 1.3, mudler, handy-computer and csukuangfj2 for Parakeet Ultra, Parakeet Unified, Voxtral Realtime and Omnilingual ASR. |
| getzenvoice.com/appcast.xml | Update check | About once a day, or when you click Check for updates. Turn it off in About | A request for the HTTPS update feed, carrying the app version. No identifier, no usage data. The feed is signed, and from version 1.2.2 ZenVoice refuses a feed whose Ed25519 signature doesn't match the key built into the app. |
| getzenvoice.com/api/licenses | Licence activation | When you activate, refresh or deactivate a licence in Settings → License, and about once a week while a licence is active, so a refunded key stops working. Never during the trial or while dictating; if you're offline, nothing changes | Your licence key, a random public key made for this Mac, and a one-time signature proving the request came from it. No name, no serial number, no audio or text. |
| getzenvoice.com/download | Update download | Only when an update is available and you install it | A request for the new version. Its Ed25519 signature is checked against the key built into the app before it is unpacked or anything changes. |
None of them while you dictate
Dictating, transcribing recordings, formatting, editing by voice, snippets, history and insights make no network requests at all. Turn the Wi-Fi off and every one of them still works.
Check it yourself
Open a network monitor such as Little Snitch or LuLu, filter by ZenVoice and dictate for a day. You’ll see only the hosts above, and only at the times above.
02 · On your Mac
What ZenVoice reads, and for how long.
Dictation
Your voice is recorded to a temporary 16 kHz mono file and read by the speech engine you chose, on your Mac. After successful transcription, the audio is deleted unless you enabled Audio History. Failed or canceled recordings can be kept for recovery when History and Keep failed audio are on, as described below. The engines never connect to the internet.
Recordings you transcribe
When you transcribe an audio or video file, it’s read in pieces by an on-device speech engine and is not copied or kept. Engines that need the internet can’t be chosen for recordings or the
zenvoice command, and nothing is uploaded. The zenvoice command checks your licence from what the app saved on this Mac and makes no network requests. ZenVoice switches its own Transcribe with ZenVoice item on in Finder’s Services settings when it finds no entry for it; a choice you’ve already made there is left alone, and no other service is touched.Microphone check and quiet speech
The microphone check measures input levels in memory. It does not save a recording, create a dictation or send audio anywhere. Quiet speech is an optional input setting that uses a more sensitive speech detector on this Mac. Review the result before pasting when background sound is present.
Formatting
Kanso, Qwen3 1.7B and Apple Intelligence run on your Mac; Apple Intelligence uses Apple’s on-device Foundation Models. Rules for numbers, times and punctuation run inside the app.
Reading the window you dictate into
To spell names right and match the tone of a thread, ZenVoice reads the text of the window around the field you’re typing into, through macOS Accessibility. It’s read for that one dictation, kept in memory, and dropped. It is never saved. Password fields and secure input are skipped, and ZenVoice never types or pastes into a field macOS marks as a password field. It copies the text instead and tells you.
Your hold-to-dictate key
To notice when you hold Fn/Globe or another hold-to-dictate key, ZenVoice watches which keys are pressed in any app. It compares key codes and modifier keys in memory, passes every keystroke on unchanged, and never records or saves what you type. Other keys and clicks only tell it that something else was pressed, so a shortcut like ⌘C isn’t mistaken for dictation; which key, or where you clicked, isn’t kept. To send paste and copy with the right key and to name shortcuts the way your keyboard prints them, ZenVoice reads your keyboard layout, and to decide how Fn locks it reads which action macOS gives the 🌐 key. Both are read on your Mac and never changed or sent.
Your dictation mouse button
If you set a middle or side mouse button to start dictation, ZenVoice watches those buttons in any app. Presses of the button you chose are kept from other apps, so it doesn’t also paste or go back. Every other click and every pointer movement passes through unchanged and isn’t recorded.
Your last dictation under the notch
Off unless you turn it on. Resting the pointer on the notch then shows your last dictation, the app it went into and when. The card is hidden from screen sharing and recordings, but anyone looking at your screen can see it. Nothing new is stored for it.
Editing by voice
When you select text and say a change, the selected text is read once to rewrite it on your Mac, then dropped.
Project file names
In code editors and terminals, ZenVoice reads the file names in the project you’re working in, so it spells them the way they are on disk. Names only; it never opens or reads a file.
The clipboard
ZenVoice pastes your text through the clipboard and, if you like, puts your previous clipboard back straight after. A password manager’s copy is never kept or put back: if that’s what was there, ZenVoice clears the clipboard instead. While Suggest words is on, for 90 seconds after a dictation saved to History it notices whether you copy a corrected spelling of a word it just typed, so it can suggest adding it to your Dictionary. The copied text is compared in memory and dropped. Copies marked as concealed, temporary or auto-generated, as password managers mark theirs, are never read.
Learning your words
Suggestions come from your own history on your Mac: names you keep using, words you keep correcting, spellings you copy. Nothing is added to your Dictionary unless you say yes, and you can turn suggestions off. Parakeet hears your words, off until you turn it on, compares an English Parakeet dictation with your Dictionary words on your Mac, and asks the Mac’s own spelling dictionary whether a word is an ordinary one. Words it put back are listed in History, and one you take back is kept, encrypted, so it isn’t changed again. Listen again for names is an optional 0.16 GB download of a small NVIDIA Parakeet model. When enabled, it listens again on your Mac to parts of the recording where a Dictionary name might have been misheard. It leaves ordinary English words alone. Nothing is uploaded, and the check saves no new recording or scores. Turn it off to stop checking; Remove deletes the downloaded checker.
03 · Storage
What ZenVoice keeps on your Mac.
Your dictations
- Encrypted with AES-GCM before they're written to a local database. The 256-bit key is kept in your macOS Keychain.
- Kept until you delete them, and only while History is on. Turn History off and new dictations aren't saved.
Recordings that didn't work
- When History and Keep failed audio are on, failed dictations and canceled recordings of at least half a second can be kept so you can try again from the Recovery Inbox.
- Recovery audio expires 24 hours after recording started. ZenVoice removes expired recordings automatically, including when you next open the app. You can turn recovery retention off in Settings.
Transcripts of recordings
- Each transcript is saved as a plain-text .txt file in the folder you choose, Documents/ZenVoice Transcripts unless you change it. These files are not encrypted, so backup and sync tools that read the folder can read them.
- The Transcribe list is kept in the app's own folder, outside your encrypted dictations. Removing a transcript from the list doesn't delete its .txt file, and Erase everything clears the list but leaves the files.
- The Terminal command prints text or JSON, can stream it as processing progresses, and saves exports only when requested. It does not add results to the app's Transcribe list or encrypted History.
- With --resume, the command saves unencrypted transcript text and processing metadata in owner-only checkpoint files in the folder you choose. These are outside History and Erase everything; delete the folder when finished.
- With --dictionary, the command reads a consistent snapshot of saved Dictionary terms and replacements using your existing Keychain key. It does not migrate the database, learn words, update counters or remove recordings. --dictionary-file reads an exported file instead.
- Diagnostics and optional English word alignment run locally. Dictation-priority lock files carry no audio or text, and their locks are released when the process exits.
Audio History
- Off until you turn it on. When it's on and History is saving dictations, successful recordings are kept in the app's private folder, within the size and age limits you choose.
- They never leave your Mac unless you export them.
Dictionary, replacements and snippets
- Stored on your Mac. Your Dictionary can be exported and imported if you want it on another Mac.
Insights
- Words per minute, time and streaks are calculated on your Mac from your saved history. They're never sent anywhere.
- Share highlights makes an image only when you click it, and you decide where it goes.
04 · Control
Everything is yours to turn off or delete.
Settings → What ZenVoice remembers
Turn History, kept recordings and longer usage stats on or off.
Settings → Saved on this Mac
Delete your dictations, recordings, replacements or downloaded models, one kind at a time, or erase everything.
Settings → Updates
Turn automatic update checks off. ZenVoice then goes online only when you download a model.
05 · Beyond the app
This website, feedback, the waitlist, and buying ZenVoice.
This website
- No cookies, no analytics and no third-party trackers. Fonts, films and images are served from this site.
- The site runs on Cloudflare, which processes your IP address to deliver pages and protect the site. Its short-lived request logs are used only to fix problems.
Windows waitlist
- If you join it, we keep only your email address and the date, to send you one email when ZenVoice for Windows is ready. Then we delete the list.
- To be removed sooner, write to hello@getzenvoice.com.
Feedback form
- If you send feedback, a feature request or a bug report at getzenvoice.com/feedback, we keep what you wrote, your email, your name if you gave one, and any versions you added.
- It's emailed to our inbox through our email provider, Zoho, and a copy is kept with the site on Cloudflare. We use it to reply to you and to improve ZenVoice, and delete it when you ask.
Buying ZenVoice
- Checkout is run by Dodo Payments, which acts as the seller of record. It collects your payment details, email and billing country for tax, under its own privacy policy.
- We receive your email, what you bought and your licence key, so we can deliver it, help you and handle refunds. We never see your card number.
- For each Mac you activate we keep a hash of that Mac's random public key, so a key works on its allowed number of Macs. Deactivating a Mac deletes it.
- Your licence has nothing to do with what you dictate. ZenVoice never sends dictations, audio or usage to check it.
Education discount requests
- If you request the education discount, our support inbox receives your email, where you study or teach, and any student or staff card photo you choose to send. A person uses these to review your eligibility. Cover anything you would rather not share.
- We do not include your verification email, institution name or card photo in the discount record sent to Dodo Payments. Checkout still collects your purchase email as described above. You can ask us to delete your verification email and attachments.
- If you write to hello@getzenvoice.com, we keep the conversation to help you, and delete it when you ask.
- We never ask for your audio or dictations. If you choose to send some to show a problem, we delete them once it's fixed.
- We only email you about your purchase, to reply to something you sent us, or the one waitlist email if you asked for it.
06 · Your rights
What you can ask us for.
We hold very little: what’s needed to deliver your purchase and answer you. We use it because it’s needed for the purchase you made, and for support because you asked us. We never sell it, share it for advertising or use it to train anything.
- See what we hold about you: your purchase, licence, support emails, feedback and waitlist entry.
- Have it corrected or deleted, or receive a copy.
- Object to how we use it, or ask us to stop.
- Complain to your data protection authority if you think we've got something wrong.
Write to hello@getzenvoice.com and we’ll reply within 30 days. We keep purchase records as long as tax law requires, and delete everything else when you ask.
07 · Contact
Who is responsible.
ZenVoice is made by Builderhelm, which is responsible for your data under this statement. Questions go to hello@getzenvoice.com.
If this statement changes, the new version appears here with a new date. Anything that changes what ZenVoice sends or keeps is also listed in the changelog.
ZenVoice isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly hold their data.