Overview
Dictura (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a voice-to-text dictation application available on macOS, Windows, and iOS. Your privacy is not an afterthought — it is the foundation of how we build our product. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and what we do not do.
What We Do Not Store
We do not store, retain, or have access to:
- Your voice recordings or audio data
- Your transcribed text
- Your translated text
- The content of any text you dictate or type into Dictura
In on-device mode, all audio processing happens locally on your device using on-device speech recognition. No data is sent to any server — not ours, not a third party's. Your audio never leaves your device.
In cloud mode, audio is sent to our servers, which use OpenAI's API for transcription. Audio passes through our infrastructure transiently and is never stored or logged. OpenAI processes the audio and returns the text. The audio is not stored by OpenAI beyond what is needed to complete the request, and it is not used to train their models.
What We Do Collect
We collect a limited set of account and usage data:
- Account information: Email address, name (if provided), and authentication credentials for account management.
- Subscription data: Plan type, billing status, and payment transaction identifiers for billing purposes.
- Usage metrics: Cloud transcription minutes consumed, feature usage mode, and platform — used for billing, service operation, and understanding how our features are used. We track the duration and mode, not the content.
- Device identifiers: Limited device and interaction identifiers used for license validation, app functionality, and basic service analytics (such as platform distribution and app version adoption). These are not used for advertising or cross-app tracking.
Device Permissions
Dictura requests only the permissions necessary for its core functionality:
- Microphone: Required for voice dictation on all platforms. Audio is processed as described above and never stored.
- Speech Recognition (iOS): Used for on-device speech processing when available. All recognition happens locally on the device.
- Accessibility (macOS): Used to detect the active application and insert transcribed text. Dictura does not read or log content from other applications.
- Face ID / Biometrics (iOS): If enabled by you, used to protect access to the app. Biometric data is handled entirely by iOS and is never accessed by Dictura.
iOS-Specific Data Practices
The iOS version of Dictura includes a custom keyboard extension and additional system integrations. This section describes how data is handled in those contexts.
- Keyboard Extension: The Dictura keyboard requires Full Access to communicate with the main app for dictation. The keyboard does not independently access, log, or transmit your keystrokes. Full Access is used solely to coordinate dictation recording with the main Dictura app.
- App Groups: The keyboard extension and the main app share a limited set of non-personal operational data (dictation state, preferences, feature flags) via a secure App Group container. No audio, text content, or personal data is shared through this mechanism.
- Keychain: Authentication tokens and session credentials are stored securely in the iOS Keychain, protected by the device's hardware security.
- Background Audio: The app may briefly maintain an audio session in the background to complete an in-progress dictation. No recording occurs when you are not actively dictating.
- Live Activities: Dictura uses Live Activities to display dictation status on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. This feature displays only operational status and transmits no personal data.
Cookies
The Dictura website uses a small number of cookies that are strictly necessary for it to function. We do not use any analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies.
- Authentication cookies: Set by Supabase when you sign in. These maintain your login session so you do not have to re-authenticate on every page. They expire when your session ends or after the configured session lifetime.
- Functional cookies: A small number of cookies used for site functionality such as caching administrative state. These contain no personal information.
Because all cookies used by Dictura are strictly necessary for the operation of the website, they are exempt from consent requirements under the ePrivacy Directive. We do not set any optional cookies, so there is nothing to opt out of.
Third-Party Services
- OpenAI: Used for cloud transcription, AI translation, and text polishing. Audio and text are processed per request and not stored or used for model training. See OpenAI's Privacy Policy.
- Polar: Used for subscription billing on macOS and Windows as our Merchant of Record. Polar processes your payment information directly — we never see or store your credit card or financial details. See Polar's Privacy Policy.
- Apple: On iOS, subscriptions are purchased and managed through the App Store. Apple processes all payment information for iOS transactions. Apple also provides Sign In with Apple for authentication. See Apple's Privacy Policy.
- Google: Used for Google Sign-In authentication. We receive only your name and email address from Google to create your account. See Google's Privacy Policy.
- Facebook: Available as an OAuth sign-in option. If you choose to sign in with Facebook, we receive your name and email address to create your account. See Meta's Privacy Policy.
- GitHub: Available as an OAuth sign-in option. If you choose to sign in with GitHub, we receive your name and email address to create your account. See GitHub's Privacy Statement.
- Supabase: Used for authentication and account data storage. Hosted in the EU. See Supabase's Privacy Policy.
Data Security
All communication between the Dictura app and our services uses TLS encryption. Account data is stored securely with Supabase. On-device transcription uses no network communication at all. Credentials on iOS are stored in the hardware-backed Keychain; on desktop platforms they are stored in the operating system's secure credential store. Dictation history and preferences are stored locally on your device and are not synced to our servers.
Your Rights
You can at any time:
- Request deletion of your account and all associated data by contacting support@dictura.com
- Switch to on-device mode to ensure zero cloud interaction
- Cancel your subscription and stop all cloud processing
Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Significant changes will be communicated via the app or email. Continued use of Dictura after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
