Privacy Policy
Last updated: 29 September 2026
- What you dictate stays on your device. Outspoken turns your speech into text on your Mac or iPhone. Your recordings, your text and everything Outspoken learns from you stay with you — on your device and, at most, in your own backups. We never receive them, not even when the app downloads models or checks for updates. The one exception: if you connect your own AI server on the Mac, your text goes to that server.
- No account, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, no cookies.
- There are still a few technical connections — for example when the Mac app checks for updates or you download a model. Exactly which ones is listed below.
1. Who is responsible
Outspoken and this website are provided by:
Artesoft GmbH
Hirschengraben 20
6003 Luzern, Switzerland
Email: info@artesoft.ch
2. The Outspoken apps (Mac and iPhone)
Your voice
- Audio is processed in memory and never saved as a file — on the Mac and on the iPhone.
- After a dictation with the Outspoken keyboard, the microphone stays ready for up to 15 minutes so you can dictate again instantly; audio received while ready is discarded immediately. iOS shows its microphone indicator during that time.
- For VoiceLock, the Mac app stores a voiceprint as numbers on your Mac. It never leaves your device, and you can delete it at any time.
Your text
- Mac: The app keeps your recent dictations in memory only; it saves a history only if you turn it on — as local files. The one exception is an app update: the app briefly stores your recent dictations locally so they survive the restart, then deletes the file.
- iPhone: With “Save history” (on by default), your last 200 dictations are kept in a file on your iPhone — encrypted, readable only while your iPhone is unlocked and not included in backups. You can find it in the Outspoken folder of the Files app. Turning it off or “Clear all” deletes it immediately.
- Keyboard and app (iPhone): To pass text between the keyboard and the app, the text is temporarily kept in protected files on your iPhone — even when history is turned off. Text waiting to be inserted by the keyboard can be inserted for 2 minutes; after that it is no longer offered and is deleted at the next clean-up.
Dictionary, word suggestions and learning
- Your dictionary and snippets are kept in a local file on your device and stay until you delete them.
- Word suggestions (on by default, can be turned off in Settings): when the app is unsure about a word, it notes it; if the word comes up again, it suggests it to you together with the part of the sentence it appeared in — at most 20 suggestions, each up to 120 characters.
- The Outspoken keyboard learns from your typing and swiping — permanently on this iPhone with Full Access, otherwise only until the session ends. You can delete this learning data in the app settings.
AI cleanup
AI cleanup runs on your device. If you choose to connect your own AI server on the Mac instead, your text goes to that server. This only happens when you explicitly set it up; the operator of that server is responsible for it. We receive nothing.
The Outspoken keyboard (iPhone)
The keyboard contains no networking code and sends nothing anywhere. Full Access is used only for the private exchange between the keyboard and the Outspoken app on this iPhone and to store your typing personalization there. Typing works without Full Access.
Diagnostics
Both apps keep a technical log on your device — events and errors, not your dictated text. On the Mac, it may note a time word such as “tomorrow” or a month name when AI cleanup tried to change it. On the iPhone you can see it in the Files app. Outspoken never sends the log anywhere itself; only you can share it. The apps do not send crash reports to us themselves; what Apple may share with us about the iPhone app is described under “Apple”.
Downloaded models and voices
Models and voices downloaded by Outspoken contain no data about you. You delete models in the app settings, and voices on the iPhone in the Files app under Outspoken › tts.
Backups
If you back up your Mac or iPhone — for example with Time Machine, iCloud or the Finder — local Outspoken files may be included in those backups, such as your dictionary with its word suggestions, the log or the keyboard learning data. On the iPhone, Outspoken excludes your history and downloaded speech and AI models; downloaded voices may be included in backups. You manage your backups yourself; we have no access to them.
Technical connections
None of these connections transmits what you dictate:
- Update check (Mac): Automatically, usually once a day — and whenever you check yourself — the Mac app asks our server whether a new version is available. As with any request on the internet, this transmits your IP address along with the app and macOS version; no identifier that could identify you or your device is sent. The app only downloads an update when you choose to install it. You can turn off automatic checking in Settings.
- Models (Mac and iPhone): The app downloads speech, AI and voice models when you select them. On the iPhone, it also downloads models by itself: during first-time setup, when upgrading older installations, and when parts of a selected model are missing. The server a file comes from sees your IP address. Which providers these are is listed under “Who receives data”.
Apple (TestFlight and App Store)
We distribute the iPhone app through Apple — as a beta via TestFlight, later on the App Store. Apple processes data under its own terms. If you turned on “Share with App Developers” in iOS, Apple may share crash reports and usage statistics with us. During the beta, Apple also makes information available to us, such as whether and how often you installed and opened the beta, crash reports, feedback you choose to send through TestFlight, and, if you were invited by email, your name and email address. We only use this information to improve the app and to invite you to the beta.
Your control
- Mac: Turn history on or off, delete your VoiceLock voiceprint, turn off word suggestions and update checks, delete models.
- iPhone: Turn off history or clear it, turn off word suggestions, reset keyboard learning, delete models.
- You can revoke microphone, Full Access and other permissions at any time in macOS or iOS Settings.
Children
The apps collect no user data — from anyone, including children.
3. This website
- The website sets no cookies, uses no analytics and loads no content from third-party servers — not even fonts or videos.
- For each request, our server briefly stores technical information: IP address, date and time, the page or file requested, status code, referring page, and your browser's or the app's identifier. We need it to run the site securely and delete it after 14 days.
- The website is hosted by Hostinger on a server in Germany.
- If you choose a color theme (cream or green) at the top of the website, your browser remembers this choice locally; it is not sent to us.
4. If you write to us
If you email us, we use your details only to reply. We delete them once they are no longer needed for that purpose, unless we are legally required to keep them.
5. Who receives data
We do not sell data or share it for advertising. These providers process data on our behalf or under their own responsibility:
- Hostinger (Lithuania, servers in Germany): website, update check, model server.
- Cloudflare (USA): storage for model files.
- Hugging Face (USA): some speech models.
Germany and Lithuania provide an adequate level of data protection. For transfers to the USA, we rely on the Swiss-U.S. and EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified under it, and otherwise on standard contractual clauses.
6. Legal basis
We process personal data under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). For people in the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also applies. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in operating securely and in providing you with updates and models (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); for email enquiries, responding to your request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
7. Your rights
You can request access to your data, have incorrect data corrected and data deleted, object to processing and, under the GDPR, request restriction of processing and data portability. Just write to info@artesoft.ch. You can also lodge a complaint with the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or a data protection authority in the EU.
By the way: most of what you create with Outspoken never reaches us — it only exists on your device, and you can delete it there yourself.
8. Changes
We update this policy when the apps or our services change; the date above shows the current version.
