Privacy
MacWispr is built to keep your voice and text on your Mac whenever possible.
By default, local transcription (Qwen3-ASR via MLX) runs entirely on-device. Optional cloud STT (OpenAI / ElevenLabs) only runs if you choose a cloud provider and supply your own API key (BYOK). Keys stay in the macOS Keychain.
Optional product telemetry
MacWispr can send anonymous, content-free product telemetry so we can measure real-world reliability — for example whether the global hotkey is actually armed after updates, or how often dictation fails by category.
Opt-in (off by default)
Telemetry is off until you turn it on. Nothing leaves your Mac for product analytics unless you enable it.
| Default | Off |
|---|---|
| Enable | Settings → Privacy → Share anonymous usage data |
| Disable | Settings → Privacy → turn the same toggle off |
Turning it off stops all further telemetry sends immediately. Already-sent events are not pulled back from the server (see Retention).
Guiding principle
Telemetry is opt-in, anonymous, and content-free. If in doubt, it does not leave the device.
We send only explicit, whitelisted events. Autocapture, session recording, and similar PostHog features are not used.
What we collect
When telemetry is enabled, MacWispr may send:
| Category | What |
|---|---|
| App / device | App version, macOS version, CPU architecture (arm64 / x86_64) |
| Latency | Transcription latency in buckets only (e.g. <1s, 1–3s) — not raw millisecond timings |
| Dictation outcomes | How many dictations completed or failed |
| Hotkey / Accessibility health | Boolean flags only: tap installed, Carbon hotkey installed, Accessibility trusted, hotkey armed |
| Coarse config | Provider (local / cloud), model size class, dictation mode (hold / toggle), insertion mode |
| Failure category | Enum only: no_audio, mic_denied, paste_no_ax, stt_error |
| Install ID | A random UUID generated once and stored locally — never a hardware serial, MAC address, or other device identifier |
These fields exist so we can answer questions like “how often is ⌥Space silently dead after an update?” without ever seeing what you said.
What we never collect
- Transcription text — ever
- Audio samples or recordings
- Custom vocabulary words
- Clipboard contents
- API keys / secrets
- Hardware serials, MAC address, username, email
- IP-derived identity or other attempts to re-identify you
- Precise location
- Raw timestamps or durations that could fingerprint (we bucket)
Where data goes
| Service | PostHog |
|---|---|
| Region | United States (PostHog US cloud) |
| Transport | HTTPS only (explicit batch events; no browser session, no screen recording) |
| Who can see it | Maintainers of this project, for product reliability metrics |
Telemetry is fail-silent: network or client errors never block dictation. Failed batches are dropped, not retried in a way that interferes with the app.
Retention
Events are retained on PostHog under the project’s configured data retention (typically on the order of months for product analytics; exact window may change with plan and settings). When you disable telemetry, MacWispr stops sending new events; historical aggregates already stored on PostHog are not automatically deleted.
If you need data removed for a specific install ID, open a GitHub issue or contact the maintainers and include that anonymous ID (shown in Settings when telemetry is enabled, when available).
On-device vs cloud transcription
This is separate from product telemetry.
| Mode | Audio / text leave your Mac? |
|---|---|
| Local (default) | No — ASR runs on Apple Silicon via MLX |
| Cloud BYOK | Yes — audio (and polish text, if enabled) go to the provider you chose, under your API key and their privacy policy |
| Transcript history | Stored locally under Application Support on your Mac |
Turning telemetry on does not change where transcription runs. Local stays local.
Summary
- Local by default for speech-to-text.
- Telemetry is opt-in and off until you enable it in Settings.
- We only send anonymous, non-content reliability signals.
- We never send what you said, your audio, keys, or personal identifiers.
This page is the public contract: if something is not listed under “What we collect,” it is not telemetry.
Source of truth in the repo: PRIVACY.md. Last aligned with MacWispr 1.2.x.