Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2, 2026

Dictamio is a dictation utility for macOS. Its whole reason to exist is that your voice never has to leave your Mac to become text. This policy explains, plainly, what that means in practice — and the few things around the edges (buying a license, checking for updates) that do touch a network.

The short version:

Your speech and the text it becomes are processed entirely on-device and are never sent anywhere by Dictamio. By default, nothing you dictate is written to disk either. If you explicitly turn on the optional local history feature (off by default), Dictamio keeps a plain-text copy on your own Mac only — still never transmitted, still never recorded for anything you dictate into a password field. The only things that ever leave your Mac are a license key (to prove you paid) and a standard update check. Purchases are handled by our payment processor, Polar.sh, not by us.

1. Speech and transcription — never transmitted

When you dictate, Dictamio uses Apple's on-device SpeechAnalyzer / SpeechTranscriber to convert your speech to text, entirely within a process running on your Mac. There is no server in that path. Audio is never written to disk and never transmitted anywhere, by Dictamio or by Apple's on-device framework.

The resulting text is inserted directly at your cursor in whatever app is frontmost. By default, Dictamio does not keep a copy, log, or history of what you dictated — once it's inserted, Dictamio has no further record of it, unless you've explicitly turned on the optional local history feature described in Section 1a below.

1a. Optional local dictation history (off by default)

Settings → General has an off-by-default toggle, "Keep a local history of dictated text." If you turn it on, Dictamio writes each session's transcribed text to a plain .txt file on your own Mac, one file per day, in ~/Documents/Dictamio/, alongside the name of the app you were dictating into. This file:

Is stored locally only — Dictamio never uploads it or transmits it anywhere, by itself or as part of any other feature (license checks, update checks, polish requests, or otherwise).
Is fully under your control: it's a normal file in your Documents folder, so you can open, search, back up, or delete it in Finder like any other document. Settings → General also has an "Open History Folder" button and, when you turn history off, the app stops writing new entries (existing files are left in place for you to delete yourself if you want them gone).
Never includes anything dictated into a secure/password field. Dictamio detects password fields the same way it refuses to type into them, and skips writing to history for that session's text regardless of whether the toggle is on.
Never includes a session you cancelled (pressing Escape mid-dictation) — only text that was actually finalized and handed off for insertion is ever considered for a history entry.

This feature is entirely opt-in. If you never turn the toggle on, no dictation history file is ever created, and the short version above ("nothing you dictate is written to disk") remains exactly true.

Optional polish modes

If you turn on a polish mode (clean up filler words, formal tone, as-email — all off by default), that rewriting is performed by Apple's on-device Foundation Models (Apple Intelligence). This also runs entirely on your Mac; the text does not leave your device for this step either.

2. What Dictamio stores locally, on your Mac

These live only in your own Mac's local storage and are never transmitted:

App settings and preferences (macOS UserDefaults)
Per-app language memory — which language you last used in which app, so Dictamio can remember it (stored in a local JSON file, keyed by the other app's bundle identifier)
Your trial start date
Your license entitlement token, stored in the macOS Keychain (not as plaintext)
If you've opted in: your local dictation history, as plain-text files in ~/Documents/Dictamio/ (see Section 1a) — off by default, never transmitted

Dictamio has no analytics, no telemetry, and no crash reporting. Nothing about how you use the app is collected or observed by us.

3. The only network traffic Dictamio makes

Two things, and nothing else:

a) License activation, validation, and deactivation

To enforce the seat limit on your license (2 Macs for Standard, 5 for Team) and to prevent fraud, the app contacts api.dictamio.com when you activate, periodically validate, or deactivate a license. The payload is:

Your license key
A device identifier — an app-generated random UUID, not your Mac's hardware serial number
Your Mac's device name (whatever you've named it in System Settings)
Your license tier (Standard or Team)

This is stored server-side in Cloudflare KV, associated with the purchase email and Polar order ID tied to your license. The cached entitlement is a signed token kept locally with a 30-day offline grace period, so the app doesn't need to check in constantly.

b) Update checks

Dictamio uses the open-source Sparkle updater to check dictamio.com for new versions — a standard static feed fetch. No app-specific identifiers are sent beyond what any HTTP request includes by default (your IP address and user-agent string appear in ordinary web server logs, as they would for any website visit).

4. Purchases — handled by Polar.sh

Dictamio is sold through Polar.sh, which acts as the Merchant of Record for every purchase. Polar collects and processes your name, email, payment details, and billing country to complete the transaction and handle applicable tax (e.g. VAT). That data is governed by Polar's own privacy policy, not this one — we don't see or store your payment details. Dictamio only ever receives the resulting order ID and purchase email from Polar, associated with your license key.

Refunds are handled the same way: request one from Polar or by emailing hello@dictamio.com within 14 days of purchase.

5. The website waitlist

If you submit your email on dictamio.com to join the launch waitlist, that email is used only to notify you when Dictamio ships. It isn't used for anything else, and isn't shared with anyone beyond the infrastructure needed to send that one announcement. Standard web server access logs are kept for the site as with any website.

6. Third parties, named explicitly

Apple SpeechAnalyzer / Foundation Models — on-device frameworks only. This is not a data-sharing relationship; nothing leaves your Mac through these frameworks.
Polar.sh — Merchant of Record for all purchases; processes payment and billing data under its own privacy policy.
Cloudflare — hosts the license records (Cloudflare KV) used for activation and seat enforcement.
Sparkle (open-source updater project) — the mechanism used for the update-check feed fetch described above; no personal data is sent through it beyond standard HTTP request metadata.

We do not sell personal data to anyone, for any reason.

7. Children's privacy

Dictamio is a general-purpose productivity tool intended for professional and personal use by adults. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

8. Your rights under GDPR (EU/EEA users)

If you're in the EU or EEA, the data we hold about you is limited to what's described in Section 3 (license key, device identifier, device name, tier) plus the purchase email and order ID from Polar. Our legal basis for processing this is contract necessity (enforcing the license you purchased) and legitimate interest (fraud prevention). You have the right to access, correct, or request deletion of this data at any time — email hello@dictamio.com and we'll act on it directly, since there's very little data to begin with.

9. California residents (CCPA)

The categories of personal information we collect are limited to: identifiers (license key, device identifier, device name), and commercial information (purchase/order records via Polar). We do not sell or share your personal information. You have the right to know what we hold and to request its deletion — email hello@dictamio.com.

10. Japan (APPI)

For users in Japan, personal information (license and purchase records as described above) is acquired solely for the stated purpose of license enforcement and purchase fulfillment, and is not provided to third parties beyond the processors named in Section 6 (Polar.sh as payment processor, Cloudflare as infrastructure host), consistent with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information.

11. Data retention

License and device records are kept for as long as your license is active, to enforce seat limits and support you if you need help. If you'd like your license and device records deleted (for example, after you stop using Dictamio), email hello@dictamio.com and we'll remove them, noting this will also end your ability to reactivate that license without re-purchasing.

12. Changes to this policy

If our data practices change, we'll update this page and the "Last updated" date above. Meaningful changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.

13. Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or anything else privacy-related: hello@dictamio.com.

TODO (before publishing live): fill in the operating legal entity name in the paragraph below Section title, e.g. "Dictamio is operated by [Entity Name]." No entity is named yet — replace this placeholder before this page goes live if one has been formed.

This is generated paperwork, not legal advice — have it reviewed for your jurisdiction.