Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible

I am the controller for personal data processed in connection with SpeakGlide (the apps for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux, the website speakglide.com and its account and billing servers):

SpeakGlide is run by me as a private individual in Switzerland. There is no separate company and no data-protection officer. Write to info@speakglide.com for anything about your data; I answer requests within 30 days.

2. What stays on your device

SpeakGlide is built to work offline. Speech recognition (NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3) and translation (Helsinki-NLP OPUS-MT) run on your device. The following data is stored only on your device, in the app's private storage, and is never sent to us:

• audio recordings and dictations;
• transcripts, your edits and translations;
• your Dictionary and voice shortcuts while you are signed out, and app settings;
• queued requests (feedback, purchases) until the app can send them, kept in the operating system's secure storage.

On iPhone and iPad, recordings are excluded from iCloud and device backups and are protected by iOS Data Protection. On Android, app data is excluded from cloud backup and device transfer. Deleting a note deletes its audio file; uninstalling the app removes all of it. If you export or share a transcript, audio or your Dictionary, the app or service you choose receives it under its own rules.

The iPhone keyboard and the Android paste overlay hand the transcript to the app you are typing in. The keyboard needs Full Access only to exchange audio with the SpeakGlide app through a shared container on the same device; the Android overlay uses the Accessibility Service only to find the focused text field and paste. Neither reads, stores or sends what you type in other apps.

3. Data we process on our servers

3.1 Account

You need an account to use the app: during setup you sign in with Google or Apple, and every new account starts with a 14-day Pro trial (section 3.2). When you sign in (in the app or on speakglide.com), I store: the provider and its account identifier (sub), your email and name if the provider shares them, the account creation date, an appAccountToken that links App Store and Google Play purchases to your account, revocable app access tokens, and your personal referral code. Google and Apple authenticate you as independent controllers.

3.2 Payments and plans

On the website, purchases are sold through Link, LLC, a Stripe company acting as reseller and merchant of record (Stripe Managed Payments). Stripe and Link collect your name, email, billing address, payment details and location to process the payment, calculate and remit tax, prevent fraud, handle refunds, disputes and support, and run your optional Link account; for that they are independent controllers under their own privacy policies (Link, Stripe). I never see your card number. I store the Stripe customer, subscription and payment ids, plan, amount, currency, status and dates. In the iOS and Android apps, Apple and Google process payments as independent controllers; I receive and verify the transaction ids, purchase tokens and product ids with the App Store Server API and the Google Play Developer API. Notifications from Stripe, Apple and Google are kept as an audit trail with contact details removed (no email, name, address or phone). To let the app work offline, the server issues a signed licence lease (plan and expiry) and records when it was issued. If you start the free trial in a desktop app, I store its start and end dates and a keyed hash (HMAC) of your Google or Apple account identifier, so the same sign-in cannot start a second trial. That hash is not linked to your account, cannot be turned back into the identifier without my secret key, and is kept after you delete your account (section 7).

3.3 Referral program

If you invite someone or use an invite link, I store who invited whom (by internal account id), the code used, whether the invitee was a new account, how many successful dictations the invitee's app reports (a number, never the content), whether the invitee bought a plan, and the free months granted. On Android the app reads the Google Play install referrer once to pick up an invite code. On the website an invite link sets a speakglide_ref cookie for 30 days so the invite is applied when you sign up.

3.4 Feedback

If you send feedback from the app or the website, I store your message, the optional email you give for a reply, the category, app version, platform, language and speech-recognition language, and your account id if you are signed in.

3.5 Dictionary sync

While you are signed in, the app syncs your custom Dictionary (words, "often transcribed as" variants, language) and your voice shortcuts (a trigger phrase and the text it inserts, which can be several lines, for example a signature or an address) over HTTPS so they are the same on all your devices. Avoid putting passwords or other secrets in a voice shortcut. Each entry is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before it is stored, with a key held outside the database, plus an entry id and timestamps for merging. I do not read or use the contents for anything else. You can download the server copy at GET /api/me/dictionary and erase it with DELETE /api/me/dictionary.

3.6 Acceptance of the Terms, this Policy and the EULA

When you create an account or accept a new version of these documents, I store an unchangeable copy of each version, and for each acceptance your account id, the versions, date and time, your confirmation that you are at least 16 years old (and when you gave it), where it happened (website or app), the language, the browser or app user agent and a keyed hash of your IP address (never the IP address itself).

3.7 Website visits

The server that delivers speakglide.com logs IP address, date and time, requested URL, referrer and user agent to operate and secure the site. The website uses only cookies that are strictly necessary: the sign-in session and CSRF cookies, a short-lived cookie for the desktop sign-in flow and the invite cookie above. There are no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, so no cookie banner is shown. Fonts are served from speakglide.com itself.

3.8 Connections the apps make

Besides your account requests, the apps contact these services. Each request reveals your IP address, the app version and the platform to the service, never your recordings or transcripts:

• Update check (all platforms): the app asks speakglide.com/api/app/version whether a newer or required version exists.
• Desktop updates (macOS, Windows): the built-in updater (Sparkle / WinSparkle) reads the update feed at speakglide.com/updates/… and downloads installers from downloads.speakglide.com.
• Speech model (desktop): the app reads the signed model list at speakglide.com/api/models/manifest and downloads the model files from models.speakglide.com.
• Translation models (Pro): downloaded once from models.speakglide.com when you add a language, using the same signed model list. Model files are stored in my Amazon S3 storage in Switzerland and delivered through Amazon CloudFront; the app contacts no other model host.
• Google Play services (Android): the Play In-App Review and In-App Update APIs, and the Play Install Referrer (read once, only to pick up an invite code). Google processes these as an independent controller.
• App Store (iOS, macOS): the system rating prompt and StoreKit purchases, processed by Apple.
• Read aloud: text-to-speech uses your device's speech engine (Apple, Google, Microsoft or the Linux engine you installed). Depending on the voice you selected in the system settings, that engine may process the text on its provider's servers under its own terms.
• Sign in with Google / Apple: the provider's sign-in screen, only when you choose to sign in.

3.9 Public store reviews

A daily job copies the public reviews of SpeakGlide from the App Store and Google Play (rating, title, text, reviewer nickname, country or language, app version, device, and my reply) so I can answer them and improve the app. This is personal data of the reviewer, processed on the basis of my legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) and kept for 24 months. You can object or ask for deletion at info@speakglide.com.

3.10 What I never collect

• audio, transcripts or translations;
• card numbers;
• location, contacts or advertising identifiers;
• analytics, usage tracking or crash reports.

4. Purposes and legal bases

I do not use your data for marketing, profiling or automated decisions, and I do not sell it.

5. Who receives data

I do not sell or rent personal data. These providers process it on my behalf (processors, under a data processing agreement) or as independent controllers for their own service:

6. International transfers

Account and billing data is stored in Switzerland. Switzerland has an EU adequacy decision, so data from the EU/EEA can flow here freely. Where a provider above processes data in the USA or another country without an adequacy decision, the transfer relies on the EU-US / Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified (EU adequacy decision of 10 July 2023; Swiss Federal Council adequacy decision in force since 15 September 2024), or on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (with the amendments required by the Swiss FDPIC). Apple and Google act as independent controllers for sign-in and store purchases: their own privacy policies and transfer safeguards apply to the data you give them. You can ask me for a copy of the safeguards at info@speakglide.com.

7. Retention

8. Your rights

Under the GDPR and the Swiss nFADP you can ask for access, a copy in a portable format, correction, erasure, restriction and objection, and you can withdraw consent where processing relies on it.

• Download your data: on /account ("Download my data") or in the app under Settings → Account. You get a JSON file with your account, sign-in identities, plans, purchases, referrals, feedback, Dictionary (including voice shortcuts) and accepted legal versions.
• Delete your account: in the app under Settings → Account → Delete account, or on /account. This cancels any website subscription immediately, deletes your Stripe customer record (records Link/Stripe keep as merchant of record under their own legal duties are governed by their privacy policies; you can also ask Link to delete your data), erases your email, name, sign-in identities, referral code, Dictionary (including voice shortcuts) and app tokens, and removes contact details from stored payment notifications. Only the anonymised billing records listed in section 7 remain. App Store and Google Play subscriptions must be cancelled in the store.
• Correction: your name and email come from Google or Apple and are updated the next time you sign in; write to me for anything else.
• Data on your device is under your control: delete notes in the app or uninstall it.

You can complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or, in the EU/EEA, to the supervisory authority where you live or work.

9. Security

All connections use HTTPS/TLS. The database is not reachable from the internet, is encrypted at rest and requires TLS. Dictionary entries are additionally encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Secrets are kept in AWS Secrets Manager / Parameter Store, never in the code. App tokens are stored in the iOS/macOS Keychain, Android Keystore-backed storage, Windows Credential Manager or the Linux secret service. If a breach is likely to put you at risk, I will notify the competent authority and, where required, you.

I take appropriate technical and organisational measures as required by the GDPR and the Swiss FADP, but no method of transmission over the internet or of electronic storage is 100% secure, and I cannot guarantee absolute security. The security of content on your device also depends on you: keep your device, operating system and app updated, protected with a screen lock, and back up your own content.

9.1 Content you enter or share

Recordings, transcripts, notes and translations stay on your device and are under your control. You decide what you record, what text you enter (for example, dictionary entries or feedback messages) and where you paste, export or share output; once you share it with another app or person, their terms and privacy practices apply. Do not include sensitive data about yourself or others (such as health data) in feedback messages or dictionary entries. If you record or transcribe other people, you are responsible for having a legal basis and giving any notice your law requires; for that content, you, not I, decide the purposes and means of processing.

Nothing in this section limits your rights under the GDPR, the UK GDPR or the Swiss FADP (section 8), my obligations as controller for the data I process on my servers, or any liability that cannot be limited by law.

10. Children

You must be at least 16 years old to create a SpeakGlide account. Account creation (website and app) requires an explicit “I am 16 or older” confirmation, which I store with your acceptance record (section 3.6). I do not knowingly process personal data of children under 16 on my servers. Because the app requires an account, it asks for this confirmation when you sign up; your recordings and transcripts still stay on your device. If you believe a child under 16 has created an account or given me personal data, write to info@speakglide.com and I will delete it.

11. Changes

When I change this policy, the effective date above changes and account holders are asked to accept the new version on the website or in the app.