Privacy Policy
Short version: your voice and your transcripts stay on your Mac. You can use the app without an account: the free trial is tracked per Mac with a random install ID and a one-way hash of the Mac's hardware ID, never your name or email. We learn your email only if you buy (through Paddle) or choose to sign in to restore a purchase. The app contains no analytics or tracking SDKs and never reports what you dictate. The website keeps aggregate visit counts and sets one cookie only if you pick a language.
What stays on your device
- Audio is captured and transcribed on your Mac, either by Apple's speech engine or by a speech model you download (Qwen3 ASR, SenseVoice, Paraformer, Whisper). It is never uploaded to us. Apple's engine runs on the Mac too: Vocco always asks macOS for on-device recognition, and if macOS can't recognize your language on this Mac, Vocco stops and tells you instead of letting macOS send the audio to Apple. The downloadable engines always run locally.
- Transcripts and dictation history are stored locally on your Mac. Dictations are deleted automatically after 7, 30 or 90 days (Settings → History retention; 7 days unless you change it); real-time and file transcripts stay until you delete them. You can delete any of them at any time; we have no copy and no access.
What we receive
- Sign-in (optional). Vocco 1.0.7 and later don't ask you to sign in. You can sign in with Google or Apple to restore a purchase or use it on another Mac; we then receive that account's email address. With Sign in with Apple, Apple's response passes through our server so it can be verified and is then handed back to the app; we do not store your name. Versions before 1.0.7 require sign-in before first use.
- Free trial check. When the app starts, and about once a day while it runs, it sends our server a random install ID created on your Mac, a one-way hash of your Mac's hardware identifier (the identifier itself never leaves your Mac), the date the trial started on this Mac, the app version, and whether it is running in a virtual machine or is a test build. We store a second, keyed hash of that value with the trial start and last check-in dates, so reinstalling doesn't restart the trial, and add it to anonymous daily counts of active installations, app versions and new installations per country (the country is derived at the network edge). We don't store your IP address; to stop abuse, when a Mac checks in for the first time we keep a keyed hash of the network address for one hour to limit how many new Macs one address can register. This record is not linked to your email, not used for advertising and never shared.
- License checks. If you have bought Vocco or signed in, the app also sends a session token tied to that email so we can deliver and renew your license. We store that email, when the app last checked in, the country of that request (derived at the network edge; we do not store your IP address) and the app version, and use this to deliver licenses and count active accounts per day. For versions before 1.0.7 we also store your account's trial start date. No dictation content is ever included.
- Purchase details. Checkout is handled by Paddle.com Market Ltd, our merchant of record. We receive your email address and order details so we can deliver and support your license. Paddle processes your payment data under Paddle's privacy policy; we never see your card number. When you buy from inside the app, the checkout carries a one-way hash of a random one-time code created by the app, so the purchase can unlock that Mac automatically; Paddle stores it with your order, and we keep it with the order number and the keyed hash of the Mac that claimed the purchase for up to 30 days. If you activate a license with an activation code, we count how many Macs it was activated on, using the keyed hash of each Mac; the count can't be read back as a list of Macs.
- Prices. When the app starts, and after you sign in, it asks our server for the current prices so the in-app purchase screen shows what checkout will charge in your country. The country is worked out at the network edge from the request; if you are signed in, version 1.0.5 of the app also attaches your sign-in email, which the server does not use or store. No audio or text is sent.
- Update checks. The app periodically asks our server for the latest version number. This request carries no account information. We use these checks to keep an anonymous daily count of active installations and app versions: what we store is a one-way hash that cannot be traced back to you, deleted automatically after about three months.
- Model downloads. When you choose to install a speech model, the app asks our server where that model is currently hosted, so we can fix a broken download source without shipping an update. The request contains the model's name and nothing else, and we keep an anonymous count of how many times each model has been downloaded. The models themselves are fetched directly from public repositories.
- Early-access list. If you joined our early-access list earlier in 2026 (it is now closed), we use that email only for launch and pricing announcements. Unsubscribe anytime; we never sell or share the list.
- Website statistics. vocco.co uses Vercel Web Analytics, a cookie-free counter of aggregate page views. We also keep our own daily counts: which page was opened and which site or link sent you there, how long each part of the home page was on screen, and whether the download button was clicked. These counts are grouped only by country, browser language and operating system taken from the request. To count unique downloads per day we use a one-way hash of the IP address and browser, stored in a counter that cannot be read back; a log of the last 200 downloads keeps the country, system, language, referring site and the first four characters of that hash. None of this is tied to your email or to the app's trial records.
Cookies
The website sets one cookie, vocco_pref, and only when you choose a language from the menu, so the site shows that language next time. It holds a two-letter language code and expires after a year. There are no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
What we don't do
- No analytics or tracking SDKs in the app, and the app never reports what you dictate or how you use it.
- No advertising, no data sales, no third-party sharing beyond Paddle and the hosting providers that run our servers (Vercel, Upstash).
Retention and your rights
We keep order records as long as required for tax and support purposes, and account records (sign-in or purchase email, last check-in; for versions before 1.0.7 also the trial start) while you use Vocco. Trial records (the keyed hardware hash and trial dates) are deleted 24 months after the Mac last checked in. Our copies of purchase-claim codes are deleted after 30 days, and activation counts about 13 months after a license was last activated. Aggregate counters contain no personal data. You can ask us to delete your account record or your Mac's trial record, or export what we hold, by emailing support@vocco.co, and we'll respond within 30 days.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, we'll post the update here with a new effective date.