Privacy Policy

Effective: July 4, 2026

The short version. GhostQuill turns your speech into typed text entirely on your Mac. Your voice and the text it produces are never sent to us or anyone else — there are no accounts, no analytics, and nothing to sign up for. The only data that leaves your device is the ordinary web-server request made when you visit our website.

This Privacy Policy explains what GhostQuill does and does not do with your information. It covers the GhostQuill application for macOS (the "App") and the GhostQuill website at ghostquill.app (the "Site").

1. Our approach: privacy by design

GhostQuill is built so that your dictation never needs to leave your Mac. Speech recognition runs locally on your device. We do not operate servers that receive your audio or your transcribed text, we do not have user accounts, and we do not build profiles of you. Because the processing happens on your device, most of the data described below is never transmitted to us at all.

2. The App

2.1 Microphone audio

While you hold the dictation key, the App captures audio from your microphone so it can be transcribed. This audio is processed on your Mac to produce text and is used only for that purpose. The App does not record when the key is not held, and it does not send your audio to us or to any third party. Audio is held only transiently, in memory, for as long as needed to transcribe it; the App does not save your recordings to disk.

2.2 Transcribed text

The text produced from your speech is inserted into whichever application has focus — that is the App's entire purpose. From that point the text lives inside whatever app you dictated into, under that app's control, not ours. GhostQuill does not keep a history of your dictations, and does not transmit your transcribed text to us or to anyone else.

2.3 Speech recognition engine

Recognition is performed on-device. [CONFIRM: name the engine here — e.g. macOS's built-in on-device speech recognition, or a speech model bundled with the App. If the App uses Apple's on-device speech recognition, audio is processed by macOS on your device and is not sent to Apple; the App does not use any cloud/server-based recognition.]

2.4 System permissions the App needs

To do its job, macOS will ask you to grant the App certain permissions:

  • Microphone — required to hear your dictation. macOS shows a prompt the first time; you can review or revoke this in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
  • Accessibility / input — required so the App can insert the transcribed text into the app you are using. You can review or revoke this in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.

These permissions are used only to provide the dictation feature. Revoking them will stop the corresponding functionality but does not send anything to us.

2.5 What the App does not collect

The App has no login or account system, does not ask for your name or email, and does not collect contacts, location, or files. [CONFIRM: state your telemetry position here. If true: "The App contains no third-party analytics, advertising, tracking, or telemetry, and sends no crash reports." If the App checks for updates or sends crash/diagnostic reports, disclose that here — what is sent, to whom, and how to turn it off.]

3. The Site

The Site is a single static page describing GhostQuill. It contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking scripts, and it sets no cookies. Your light/dark theme preference is stored locally in your browser (via localStorage) and is never sent anywhere.

Like any website, the Site is served by a hosting provider that processes standard technical request data — such as your IP address, user agent, requested URL, and timestamp — in server logs, in order to deliver the page and keep the service secure and reliable. Our hosting provider is Google Firebase Hosting; this data is processed by Google as our hosting provider. See Google's privacy documentation for how it handles such data.

4. Service providers

We keep third parties to a minimum:

  • Google Firebase Hosting — serves the Site and processes standard request logs as described in Section 3.

We do not sell, rent, or share personal data with third parties for their own marketing, and there is no advertising in the App or on the Site.

5. Data retention

Because the App processes audio and text locally and transiently, there is nothing for us to retain from your use of the App. Website server logs held by our hosting provider are retained for a limited period according to that provider's standard practices, then deleted or aggregated.

6. Children's privacy

GhostQuill is a general-purpose utility and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example, under the EU/UK GDPR or the CCPA/CPRA in California), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict the processing of your personal data, and to complain to a supervisory authority. Because the App collects no personal data and we operate no user accounts, in most cases we simply hold nothing about you to act on. For any request concerning the limited website request data described above, or to ask a question about this policy, contact us at s.zaycev.dev@gmail.com. The controller is established in [COUNTRY].

8. International users

The Site can be accessed globally. Website request data may be processed on servers operated by our hosting provider in various locations. By using the Site, you understand that this technical data may be processed in countries other than your own.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected here with a new effective date. If a future release of the App adds any feature that transmits data off your device, we will update this policy before or when that feature ships and describe what is sent and why.

10. Contact

Questions about your privacy or this policy: s.zaycev.dev@gmail.com.