Privacy Policy
Summary. EchoNotes does not collect, transmit, or share personal data. Your recordings, imported files, transcripts, summaries, questions, answers and exported files stay on your Mac. The app has no account, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, no third-party SDKs and no network connection. Transcription and summaries run on your Mac.
1. Who we are and what this policy covers
EchoNotes is developed by İbrahim Yüce and published as Stargazer Apps (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what the Mac App Store edition of EchoNotes (the “app”, bundle identifier com.ibrahimyuce07.echonotes.mas) does with information. It does not cover the Mac App Store, Apple's services, or any website or service you reach through links. Those are governed by their own terms and privacy policies.
Contact: [email protected].
2. Information we collect
We do not collect information through the app. We do not receive your audio, transcripts, summaries, key points, action items, questions and answers, notes, tags, folders, settings, exported files, IP address, device identifiers, or usage data. The App Store edition has no network client entitlement, so the app cannot make outgoing network connections.
If you choose to share app analytics and crash reports with developers in macOS, Apple may send us aggregated diagnostics. Apple handles that data under its own Privacy Policy, and you can turn this off in macOS settings. We do not operate a separate crash-reporting or telemetry service.
3. Data stored on your Mac
The app stores the following data locally, inside its App Sandbox container on your Mac:
- Recordings and imported audio: the audio you record or import. If “Keep audio after transcription” is off, the audio is deleted after a successful transcription and the text stays.
- Note content: titles, transcripts with timed segments, summaries, key points, source quotes, action items, questions and answers, bookmarks, tags, folders and favorites.
- Unfinished recordings: short drafts that let an unfinished recording be recovered after a crash or quit.
- Settings: recording and summary languages, summary length, custom vocabulary, keep-audio, open at login, and whether you have acknowledged the recording reminder.
- Local counters: how many notes were processed successfully and when the rating prompt was last shown, used only to decide when the App Store review prompt may appear.
- Processing statistics: how long past notes took, used to estimate how long a new note will take.
The data lives in ~/Library/Containers/com.ibrahimyuce07.echonotes.mas/Data/Library/Application Support/EchoNotes/. It remains on your Mac until you delete it, as described in section 13.
4. Recording and the microphone
EchoNotes records only when you start a recording. Before your first recording, the app asks you to tell participants that you are recording. While a recording is active, the recording indicator stays visible. Pausing stops the audio from being written. Nothing is recorded in the background, and recording ends when you press Stop.
5. On-device transcription and summaries
Transcription uses the Whisper Large v3 Turbo speech model bundled inside the app. It runs on your Mac with whisper.cpp, an open-source engine, and needs no download. Summaries, key points, action items and questions are generated on your Mac with Apple Foundation Models, which requires Apple Intelligence. Apple Speech is used only as a fallback, and only when its on-device system model is already installed and you have already allowed Speech Recognition. The app never downloads it. Audio and text never leave this Mac.
6. AI output and accuracy
Transcripts, summaries, action items and answers are produced by on-device models and can be incomplete or wrong. Speech recognition can make mistakes with background noise, accents, overlapping speakers and unusual names. Check important content before you rely on it or share it. Custom vocabulary in Settings can help with names and terms.
7. Files you choose
The app reads an audio or video file only when you choose it in the standard macOS open panel or drop it onto the library. It writes an export only to the location you choose in the save panel. It does not scan your folders and does not read other files. Exported files are ordinary files and are not encrypted by the app.
8. Permissions
- Microphone: used only while you are recording.
- Speech Recognition: used only if the optional Apple Speech fallback is in use. The app does not ask for it in the normal flow.
- Notifications: optional. The app asks only after you tap “Allow notifications”, and uses them to tell you when a note is ready.
- Files: only the files you select in the open and save panels.
- Open at login: optional, controlled in Settings.
EchoNotes runs in the App Sandbox with three entitlements: com.apple.security.app-sandbox, com.apple.security.device.audio-input and com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write. It does not request Screen Recording, Accessibility, Input Monitoring, Full Disk Access, Camera, Contacts, Calendars, Photos, Location or any other system permission.
9. Network access
The App Store edition makes no network requests. The speech model is part of the app, so EchoNotes works offline from the first launch.
10. Ratings
The “Rate EchoNotes” and “Write a Review” buttons open the App Store review page for EchoNotes. After a note is processed successfully, the app may ask macOS to show Apple's review prompt, at most twice a year. The prompt never appears after a failed note. Apple controls the prompt. EchoNotes does not receive your Apple Account, your identity or the text of any review.
11. Purchases and updates
EchoNotes is distributed through the Mac App Store. Purchases, downloads, updates, refunds and family sharing are handled by Apple under Apple's terms. We do not receive or store your payment details or your Apple Account credentials.
12. Third parties
The app does not use third-party SDKs, analytics, advertising, crash reporting or network services. Its speech engine (whisper.cpp, ggml and the Whisper model) is open source and runs entirely inside the app. Apple's frameworks, including Speech and Foundation Models, are part of macOS and are governed by Apple's terms. This privacy page is hosted on Cloudflare. When you load it, Cloudflare may process standard connection and security information to deliver the page and protect the site. Cloudflare handles that data under its own privacy policy.
13. Deleting your data
Deleting a note moves it to the Trash. Emptying the Trash, or deleting a note permanently, removes its database rows and its audio files. Turning off “Keep audio after transcription” removes the audio after a successful transcription. Uninstalling the app removes its sandbox container, including the local database and audio. If you use Time Machine or another backup, your backups can contain this data, as they do for any file on your Mac.
14. Children
EchoNotes is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children under 13. Because the app collects no information, parents and guardians do not need to take additional steps. They remain responsible for how children use the app and the recordings they make with it.
15. Your rights and choices
Because we do not hold personal data about you, there is nothing for us to access, correct, export or delete on our side. You control the data on your Mac: you can read, rename, export and delete notes in the app, and you can remove the app to remove its data.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights under applicable law, such as the GDPR (EU and EEA), UK GDPR, the CCPA (California), or Turkey's Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (KVKK). Because the app does not send personal data to us, most of these rights are met by the controls above. If you have a question or request, write to us at the address in section 16.
16. Governing law and contact
This policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of Türkiye, without prejudice to any mandatory laws of your country of residence that apply to you. For questions, requests or concerns about this policy, write to [email protected].
17. Security and limitations
The app keeps its processing and data on your Mac and runs in the App Sandbox. No software is completely secure, so keep your Mac, your user account and your backups protected. The app does not encrypt the files you export. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the app is provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind, and we are not liable for loss of or damage to files or other data, including loss caused by a failure of your Mac or an unexpected update. Nothing in this policy limits any right you have that cannot be limited under applicable law.
18. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. If the app ever starts collecting data, using the network or offering in-app purchases, we will update this policy before that change takes effect and, where the law requires it, ask for your consent first. Continued use of the app after an update means you accept the updated policy.