Privacy policy
Local-first means your meeting stays yours.
Who this policy covers
This policy covers the Recognizing app for Mac and Recognizing Captions for iPhone and iPad. Recognizing does not require a product account and does not operate an advertising, analytics or developer server that receives your meetings.
Recording and consent
Recording starts only after an explicit action and remains visibly indicated. You are responsible for informing participants and obtaining any consent required where you record. Recording laws vary by location and circumstances.
Mac: local processing and storage
Recognizing can record microphone audio and, only when you enable it, system or meeting-app audio. Apple Speech transcribes the recording locally. A meeting bundle may contain its title, transcript, notes, raw audio, screenshots you explicitly capture, screenshot captions, context and OCR text, generated records and privacy-safe diagnostics.
Provider settings are stored locally. Cloud-provider API keys are stored in the macOS Keychain.
Mac: optional cloud processing
Automatic, Apple Intelligence, local MLX and deterministic modes keep meeting content on your Mac. If you choose Cloud (BYOK), Recognizing sends bounded transcript, note, screenshot-caption, context and OCR text directly to the endpoint you configure to generate a record or answer a question. Raw audio and screenshot pixels are not sent. The selected provider may retain or use submitted text under its own terms and privacy policy.
iPhone and iPad
Recognizing Captions records microphone audio only while you run a foreground caption session. Apple Speech transcribes the conversation on the device. The app does not upload conversation audio or text. A saved conversation may contain its title, transcript, timestamped notes, highlighted moments, a generated local record and raw microphone audio.
Text-only export uses Apple's system share sheet. You choose the destination, and the receiving service's privacy terms apply after you share.
Permissions
Microphone and Speech Recognition permissions are requested only for features that need them. On Mac, Screen Recording is requested only for optional system audio or screenshots. On iPhone and iPad, captioning is foreground-only and never resumes automatically after the app enters the background, the device locks, the audio route changes or another app interrupts the microphone.
Retention, export and deletion
Whole meetings are kept until you delete them. Raw-audio and diagnostic retention can be changed in Settings where available. You can export supported records, delete an individual recording or use Delete All Local Data to remove Recognizing-owned local data and settings. On Mac, complete deletion also removes Recognizing cloud-provider credentials from Keychain. Data already sent to a provider must be managed with that provider.
Tracking and analytics
The apps do not include advertising, cross-app tracking or product-usage analytics SDKs. Recognizing does not sell meeting data.
Changes and questions
Material changes will be reflected on this page with a new updated date. For privacy questions, use the working contact route on the Recognizing support page.