Privacy Policy

Effective date: May 3, 2026

The short version

Oaken Notes is a privacy-first app. Your meetings stay on your Mac. We don't run servers that process your data, we don't require accounts, and we don't track you. This policy explains what little data exists and where it lives.

What data Oaken Notes processes

Audio recordings

When you record a meeting, Oaken captures audio from your Mac's system audio and microphone. This audio is processed entirely on your device using either Apple Intelligence (the Neural Engine on Apple Silicon) or WhisperKit, an open-source speech recognition engine that also runs locally via CoreML. Audio data is never transmitted to any server.

Transcripts and notes

Speech-to-text transcription happens on-device using Apple's SpeechAnalyzer/SpeechTranscriber APIs or WhisperKit (an on-device Whisper model running via CoreML). AI-powered note enhancement uses Apple's Foundation Models framework. The resulting transcripts, summaries, action items, and enhanced notes are stored locally in a SQLite database on your Mac.

Calendar data

If you grant permission, Oaken reads your Apple Calendar events to auto-name meetings and associate notes with calendar entries. This data is accessed through Apple's EventKit framework and never leaves your device.

Agent preferences

Oaken's Agent Mode learns how you prefer your notes structured. These preferences are stored locally on your Mac and are never shared externally.

What we don't collect

We want to be explicit about what Oaken Notes does not do:

  • We do not collect, store, or transmit your audio recordings
  • We do not collect or store your transcripts or notes on Oaken's servers. By default, they stay on your Mac and are not sent off-device. If you configure an external AI provider, relevant transcript or note content is sent directly from your Mac to that provider for the features you use — Oaken never receives this data.
  • We do not require an account, email address, or any personal information to use the app
  • We do not use analytics, tracking pixels, or telemetry
  • We do not use third-party advertising or data brokers
  • We do not place meeting bots in your calls
  • We do not have servers that process your meeting data

iCloud sync (optional)

If you choose to enable iCloud sync, your notes are synced across your devices using Apple's CloudKit infrastructure with end-to-end encryption. This means:

  • Data is encrypted on your device before it reaches iCloud
  • Only your devices with the same Apple ID can decrypt the data
  • Neither Apple nor Oaken Notes can read your synced content

iCloud sync is entirely opt-in. Oaken Notes works fully offline without it.

On-device AI processing

By default, all AI features in Oaken Notes run on your Mac. No audio, transcript, or note data is sent to external servers for processing.

  • Transcription (primary) uses Apple's SpeechAnalyzer/SpeechTranscriber APIs, powered by the Neural Engine on Apple Silicon
  • Transcription (fallback) uses WhisperKit, an open-source implementation of OpenAI's Whisper model running locally via CoreML. WhisperKit is used automatically when Apple Intelligence speech recognition is unavailable, or when you select it manually in Settings
  • Note enhancement (default) uses Apple's Foundation Models API, running entirely on-device
  • Agent Mode uses on-device language models for preference learning

Model downloads: When WhisperKit is used, the app downloads speech recognition models from Hugging Face. You can choose from multiple models of varying size and accuracy to suit your needs. These downloads contain model weights only — no user data is sent. After downloading, WhisperKit operates fully offline.

Audio recording and transcription always happen on-device. This is a hard architectural constraint that cannot be overridden by any setting.

Bring Your Own AI Key (optional)

Oaken Notes allows you to optionally configure your own AI provider for note enhancement. This is entirely opt-in — if you never configure an external provider, all processing remains 100% on-device.

What data is sent

When you enable an external AI provider and trigger note enhancement, the following data is sent to your configured endpoint:

  • Transcript text (the words spoken in your meeting)
  • Your manual notes (if any)
  • A system prompt instructing the AI how to structure the output

Never sent: Audio recordings, raw audio data, calendar details, agent preferences, or any other app data. Transcription always stays on-device regardless of this setting.

Where data goes

Data is sent directly from your Mac to the endpoint URL you configure. Oaken Notes does not proxy, intercept, store, or log any data in transit. The connection is a direct network request from your device to your chosen provider. Remote providers typically use HTTPS, while localhost or other local inference endpoints may use non-HTTPS connections.

Credential storage

Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain on your device. It is never synced to iCloud, never transmitted to Oaken's servers (we don't have any), and never included in app telemetry (we don't collect any).

Your responsibility

When you configure an external AI provider, the data sent for note enhancement — including your transcript text, your manual notes, and the system prompt — is subject to that provider's privacy policy and terms of service. We recommend reviewing your provider's data retention and usage policies. Oaken Notes has no control over how third-party providers handle data once it reaches their servers.

Supported providers

Oaken Notes works with any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. Common choices include OpenAI, Groq, Together AI, and OpenRouter. You can also use local inference servers (such as Ollama) — in which case no data leaves your machine at all.

System permissions

Oaken Notes requests the following macOS permissions:

  • Microphone access — to capture meeting audio for transcription
  • Screen recording / system audio — to capture audio from meeting apps (Zoom, Meet, Teams, etc.)
  • Calendar access — optional, to associate notes with calendar events

You can revoke any of these permissions at any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Oaken Notes will continue to function with reduced capabilities.

Data storage and deletion

All data is stored in a local SQLite database in your Mac's application support directory. You own this data completely.

  • You can delete individual meetings, notes, or transcripts at any time from within the app
  • Uninstalling Oaken Notes removes all associated data from your Mac
  • If iCloud sync is enabled, you can manage synced data through Apple's iCloud settings

Third-party services

Oaken Notes does not send your audio, transcripts, notes, or any personal data to third-party services by default. The external connections the app or website may make are:

  • Your configured AI provider (opt-in) — if you enable Bring Your Own AI Key in Settings, note enhancement requests are sent directly to the endpoint you configure and may include the transcript text, any manual notes you provide, and the system prompt used to generate the enhancement. See the "Bring Your Own AI Key" section above for full details
  • Paddle (payment processing) — if you purchase a Pro subscription through our website, payments are processed by Paddle.com, our Merchant of Record. Paddle may collect your name, email address, billing address, payment method details, IP address, and tax identifiers to process transactions, comply with tax laws, prevent fraud, and handle refunds. We do not store your payment details ourselves. See Paddle's privacy policy
  • Apple iCloud — only if you explicitly enable sync, governed by Apple's privacy policy
  • Hugging Face (model download) — speech recognition models are downloaded from Hugging Face when needed. You can choose from multiple models of varying size and accuracy. Only model weights are downloaded; no user data, device identifiers, or telemetry are sent. See Hugging Face's privacy policy
  • Cloudflare Web Analytics — our website may load Cloudflare Web Analytics to measure site traffic and performance. Cloudflare may process limited usage and request metadata such as page views, referrer information, browser and device details, and IP address information in order to provide analytics. See Cloudflare's privacy policy

WhisperKit itself is open-source software (MIT license) maintained by Argmax, Inc. After model download, all speech processing is entirely on-device.

Children's privacy

Oaken Notes does not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone, including children under 13. Since the app processes all data locally and does not require accounts, there is no mechanism through which personal information could be collected.

Changes to this policy

If we update this privacy policy, we will post the revised version on this page with an updated effective date. Since Oaken Notes does not collect email addresses, we recommend checking this page periodically.

Contact

Questions about this privacy policy? Reach out at privacy@oakennotes.com.