Privacy Policy

The short version: noteOwl is a private, on-device app. Your voice, recordings, transcripts, notes, and the memory it builds never leave your Mac. There is no cloud processing and no tracking, and the AI runs entirely on your machine. We do not see, collect, store, or transmit your content — ever. Using noteOwl for free needs no account at all; buying Pro or starting a trial uses an email address to hold your licence, and nothing you record goes with it.

1. What noteOwl does with your content

Everything you capture — dictations, meeting recordings, transcripts, summaries, and the memory noteOwl builds from them — is created and stored locally on your Mac, in your own vault (a folder in your user Library). noteOwl has no backend that receives your content, and it is never uploaded, synced to a cloud, or shared with us or any third party.

2. What we collect

Nothing from your library. noteOwl has no analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting that transmits your data, and no advertising. We do not build a profile of you, and we have no way to see what you record or say.

If you buy Pro or start a trial, the licensing service holds the records a licence needs. This includes, because “an email address and a device id” understated it:

• Your email address, and whether it is verified.
• Your purchases: what you bought, when, the amount and currency, and the payment provider's reference for it. We never receive or store your card details.
• Each Mac you activate: an identifier derived from a key created on that Mac (not a hardware serial), the name you have given the Mac, and when it was activated or replaced.
• Trial records, and whether a trial has already been used on an account or a Mac.
• Each licence and which Mac it is activated on, including records of any Mac replacement, so the complimentary replacement allowance can be applied.
• A salted digest of your email address. This is what lets us find your purchase again if you delete your account and later sign in with the same address.
• Records of requests we must be able to repeat safely — for example, that a particular deletion or purchase request has already been carried out — so a retry after a dropped connection does not do the same thing twice.
• Offer eligibility and redemptions, if you use one.
• For company purchases: the organisation, which licences are assigned, and the employee email each one is assigned to.
• Any optional feedback you choose to send after a trial.

None of this is derived from your library. No recording, transcript, summary, title, filename, contact, prompt, search query, or measure of how you use the app reaches the licensing service — there is no field for it.

When you delete your account we remove your email address, any feedback you sent us, and the employee email on a company assignment, and we sign you out everywhere. We keep a restricted set of records — your purchase, your licences, and salted digests recording that a trial or replacement was used — because otherwise deleting an account would reset those limits and your purchase could not be restored. Your licence keeps working on the Mac it is activated on; deleting an account is not a refund.

This website. noteowl.ai measures page views so we know which pages people find useful. It sets no cookies, does not follow you to other sites, and builds no profile of you. It is part of the website only — the app does not report anything, and nothing here is connected to anything you record.

3. On-device AI

Speech-to-text, summarization, and search all run on your Mac using on-device AI models from leading providers. These models execute locally; your content is processed on your device and is never sent to those companies or to us.

4. When noteOwl uses the internet

noteOwl is built to work offline. It connects in a few narrow cases, listed below, and none of them sends your content:

• One-time model download. On first setup, noteOwl downloads the on-device AI models from their providers' distribution servers. This is an inbound download of model files only.
• App updates. noteOwl checks a version feed for new releases. It sends no personal data or content.
• Licence activation. If you buy Pro or start a trial, the app contacts noteOwl to verify your email and register this Mac. This transmits your email address and an identifier for this Mac — never your recordings, transcripts, notes, or anything else from your library.

If you have activated Pro, the app also checks with the licensing service at most once a week, when a connection is already available, to learn whether the licence has been revoked. It sends only the certificate identifier. A failed or skipped check never disables a licence.

After the initial model download, and apart from the licensing traffic above, you can use noteOwl fully offline.

5. Permissions and why noteOwl asks

• Microphone — to transcribe your speech on-device.
• Accessibility — to type dictated text into the app you're working in.
• Input Monitoring — to start and stop dictation from anywhere with the fn key.
• Screen Recording — to capture meeting audio locally (no bot joins your call).
• Calendar and Contacts (optional) — read locally to prepare meetings and match names to voices. This data is not uploaded.

You can grant or revoke any of these at any time in System Settings; noteOwl simply loses that capability without them.

6. Your data and your controls

• Location: your content lives in a local vault on your Mac.
• Export: any export is a plain file written to a folder you choose — noteOwl never creates a web link or uploads your data to deliver it.
• Deletion: delete individual items, or wipe everything in Settings → “Delete all my data”. Removing the app and its vault folder deletes all your content.

7. Purchases

If you buy a licence, the purchase is handled by our payment provider. They process your payment details and issue your receipt; we do not receive or store your card details. We receive your email address and a payment reference so we can register your licence and provide support.

8. Children

noteOwl is a general-purpose productivity tool and is not directed at children under 13.

9. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the date above and post the revised version. Material changes will be noted in the app or on this site.

10. Contact

Questions about privacy? Contact 1070 AI Labs at support@noteowl.ai.