App privacy

What the Sayfare app for Mac processes on your computer, what it stores and what goes to the cloud. The same text is in the app under Settings › Advanced › About › Privacy. In effect from 28 October 2026. The Slovenian version of this page is the binding one.

In short

By default everything stays on your Mac. Sayfare has no account, collects no usage data and sends nothing about you to the publisher. Once a day it only checks whether a new version exists. A dictation goes to the cloud only if you enter your own ElevenLabs or Anthropic key and choose that option in Settings.

What stays on your Mac and what goes to the cloud

Data	On your Mac	To the cloud
Microphone audio	Transcribed by the Whisper model on your Mac. Recordings are saved only if you turn that on.	To ElevenLabs, only if you choose ElevenLabs for transcription and enter your own key.
Dictated text	Fixed by the Gemma proofreader on your Mac. Kept in the history for two hours; you set how long.	To Anthropic, only if you choose the Claude proofreader and enter your own key.
Field context	The app name, window title and up to 400 characters before the cursor help the proofreader. Sayfare never reads password fields.	With the dictated text to Anthropic, only with the Claude proofreader. You can turn it off in Settings.
Write for me	Doesn’t run on the Mac; Claude writes the reply.	To Anthropic: your instruction and the text of the field, only when you start it yourself and have entered your own key.
Dictionary and fixes	The dictionary and replacements in the settings, fixes in the `~/Voice` folder. They stay until you delete them.	To Anthropic with the Claude proofreader. The dictionary goes to ElevenLabs only if you turn on “Dictionary as keywords”.
Log and statistics	On disk, without the dictated text.	Nowhere on their own. The Send feedback button opens an email that you see and send yourself.
New version	Remembers when it last checked.	Once a day it reads `sayfare.pages.dev/verzija.json`, with nothing about you. You can turn it off in Settings.
Models	On disk in `~/Voice`.	Downloaded from Hugging Face on first launch, which sees your IP address.

Who publishes Sayfare

Vid Zadnikar, Wayfare Studio, Slovenia. Contact: wayfarestudio1@gmail.com.

The publisher never receives or sees your dictations. The data Sayfare processes stays on your Mac or goes directly to the provider you choose.

What Sayfare processes on your Mac

Microphone audio, only when you press the shortcut. It is transcribed by the Whisper model, which runs on your Mac.
Field context when a dictation starts: the app name, the window title, up to 400 characters before the cursor and the selected text. It helps the proofreader with names and with continuing a sentence. Sayfare never reads password fields. You can turn it off in Settings (Context from the field).
Fixes after pasting: for up to two minutes after inserting text, Sayfare watches the field and remembers the words you corrected. You can turn it off in Settings (Learn from my fixes).
Proofreader on the Mac: spelling and commas are fixed by the Gemma model, which runs on your Mac. The proofreader’s server can only be reached from your Mac (127.0.0.1).

For this, Sayfare needs macOS permission for the microphone and Accessibility. You can revoke both at any time in System Settings › Privacy & Security.

What Sayfare stores on disk

Most of it is in the ~/Voice folder in your home folder:

dictation history (text, app, time). By default it is deleted after two hours; you set how long in Settings › Advanced › Keep history;
dictation recordings, only if you turn on “Save recordings for learning”. They are deleted together with the history;
your fixes to dictations (the last 200, the text before and after the fix), which Sayfare learns from. They stay until you delete them in the Sayfare window › History;
learned words, until you remove them;
your API keys, if you enter them. Only your user can read those files;
the transcription and proofreading models;
an activity log with times, errors and text lengths, without the dictated text and without the contents of fields;
a count of dictations and seconds of speech per day (the last 90 days), without any text and without app names. You can see it in Settings › Advanced › About; the publisher never receives it.

Settings are in ~/Library/Preferences/studio.wayfare.sayfare.plist. Besides the shortcut, the engine and other choices, they also hold your name and signature if you enter them, your dictionary, replacements and per-app style (with app names).

To delete all of it, delete the ~/Voice folder and run defaults delete studio.wayfare.sayfare in Terminal.

What goes over the internet

On first launch, Sayfare downloads the models from Hugging Face. Hugging Face sees your IP address, as with any download. Dictations go nowhere.
Once a day, Sayfare reads sayfare.pages.dev/verzija.json to find out whether a new version exists. The request contains nothing about you (no identifier, no cookies). The server (Cloudflare) sees your IP address, as when you visit a website. Sayfare downloads and installs nothing by itself; it only shows a notice with a link. You can turn it off in Settings › Advanced › About › Check for new versions.
Sayfare sends no error reports by itself. The Send feedback button opens a new email in your mail app with the Sayfare version, macOS version, Mac model, memory and settings, without any dictated text. In the beta it also attaches the activity log. You see the email and send it yourself, or close it.
There is no other traffic: no analytics, no ads.

Optional cloud services

You use both services with your own key and under the provider’s terms. Your agreement is directly with the provider; the publisher of Sayfare receives no data.

ElevenLabs (speech transcription). When you choose ElevenLabs in Settings, the audio of each dictation goes to ElevenLabs, which returns the text. If you turn on “Dictionary as keywords”, your dictionary goes with it. With “Live preview”, the same audio goes to ElevenLabs a second time, live while you speak, so the panel can show the words you say. Sayfare doesn’t save or paste that text. The panel is visible to anyone who can see your screen; in a password field the live preview doesn’t show. The ElevenLabs privacy policy applies.

Anthropic (proofreading and editing with Claude). When you choose the Claude proofreader, Anthropic receives the dictated text, the app name, the field context (if it is on), your dictionary and learned fixes, and when you edit by voice, the selected text too. Audio is never sent. With Write for me, Anthropic receives your instruction, the name and signature from Settings and the text of the field you are writing in; when you reply to an email, also the email you received. Write for me works only with your own Anthropic key entered and only when you start it yourself. A normal dictation sends nothing. The Anthropic privacy policy applies.

For businesses: ElevenLabs and Anthropic offer a data processing agreement (DPA). If you dictate customers’ personal data, check whether your company needs one before turning either on, or stay with processing on the Mac.

Your rights

Because the publisher keeps none of your data, there is nothing to show you or delete. Everything Sayfare keeps is on your Mac, and you delete it yourself. For data held by ElevenLabs or Anthropic, contact them. Send questions about this statement to wayfarestudio1@gmail.com.

Windows

This statement covers Sayfare for Mac. The Windows version is still being tested. What it processes on your computer and what it sends to the cloud is described on the home page.

Changes

If this statement changes, the new version will be in the app and on this page, with a new date at the top. What the website collects is described on the Privacy policy page.