Your voice stays on your computer. Full stop.

The short version

CaringDictate turns your speech into text entirely on your own computer. Your voice is never uploaded. Your dictated words are never uploaded. No audio is stored on any server, and nobody — including us — can read what you dictate.

The app does make a few small connections: it downloads the speech models you choose, it checks for software updates, it activates a licence key if you buy one, and — unless you switch it off — it sends anonymous usage statistics, which are plain numbers about whether the software is working. Those numbers never include your voice, your words, your name, or anything that identifies you.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. Keeping your voice and your words on your own computer is guaranteed by how the app is built — not by a policy we promise to follow.

Who we are

CaringDictate is a product of Broadfield Networks LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company. Broadfield Networks LLC is the company responsible for this website and the CaringDictate software, and is the data controller for the limited personal information described in this policy.

You can reach us about anything on this page at privacy@caringdictate.com. If you need a postal address for a formal request, email us and we will provide one.

How voice recognition actually works in CaringDictate

CaringDictate uses open-source speech recognition models that run on your own machine. During setup, the app measures your computer and recommends one, then downloads it from our servers to your hard drive. Depending on which model you choose, the download is roughly 190 MB to 3.1 GB. You can change models later, and you can keep more than one installed.

When you press your trigger to dictate, CaringDictate captures audio from your microphone, runs it through the model already stored on your computer, and places the resulting text into whatever you were typing in. The audio is held in memory only for as long as it takes to recognise it, and is then discarded. Dictation is never written to an audio file and never sent anywhere.

Meeting recording is the one deliberate exception to that, and it is described in full in the next section. It is switched off until you turn it on.

The optional extras work the same way. Speech cleanup, AI polish, speaker detection, and the wake-phrase listener all run locally, using models on your own disk. Turning them on does not send anything to us or to anyone else.

At no point does any audio or dictated text leave your computer. You can verify this with any network monitoring tool — during dictation, CaringDictate makes no outbound connections at all.

Meeting and call recording — the one time audio is saved

CaringDictate can record calls and meetings and turn them into transcripts. Unlike dictation, this deliberately does save an audio file, because a recording you cannot play back is not a recording. Everything below happens on your own computer.

• It is off until you switch it on. Nothing is recorded — automatically or by pressing a button — until you have accepted a one-time note confirming you understand that the responsibility for having consent to record is yours. Recording laws differ by country and state, and some require that everyone on the call agrees.
• You can see it running. A small on-screen indicator appears while a recording is in progress. It is on by default, and you can turn it off if you would rather not see it.
• It does not speak for you. CaringDictate does not announce a recording to the other people on your behalf. Telling them is your decision, in your own words.
• What is saved, and where. Each recording gets its own folder inside your CaringDictate data folder, or any folder you choose. It contains the compressed audio, the transcript, and — if you turned notes on — a summary file. Your microphone and the other side's audio are kept as the two channels of one file.
• Transcription, speaker labels and notes are all local. The transcript is produced by the same speech model you dictate with. Speaker detection and the notes summary use additional models downloaded to your disk. No audio, transcript or note is uploaded to us or to anyone else.
• Nothing is indexed off your machine. The search that finds a word inside your transcripts is a database file on your own computer.
• You control how long it is kept. Keep recordings forever, or have them removed automatically after 30, 90 or 365 days, or above a disk limit you set. You can delete any recording — audio, transcript and notes together — from inside the app at any time.

If you never turn call recording on, none of the above applies and CaringDictate saves no audio at all.

What CaringDictate stores on your computer

Some things are saved locally so the app is useful between sessions. All of it lives on your own machine, in %LocalAppData%\CaringDictateData, and none of it is uploaded:

• Your settings — trigger choice, model choice, language, and preferences.
• Your dictation history — recent dictations are kept locally so you can copy something again if it went to the wrong window. You can clear this at any time from within the app.
• Recovered text — if the app cannot deliver text to a program (for example because the target was a password box, which CaringDictate deliberately refuses to type into), it holds the text locally so you do not lose it.
• Your personal dictionary and custom phrases — the names, terms, and shortcuts you have taught it.
• Your meeting recordings — only if you turned call recording on. The audio, transcript and notes for each one, in the folder described above.
• Diagnostic logs — technical logs that stay on your computer unless you choose to send one to support.
• Speech models — the models you downloaded.

Uninstalling CaringDictate removes the app. If you also want the folder above removed, you can delete it yourself at any time.

The optional folder scan

CaringDictate can learn the words you actually use — names, medical terms, place names — by scanning a folder of your own documents. This only ever happens when you choose a folder and start the scan yourself. The app reads plain text, Markdown, and Word documents in that folder purely to collect candidate words, shows you the suggestions, and lets you accept or reject each one. The scan runs on your computer, the documents are never uploaded, and nothing about their contents is sent to us.

What CaringDictate does connect to the internet for

CaringDictate makes outbound connections only in these specific cases:

• Installing and downloading models: Fetching the software and the speech models you select from our servers.
• Update checks: Periodically checking whether a newer version is available. The check sends nothing about you — only the version currently installed.
• Licence activation: A one-time check when you activate a licence key. This sends the key and an anonymous device code, and nothing else.
• Anonymous usage statistics: Occasionally the app reports plain numbers that tell us whether the software actually works out in the world: the app version, the Windows version, the computer's hardware class (processor, memory, graphics — so we know which models run well on which machines), which speech engine and model you chose and how fast it transcribes, which trigger style you use (for example "hold a key" versus "press to toggle"), whether a trial or a licence is active, and whether the app crashed. The report is keyed to a random ID the app invents on first run — it is not derived from your hardware and is linked to nothing about you. It never contains audio, dictated text, names, email addresses, file names, or anything else identifying. You can switch it off at any time in Settings → Privacy, and the app then sends nothing at all.

Licence activation can be done offline by contacting support if your computer is permanently disconnected from the internet. With usage statistics switched off, update checks are the only recurring connection the app makes.

What we collect on caringdictate.com

One important distinction first: everything in this section is about this website. It has nothing to do with the CaringDictate app. The app never sends your voice or your dictated text anywhere — that is described above and has not changed.

When you visit caringdictate.com, standard web server logs are recorded by our hosting provider, Cloudflare. These include IP address, page requested, browser user agent, and timestamp. They are used solely for security and to keep the site running.

To understand which pages actually help people and where visitors get stuck, this website uses Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager. It records anonymised, aggregate usage — pages viewed, approximate region, device type, and how you arrived. IP addresses are anonymised, and every advertising and cross-site advertising feature is switched off. We use this only to improve the website, never to identify you personally.

The site also uses Clicky, a second analytics tool that gives us a simple live view of which pages are being read. We run it in its cookieless mode: it sets no cookies on your device and builds no cross-site profile. It records the same sort of basic visit information — page, referrer, approximate location, device type.

You are in control. If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, analytics stays switched off until you choose "Accept" on the consent banner. Everywhere else, analytics is on by default and you can switch it off at any time by choosing "Decline" on the same banner — your choice is remembered on your device.

If you fill out the contact form

The contact form on this site is processed by Web3Forms, which forwards your message to our email inbox. Web3Forms retains submission data according to its own policies. What you send is treated exactly like a direct email — used to answer you, and not shared with anyone else.

If you email us

Emails sent to help@caringdictate.com, privacy@caringdictate.com, or any other CaringDictate address are held by our email provider under its standard retention practices. We use what you write to answer you and to improve our support. We do not share the contents with third parties, and we do not add you to a marketing list because you asked a question.

If you buy a licence

Payments are handled by Stripe, which processes the card and stores billing information under its own privacy policy. We never see or store your full card number. What reaches us is the information needed to issue and support your licence: your email address, the fact that a purchase was made, and the order details. We use it to send you your licence key, to handle refunds, and to keep the tax and accounting records the law requires.

Cookies

This website uses a small number of cookies. The only non-essential ones are set by Google Analytics (their names begin with "_ga") to recognise a returning visit, and they are only set once analytics is allowed — always opt-in in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland, and opt-out everywhere else, both controlled by the consent banner. Clicky runs in cookieless mode and sets none at all. We use no advertising cookies and no cross-site tracking cookies. The rest are essential cookies for basic site functionality. You can clear or block cookies in your browser at any time without breaking the site, and you can change your analytics choice whenever you like from the banner.

Why we are allowed to process this information

If you are in the UK, the EEA, or another place with similar law, these are the legal bases we rely on:

• To perform a contract — issuing and supporting your licence, handling refunds, and delivering updates when you have bought CaringDictate.
• Your consent — website analytics cookies where consent is required, and the app's anonymous usage statistics, which you can withdraw at any time in Settings → Privacy.
• Our legitimate interests — answering the message you sent us, keeping the website secure, preventing fraud and licence abuse, and understanding in aggregate which pages are useful.
• Legal obligation — keeping the tax and accounting records we are required to keep after a sale.

We do not make any decision about you by purely automated means, and we do not profile you.

How long we keep things

• Web server logs: 30 days.
• Website analytics: aggregated, with Google Analytics user-level data retained for 14 months.
• Support and contact emails: up to 3 years, so we can pick up an old thread if you write again.
• Licence and order records: for as long as your licence is valid, and afterwards for as long as tax and accounting law requires — typically 7 years.
• Anonymous usage statistics: up to 24 months in aggregate. They are not personal information and cannot be traced back to you.

Where your information is processed

Broadfield Networks LLC is based in the United States, and our providers (Cloudflare, Google, Clicky, Stripe, Web3Forms, and our email provider) process data in the United States and other countries. If you are in the UK or the EEA, transfers of your information out of your country are covered by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent approved safeguard, which those providers offer as part of their terms.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to correct it if it is wrong, to have it deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw a consent you previously gave.

To exercise any of these, email privacy@caringdictate.com. We answer within 30 days and will not charge you or treat you differently for asking. Most requests are simple to fulfil because we hold so little — usually just your email address and your order details if you have purchased.

If you are in the UK or the EEA: you also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office. We would rather you came to us first, but the right is yours either way.

If you are in California or another US state with a privacy law: you have the rights above, and we will not discriminate against you for using them. If we refuse a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision, and we will review it and write back with our reasoning.

We do not sell or share your personal information

We have not sold personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used in California and other US state privacy laws. We have no interest in starting. There is also very little to sell: the part of CaringDictate that would be valuable to a data broker — what you actually say — never leaves your computer in the first place.

Children's privacy

CaringDictate is designed for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected such information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we update this privacy policy, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top and, for material changes, email people who have purchased a licence. The architectural commitment to local processing is permanent — we will not change that aspect of CaringDictate.

Contact

Email privacy@caringdictate.com with any privacy question, or help@caringdictate.com for anything else. A real person will answer.