What leaves the machine. What doesn't.

HTTPS POST to localtranscript.com/api/licence/activate when you enter a key; a daily heartbeat re-checks the licence while it's active. Fields: licence key, one-way hardware fingerprint, hostname hint, OS, app version, account email.

Free installs without a key send nothing here. Prefer fully offline? Activation also works by offline token paste, and enterprise installs can domain-activate. If the server is unreachable, a 90-day grace period applies.

The app checks GitHub Releases for a newer version. Standard HTTP metadata (IP address, user agent) reaches GitHub, like any download — no licence key, no fingerprint, no identifiers from us.

Every update is verified against an ed25519 signature before it installs. Hard Offline Mode pauses update checks entirely.

A salted SHA-256 digest of stable machine identifiers, computed on this machine. The underlying identifiers never leave it.

Purpose: the server recognises the same seat on reactivation, and a leaked licence key alone can't be used on unlimited laptops. Two seats per individual licence; deactivate to free one.

Shipped builds today (v0.6.19) contain no telemetry at all. From v0.6.20, builds can include opt-in crash and performance reporting: off by default, asked once at setup.

If you opt in: scrubbed crash reports and timing spans go to EU-hosted servers (Sentry, EU region) — app version, hardware tier, error stacks with usernames redacted on-device. Never audio, transcripts, names, or file contents. Hard Offline Mode forces it off.

By default every AI stage runs locally. You can optionally route transcription or AI Actions to a cloud provider — OpenAI, Anthropic, or Infomaniak in Switzerland — under your own API key.

Only then does meeting audio or transcript text leave the machine, to the provider you chose. Never configure one and there is no upload path. Hard Offline Mode blocks it regardless.

Everything lives in one local folder: a SQLite database, audio files, and JSON. From v0.6.20, Settings → Privacy → “Your data” shows it, opens it, and can delete all of it.

The app does not encrypt this folder itself — it is protected by your Windows user account. We recommend BitLocker disk encryption, standard on most managed machines.

localtranscript.com sets no analytics cookies and runs no trackers. The Mac waitlist and contact forms store exactly what you type, nothing else.

Buying a licence goes through Stripe (payment) and our licence server; the dashboard uses a session cookie to keep you signed in. That's the list.

Settings → Privacy → Network log shows every outbound attempt — timestamp, host, purpose, allowed or blocked — and exports as JSON. Hard Offline Mode blocks everything before DNS. Or watch the wire with Wireshark. Full details on the security page.