00:00 · Privacy
Privacy
A dictation app listens to a microphone and types into whatever you are working in, which makes it one of the most invasive categories of software a person can install. Here is exactly what Quickword does and does not do, before the formal policy section.
00:14 · The stance
- With syncing off, nothing leaves your computer. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and there is nothing of yours on anyone's server.
- With syncing on, which you switch on yourself, your recording is sent to be turned into text and tidied up, then saved to your account and deleted 14 days later.
- Quickword does not log your keystrokes. It reads no keys other than the shortcut you assign it.
- Quickword does not capture your screen or read the contents of your windows.
- Quickword never uses your recordings or your text to train anything. It does not train models at all. With syncing on, your recording is sent to the outside service that turns it into text, and those recordings are deleted after 14 days. Both halves of that are true and both are stated here on purpose.
- The only thing it reads about the app you are typing into is the name of the app you were typing into, and only with syncing on, so the tidy-up can tell an email from a chat message. That works on Windows only right now.
If you want the strongest version of this, leave syncing off and never sign in. Nothing you say ever reaches a server.
00:29 · The difference this makes
Why we cannot leak what we never had
Most dictation apps send what you say to their own servers, so their privacy story is a promise about how they will look after recordings they already hold. Quickword never receives the recording, so there is nothing to look after and nothing to change its mind about.
That matters because a promise can change with a terms of service update, and you will read about it in an email you skim. There is no version of that email we could send you about the free app, because there is nothing of yours at our end to write to you about.
00:44 · The policy
Privacy policy
What is collected
With syncing off: nothing. No account, no usage tracking, no crash reports sent by default. With syncing on: your email address, the recording, the text before and after tidy-up, which of your devices it came from, which app you typed it into where we can tell, how it was produced, how long it took, and whether it worked.
How it is used
The recording is used to produce your text and to let you run it again. The text is stored so it appears in your history on your devices. Nothing is used for advertising, sold, or used to train models.
Third parties
With syncing on, three outside companies handle your recording. Supabase hosts Quickword's server. OpenRouter passes the recording to the service that turns it into text and the text to the service that tidies it. Today those two are Mistral's Voxtral Mini and Anthropic's Claude Haiku, and they can be changed without a new version of the app.
Voxtral was picked by running 112 of Charles's own real dictations through several services and comparing each result against a transcript he had already corrected. That ranks the services against each other for one person's voice and accent. It is not an accuracy score, and no accuracy figure from it is published anywhere on this site.
Retention
Recordings are deleted 14 days after they are made, by a job that runs every day. The text stays in your history until you delete it. Deleting your account removes your history.
Your choices
You can use Quickword with syncing off and never create an account. You can delete individual dictations. You can ask for your account and its data to be deleted by writing to the contact address below.
Security
Traffic to the server is encrypted. There is no password, so there is no password to steal: you sign in with a link we email you. Your sign-in is currently kept in Quickword's own settings file rather than in the password store your operating system provides, and moving it there is a known job still to do.
Children
Quickword is not directed at children and accounts are not knowingly created for anyone under 13.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what is collected or how long it is kept, the change will be posted here with a date, and anyone with syncing on will be emailed.
Contact
Privacy questions, including a deletion request, go to hello@charleslau.me.
Last updated 2026-09-05.
01:03 · FAQ
Is Quickword always listening?
No. The microphone opens when you hold or tap your shortcut and closes when you let go or tap it off. The recording pill is visible whenever the microphone is open.
Does Quickword read what is on my screen?
No. It reads no screen content and takes no screenshots. With syncing on it reads the name of the app you are typing into and nothing else about it.
Can I check this myself?
Yes, and here is how. With syncing off, nothing is sent, and anyone who knows how to watch their own network connection can confirm it. The code itself is not public, so you can check the behaviour but not read the source.
What is the safest way to use it?
Leave syncing off and never sign in. That way there is no account, nothing uploaded, and no question about how long anything is kept.