Dictation and transcription privacy ratings
Speech-to-text, dictation and meeting transcription, on the device or in the cloud.
19 dictation and transcription are rated against 11 public criteria, and 19 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 11 with a known jurisdiction, 10 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 11 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Open-source dictation and transcription only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit | Transparency report | Tells users about requests | Runs on the device | No training on recordings | TLS configuration | Security headers | Modern web standards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Desktop app that transcribes and translates audio and video files or live microphone input offline using Whisper models. It can optionally use the OpenAI Whisper API instead. |
Grade B | 87 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Free, open-source desktop app for push-to-talk dictation. Speech is transcribed offline on the device with local Whisper or Parakeet models and typed into the active text field. |
Grade B | 87 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Open-source speech recognition model and Python command-line tool from OpenAI that transcribes and translates audio in many languages on the local computer. |
Grade B | 87 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
C/C++ port of OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition model that runs transcription on the CPU or GPU of the local device. Used as a library and command-line tool, and as the engine inside many dictation apps. |
Grade B | 87 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Open-source, local-first meeting notepad, formerly Hyprnote, that records device audio without a bot and creates transcripts and AI summaries. Transcription can run on the device on supported Macs or through a chosen cloud provider. |
Grade D | 57 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Partial | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
macOS app that transcribes audio and video files, meeting audio and dictation with local Whisper-based models, including speaker labels and subtitle export. |
Grade D | 57 | 100% | – | No | Partial | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Desktop meeting assistant that records meeting audio without a bot, transcribes it on the device with Whisper or Parakeet models, and generates summaries with local or user-chosen AI models. |
Grade D | 57 | 100% | – | Partial | No | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Dictation app for macOS and iOS that transcribes speech with local Whisper, Parakeet or Apple models and inserts the text into any app. Cloud transcription and AI text enhancement are optional. |
Grade D | 57 | 100% | – | Partial | No | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Yes | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Speech-to-text feature built into macOS, iOS and iPadOS that types dictated text in any app. Supported languages are processed on the device; others are sent to Apple servers. |
Grade D | 47 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | Partial | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Partial | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Dictation app that turns speech into text in any app, with optional AI formatting. It offers local Whisper, Parakeet and Cohere models as well as cloud voice and language models. |
Grade D | 43 | 100% | – | No | No | Yes | Partial | Not applicable | Not applicable | Partial | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Cloud AI meeting assistant that joins video calls as a bot or records through its apps, then transcribes, summarizes and searches the conversations. It also offers dictation. |
Grade F | 31 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Partial | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | Not tested yet |
Cloud meeting recorder that joins Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams calls as a bot, then records, transcribes and summarizes them and can sync notes to CRMs. |
Grade F | 29 | 100% | Germany Fourteen Eyes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Not tested yet |
AI notepad for meetings that captures computer audio without a bot joining the call, transcribes it through cloud providers, and turns the user's notes and the transcript into meeting summaries. |
Grade F | 26 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Partial | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | Partial | Not tested yet |
Voice dictation app that transcribes speech in the cloud and inserts AI-formatted text into any app. It also includes a meeting notetaker. |
Grade F | 26 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Partial | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | Partial | Not tested yet |
Voice dictation app that sends speech to the cloud for transcription with its own Avalon model and inserts formatted text into any app, with optional screen context for accuracy. |
Grade F | 24 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Partial | No | No | No | Partial | Yes | No | Not tested yet |
Cloud AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes meetings and conversations, joins video calls as a bot or captures audio from its apps, and generates summaries and action items. |
Grade F | 24 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Partial | Partial | Partial | Yes | No | No | Partial | No | Not tested yet |
Dictation feature built into Windows 11, opened with Windows key + H, that converts speech to text in any text field using Microsoft's online speech recognition. |
Grade F | 13 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | No | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | No | Yes | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Speech Note Accessibility Open source Linux app for taking, reading and translating notes with offline speech-to-text, text-to-speech and machine translation. Processing runs locally on the computer. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Dragon Accessibility Commercial speech recognition software for dictation and voice control of the computer, sold as Dragon Professional for Windows and Dragon Anywhere for mobile. Made by Nuance, a Microsoft company. |
Grade F | 0 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | No | No | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Questions
What is the most private option among dictation and transcription?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are dictation and transcription rated?
Each entry answers 11 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, transparency report, tells users about requests, TLS configuration, security headers, modern web standards, runs on the device and no training on recordings. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.