Privacy Policy

Summary

• We do not collect, store, or share any personal data.
• Audio is processed on your Mac and is never recorded or stored.
• Transcripts and translations are never sent anywhere.
• No accounts, no analytics, no tracking, no advertising, no data-collecting third-party SDKs.

Data we collect

None. Lysten has no servers and no user accounts, and it does not include analytics, crash reporting, advertising, or tracking technology. We cannot see what you listen to, what is transcribed, or what is translated.

How audio is processed

Lysten listens to your Mac's system audio (any app, or a single app you choose with Lysten Pro) or to your microphone, only while you have started listening. The audio is converted to text and translated in real time using Apple's on-device Speech and Translation frameworks, and an open-source on-device language identification model (WhisperKit, MIT license) when you use automatic language detection. Audio is held in memory only as long as needed to process it and is discarded immediately. Audio is never written to disk and is never uploaded. Transcribed and translated text is shown in the prompter and kept only in memory, unless you choose to record a transcript (see below).

Permissions

• System audio recording: required to hear audio played by other apps on your Mac. macOS asks for your permission, and you can revoke it at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
• Microphone: required only if you choose the microphone as the audio source. You can revoke it at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.

These permissions are used only for on-device transcription and translation, as described above.

Model downloads and network use

Lysten uses the network only to download language models: Apple's speech and translation language models (provided by Apple) and the open-source language identification model (downloaded once from Hugging Face). These downloads contain no audio, text, or personal data from you; as with any download, the hosting provider (Apple or Hugging Face) may receive technical information such as your IP address under its own privacy policy. After the models are installed, listening and translating work without sending anything over the network. The only other network use is by Apple's StoreKit for purchases (see below).

Data stored on your device

• Your preferences (languages, layout, theme, font size, custom words, and similar settings) are stored locally on your Mac.
• On the free plan, a daily usage counter (how much speech was heard today) is stored in your Mac's local Keychain so the daily limit can be applied. It contains no audio or text.
• With Lysten Pro, when you press the record button in the prompter, the text of what is heard and its translation is saved as a transcript on your Mac until you stop recording. Transcripts contain text only, never audio, and are never sent anywhere. You can delete them at any time in the Transcripts window.

You can remove this data by deleting the app.

Purchases

Lysten Pro is sold through the App Store as an auto-renewable subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Purchases, billing, and subscription management are handled entirely by Apple using your Apple ID. We do not receive or store your payment details or personal information. Apple's privacy policy governs that processing.

Children

Lysten does not collect personal information from anyone, including children. It does not contain advertising or tracking.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will publish the updated version on this page and update the effective date above.

Contact

NKDev · dev.nkrks@gmail.com