Privacy Notice

Effective October 6, 2026

Talk DAT! runs on your device, and it is free. With local speech and writing models selected, your audio and dictated text stay on your computer. If you select a speech or writing provider, audio or text for that route goes directly to that provider under your account and its privacy terms. A feedback report contains a support log only if you choose to attach it. Apart from those choices, the app uses the internet for signing in, if you choose to, checking for updates, and the anonymous usage counts described below, which you can turn off; none of those carries what you said or wrote. The optional browser demo on this website sends what you say to be transcribed and finished, and only when you press it.

Who we are

Talk DAT! is made by Knight AI+AV LLC of Sacramento, California ("Knight", "we"). Questions about this notice, and every privacy request, go to Build@KnightAIAV.com.

Local data on desktop

On Windows and macOS, transcripts, protected voice sessions, history, dictionary entries, snippets, settings, and scratchpads remain under your Windows or macOS user profile. Provider keys and your sign-in token use the operating system's protected credential storage when available. Protected recovery recordings are never uploaded.

These files are written unencrypted under your user account, so anyone with access to that account, or to an unencrypted disk, can read them. Turning on full-disk encryption is the single most useful thing you can do about that, and Settings can delete history, recordings and the dictionary at any time.

There is no Talk DAT! cloud

Earlier versions offered to transcribe and rewrite on Knight's servers. That service is gone. There is no setting in the app that turns any of it back on: the code that did it was removed rather than switched off. If a local part cannot run, Talk DAT! tells you instead of sending the work elsewhere.

Bring your own key

If you add an API key for a speech or writing provider, requests on that route go from your device straight to that provider, under your account with them and their privacy terms. Knight is not in that path, never sees the request, and adds no charge; the provider bills you directly. Remove the key and the route stops.

Browser demo

The home page has an optional browser demo so you can hear what Talk DAT! does before installing it. This preview uses remote speech and writing services. The desktop apps do not use Knight's demo service. Their local and selected provider routes work as described above.

It starts only when you press it, and only after you tick a box agreeing to it the first time. While it listens, your browser streams your microphone audio straight to Deepgram, which transcribes it, using a short-lived token from Knight's demo service with Deepgram's model-improvement opt-out switched on. The rough text is then sent through Knight's demo service to OpenRouter, which passes it to a language model to finish it in the Chill or Executive style you picked; those requests deny data collection and require providers that keep no data. If you use the written box instead of the microphone, only the text you typed is sent, to OpenRouter the same way. If Deepgram cannot be reached, the page may fall back to your browser's built-in speech service, which follows your browser maker's privacy terms.

Nothing is stored by Knight. The demo service holds the text only for as long as the request takes, and it never receives your audio at all; like the website, its hosting provider keeps ordinary access logs, such as IP addresses and request times, and nothing more. It is not tied to an account, and nothing from the demo is added to one. Your browser keeps a random demo identifier, a count of how many voice tries you have used in the last five minutes, and whether you have agreed to the demo, in its own local storage, so the demo can limit how often it runs; these are not used for advertising or analytics. The demo microphone turns off when you release, stop, leave or hide the page, and each take is capped at 30 seconds.

The optional account

You do not need an account to dictate. If you sign in, with a six-digit code sent to your email address or with Sign in with Apple, our account service stores:

your email address, an account identifier, whether the address is verified, and which sign-in methods you have used;
if you use Sign in with Apple, the identifier Apple issues for you, and your name only if you choose to share it (Apple may give us a private relay address instead of your real one);
short-lived sign-in codes and session tokens, stored hashed, so the database never holds a usable code;
for each computer you sign in on, a random Talk DAT! device identifier, a device name, and the dates it signed in;
your chosen theme and the order of your Pill menu, if the desktop app sends them, so they can follow you to another computer and to this website.

It never stores audio, transcripts, dictated text, dictionaries, provider keys, or history. The account service is our own API at api.talkdat.app, hosted on Railway with its database in Postgres on Railway. Sign-in codes are emailed through Resend. Sign in with Apple is handled by Apple under its own terms. We do not use a hardware fingerprint.

Anonymous usage counts

The desktop app reports, with a random install identifier created on your computer and tied to nothing else (not your account, email address, or machine), a small number of events so we can tell whether the app works for people: first open, first successful dictation and how long it took, whether it is still in use, and whether it was used again after seven days. Each report carries only that identifier, the app version, the platform, the dates, and a flag marking our own test machines. No audio, no text, and no email address is ever part of it, and it cannot be joined to an account. You choose whether they are sent with the Share anonymous usage counts setting in Settings, Privacy (“first open, first dictation, still in use, day 7. Never your audio or text.”). It is on by default, setup mentions it once, and you can turn it off at any time; while it is off, the app sends none of these reports. It is separate from Local-only privacy: that setting keeps your audio and text on your device, and these reports never contain either. A copy of Talk DAT! built by someone else from its open-source code does not send them to us.

Feedback you send

If you use the in-app form to report a problem or share an idea, we store the words you type, the reply address if you give one, the app version and the platform, so that we can read and answer it. The form can also attach a formatting log, but only when you tick the box that says so. That log can contain text you dictated, which is why it is never attached without your say. Feedback reports are kept until they are no longer needed to fix the problem, and we delete one on request.

This website

The website has no advertising, no analytics, and no tracking pixels. The browser demo, when you press it, works as described under Browser demo. Your browser keeps your chosen site theme and music setting, and, if you sign in here, your sign-in session, in its own local storage on your device. The download section asks GitHub for the latest release details, so GitHub sees that request, and the account panel loads Apple's sign-in script from Apple. "Email me the link" opens your own mail app; nothing is sent through us. Our hosting provider keeps ordinary access logs, such as IP addresses and request times, to run and protect the site.

Features we retired

On September 22, 2026 we retired the demo-to-desktop email handoff, the price-reminder list and every paid plan. None of them collects anything any more. The browser demo was retired the same day and brought back as described above, without its email handoff and without the first-party demo funnel that used to measure it. If you used one of them before then and want any record of it deleted, write to Build@KnightAIAV.com and we will delete it.

Children

Talk DAT! is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account or sent us information, write to Build@KnightAIAV.com and we will delete it.

Keeping and deleting your data

Account data is kept while the account exists. You can delete the account at any time: from the account panel on this website, or by writing to Build@KnightAIAV.com from the address on the account. Deleting it removes your account record, the computers signed in to it, and your sign-in identity, and cannot be undone; Talk DAT! keeps working on your devices without it. For a copy of your account data, or to correct it, write to the same address. Anonymous usage counts cannot be tied to you, so they cannot be picked out and deleted per person; turning the setting off stops new ones. Everything on your own device is yours to delete from the app's Settings or by uninstalling.

Regulated data

Knight never receives your dictation, so there is no processor relationship to place under a Business Associate Agreement. The app transcribes on your own device, or at a provider you supplied a key for, so the content does not reach Knight's servers to begin with. The browser demo on this website is not for regulated data: it sends what you say to Deepgram and OpenRouter. That removes us from your compliance scope; it does not complete it, because Talk DAT! still writes transcripts, history, and short recovery recordings to your user profile unencrypted, so the device remains your responsibility. Knight claims no HIPAA or SOC 2 certification, and the optional PII redaction setting is a convenience filter rather than de-identification.

Security and changes

Account traffic uses HTTPS. Sign-in codes and session tokens are stored hashed, sessions expire and rotate, and the desktop app's sign-in token is signed so it cannot be forged. No system is perfectly secure; see the security policy for how to report a problem. Material changes to this notice will be dated here.

Colophon

DAT is Digital Audio Tape, the format professionals recorded and mastered onto from 1987 onward. It also reads as Digital Audio Transcription, which is the job. Built by Knight AI+AV.