Privacy Policy

Who runs JustScribe?

JustScribe is run by an individual based in Sweden. It is an independent project, not affiliated with any company or organisation. Contact happens through the support form linked below — for privacy reasons, no personal email address is published here.

The short version

• Your content stays yours. Transcripts, translations, and notebooks are stored on your iPhone and in your own private iCloud library (via Apple's CloudKit). We do not have access to them. Text leaves your device only when you ask for a translation, and is not stored on our servers.
• Audio is never stored on our servers. Recordings are processed to produce a transcript, then discarded. Our speech-to-text provider keeps a copy for a short period for abuse monitoring only — see below.
• Our servers hold no copy of your content. The only trace kept server-side is a one-way cryptographic fingerprint of a transcript, used solely to detect tampering when a translation is requested — never the transcript text itself.

1. What we store

Using JustScribe does not require an account. The only data kept on our servers is the minimum needed to track your balance:

• An identifier for your installation. By default, a random device identifier stored in your device's Keychain. If you choose to sign in with Apple, we additionally receive a stable Apple account identifier and, if you allow it, your email address — used only to let you share one balance across multiple devices.
• Billing metadata. Transcription and translation minutes consumed, your remaining balance, and timestamps of activity.
• A transcript fingerprint. A one-way SHA-256 hash of each transcript, stored at transcription time so that when you later request a translation, we can verify the text you submit matches the recording you already transcribed and paid for. A hash cannot be reversed into the original text — it exists purely as this integrity check, never as a copy of your content.

We do not collect passwords, and we do not use cookies or advertising trackers of any kind.

2. What we process — but never keep

Some data passes through our servers to deliver the service, and is discarded as soon as its job is done:

• Audio. When you record or upload audio, it is transmitted over an encrypted connection (TLS) to our servers and forwarded to a third-party speech-to-text provider (OpenAI) for processing. The audio is used only to produce your transcript and, under the provider's API terms, is never used to train their models. Once the transcript has been generated and returned to your device, the audio file is deleted from our infrastructure — we do not keep a copy at any point. The provider retains a copy for up to 30 days solely for abuse monitoring, after which it is deleted; neither we nor they use it for anything else.
• Transcript text, at translation time. When you request a translation, your app sends the transcript text over TLS to our servers, where it is checked against the stored fingerprint, translated by the same provider, and returned to your device. The text itself is not stored by us — only the pre-existing fingerprint remains. As with audio, the provider retains it for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring only.

3. What we never touch

• Your content. Transcripts, translations, speaker labels, and notebooks are stored locally on your device and synced across your own devices through your personal iCloud account, using Apple's CloudKit private database. This data is encrypted and managed entirely within your Apple account — we have no server-side copy, no access to it, and no ability to read it. Managing or deleting it (for example, turning off iCloud sync, or removing app data from iCloud) is done through your device's iCloud settings, entirely outside our control.
• Your payments. All purchases go through Apple In-App Purchase. We never see your payment details, card numbers, or billing address — Apple only tells us that a purchase completed so we can credit your balance.
• Your Apple account. Sign in with Apple is handled by Apple. We never see your Apple ID password or any other account credentials.

Third-party processors

To deliver the service, the following processors handle data on our behalf:

• OpenAI — performs speech-to-text and translation processing on servers located in the United States. Under their API terms, audio and text sent for processing are never used to train their models; they are retained by OpenAI for up to 30 days solely to monitor for abuse and are then deleted. We retain neither afterwards.
• Apple — provides Sign in with Apple (optional login) and processes all payments through In-App Purchase. We never see your Apple ID password or payment details.

Your data, your control

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time. The most direct way to erase everything is the Delete Account option in the app, which immediately and permanently deletes your account, session, and billing metadata from our servers. Content stored in your own iCloud private library is not affected by this — since we never had access to it, deleting your account cannot and does not touch it. If you also want that content gone, remove it directly through the app or your device's iCloud settings. For anything else, use the support form below.

How long is data kept

Account and billing metadata is kept for as long as your account is active. Audio is removed from our infrastructure within moments of a transcript being produced (our provider's 30-day abuse-monitoring copy is described above). When you delete your account, associated server-side data is removed immediately, except where billing records must be retained for longer under Swedish accounting law. What remains after deletion is only anonymised usage and accounting records — stripped of any link to you and containing none of your content — kept for aggregate statistics.

Children

JustScribe is not directed at children under 16, and personal data from minors is not knowingly collected. If you believe an account was created by a minor, please get in touch via the support form and it will be removed.

Changes to this policy

This page and the date above are updated when the policy changes materially. Continued use of the app after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Questions?

Use the support form for privacy questions, account deletion requests, or anything covered above.