Privacy Policy

PressNote ("we", "us", "the app") is a live-event note-taking and journalism app for iPad and Mac. Privacy is a core design principle, not an afterthought. The app is built so that your content stays on your device by default.

This policy explains what information the app does and does not handle, and the limited circumstances in which any information is transmitted — always at your direction.

Audio recordings, transcripts, translations, flagged moments, and the notes you write are created, processed, and stored locally on your device. Transcription, translation, and the drafting assistant all run on-device using Apple silicon.

We do not operate servers that receive, store, or process this content. We cannot access your recordings or notes, and they are never uploaded to us or to any third party as part of normal use.

Meeting projects are an exception to the retention described above: once a meeting recording has been transcribed, PressNote deletes its audio from your device automatically. This is how meetings are designed to work — it is not an option you enable, and the app states it when you create a meeting. The transcript, your notes, and anything generated from them remain on your device until you delete them. Recordings in event and class projects are not deleted automatically; they stay on your device until you delete them yourself.

Deleting the audio does not affect your own obligations. Laws on recording and transcribing conversations differ by jurisdiction, and many treat a transcript of a private conversation like a recording. You are responsible for telling participants that you are recording or transcribing, and for obtaining any consent the law where you are requires. PressNote shows a reminder before your first meeting recording, but it cannot determine which rules apply to you.

On macOS, PressNote offers an optional "System Audio" recording source that captures the audio playing on your Mac — for example an online class or a live-streamed keynote — so it can be recorded and transcribed on your device. macOS makes this capability available through its screen-capture framework and gates it behind the Screen Recording permission, which is why PressNote requests that permission.

PressNote uses this capability to capture audio only: it does not capture, store, or process any image or video of your screen, and it excludes PressNote's own audio from the capture.

Audio captured this way is treated exactly like microphone audio under this policy — it is stored only on your device, processed entirely on-device (transcription, translation, and AI summaries), never uploaded to us or shared with anyone, and retained only until you delete the recording.

The same System Audio source can be used to record an online meeting. PressNote does not join, connect to, or interact with any meeting service, and it is not visible to anyone else on the call; it captures only the audio already playing on your Mac, and the audio-only limits described above apply unchanged.

We do not collect your recordings, transcripts, or notes. We do not build advertising profiles, and we do not sell or rent personal information to anyone.

The app contains no third-party advertising SDKs and no cross-app tracking. We do not use analytics that identify you personally.

Publishing: When you connect a blog (such as WordPress, Ghost, or a Micropub service) and choose to publish or queue a post, the content of that post and your authentication credentials are sent directly from your device to the service you selected. This happens only when you initiate it. Posts queued in the Outbox are sent automatically once connectivity returns, using the settings you chose.

Continuity Camera & OCR: If you capture a photo (for example, of a slide) using your iPhone, the image and any text extracted from it are processed on your devices and stored locally with your recording.

These transfers are governed by the privacy policy of the third-party service you connect. We are not responsible for how those services handle data once you publish to them.

If you email us a bug report, you may voluntarily include information such as your device model and operating system version to help us diagnose the issue. This is entirely optional and only shared if you choose to send it.

Standard, aggregated crash and performance reports may be provided by Apple through the operating system if you have opted in to sharing them with developers in your device settings. These reports do not contain your recordings or notes.

If you enable iCloud backup on your device, your PressNote data may be included in that backup under your own Apple ID and Apple's privacy and security protections. This is a service provided by Apple to you; we do not have access to your iCloud backups.

PressNote is intended for professional and general audiences and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Because your content lives on your device, you are always in control. You can view, edit, export, or delete any recording, transcript, or note at any time from within the app. Deleting content on your device removes it from the app.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA. Since we do not hold your content on our own servers, most requests can be fulfilled directly by you within the app; for anything else, contact us using the details below.

Your content is protected by the security features of your device and operating system, including device encryption and, where applicable, the app sandbox. We recommend keeping your device passcode enabled and your software up to date.

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be communicated within the app or on this page.