Privacy policy

1. Controller

Majores Ventures UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Truderinger Straße 126, 81673 München, Germany. Email: a.majores@icloud.com

2. Hosting and server logs

This website is hosted by Vercel Inc., 440 N Barranca Ave #4133, Covina, CA 91723, USA. When you visit it, Vercel automatically processes technical access data such as your IP address, the date and time of the request, the page requested, the referrer and the browser identifier in order to deliver the site and keep it running securely. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. We have a data processing agreement with Vercel; transfers to the USA are based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the standard contractual clauses of the European Commission.

3. No cookies, no tracking

This website sets no cookies, uses no analytics or tracking services and loads no content from third parties (not even fonts).

4. Downloading the app

The file “Steno.dmg” is delivered by this website; only the access data listed under 2 are processed. If you follow links to GitHub, GitHub’s privacy policy applies there.

5. The Steno app

Steno processes speech exclusively on your Mac and does not transmit recordings, texts, images or usage data. The only connection is the one-time download of the speech model from Hugging Face; for technical reasons, Hugging Face receives your IP address. We receive no data from the app.

What is recorded. Steno records only while you dictate or a meeting runs. When you dictate, that is your microphone. In a meeting, the Mac’s sound is added, meaning everything the Mac plays, such as Teams, Zoom or the browser; Spotify and Apple Music are excluded. Either source can be switched off. The sound is turned into text on the Mac and never saved.

What is stored. History and dictionary are files in ~/Library/Application Support/Steno/; you can keep the history for 1, 7 or 30 days or switch it off. Every meeting is a folder of its own with Protokoll.md, meeting.json and a bilder folder for images, by default in ~/Library/Application Support/Steno/Meetings/ or in a place you choose. It contains the transcript with timestamps as well as your notes, marks, tasks and screenshots. During a meeting, Steno takes screenshots from the clipboard, for example after ⌘⌃⇧4; it does not read copied text or files. All of these files stay on your Mac until you delete them. If they are in a synced folder such as iCloud Drive, that service transfers them under its own terms.

Permissions. Steno asks macOS for access to the microphone and to Accessibility, which it needs to notice the dictation key and paste the text; key presses are not recorded. Meetings add the “Screen & System Audio Recording” permission for the Mac’s sound, of which Steno uses only the audio and never the screen content, and, if you choose a place such as Documents for the meetings, access to that folder. If you use the music pause, Steno also controls Spotify and Apple Music.

Consent of the people you talk to. Whether you may transcribe a conversation with Steno is your responsibility. Depending on where you and the other participants are, recording or transcribing a private conversation can require everyone’s consent and may otherwise be unlawful, and data protection obligations can apply to what others say. Ask everyone involved before you start.

6. Contact by email

If you write to us, we process your details to handle your request (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR) and delete them as soon as they are no longer needed and no retention obligations apply.

7. Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15–21 GDPR) as well as the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht).

Last updated: September 2026