Privacy is OpenWhisp's whole point, so we treat it as a security property.

• Transcription is 100% on-device. Audio is captured locally, written to a temporary WAV in ~/Library/Caches/com.openwhisp.app/, transcribed by whisper.cpp on your Mac, and the WAV is deleted after each transcription.
• No telemetry. OpenWhisp sends no analytics, crash reports, or usage data.
• The only network egress is optional AI post-processing with the OpenAI (cloud) provider. If you use the local provider (llama.cpp / Ollama), text stays on your machine / LAN. If AI post-processing is off, nothing leaves the device at all. The Settings → Status panel shows the current state.
• Secrets (the OpenAI API key) are stored in the macOS Keychain, never in plain text.
• Secure fields (password fields) are detected and OpenWhisp refuses to dictate into, insert, or store their contents.

Because OpenWhisp is open source you don't have to take our word for it:

# Watch for any network activity by OpenWhisp while you dictate (should be silent
# unless you enabled the OpenAI cloud provider):
nettop -p "$(pgrep -x OpenWhisp)"

You can also read the relevant code: audio capture (OpenWhisp/Services/AudioRecorder.swift), the WAV deletion and HTTP calls (OpenWhisp/Services/WhisperEngine.swift), and the only outbound endpoint (OpenWhisp/Services/OpenAITranslationService.swift).

If you find a security or privacy issue (e.g. a path where audio/text could leak off-device unexpectedly), please do not open a public issue. Instead, report it privately via GitHub's "Report a vulnerability" (Security → Advisories) on the repository, or open a minimal private channel with the maintainer.

Please include: macOS version, OpenWhisp version, the engine/provider in use, and clear reproduction steps. We aim to acknowledge reports promptly.

OpenWhisp is pre-1.0; security fixes target the latest main / latest release.