Privacy & Data
Does MimicScribe work offline?
Core speech-to-text transcription works completely offline — the model runs on-device using Apple Silicon. AI features (dictation corrections, instruction responses, meeting summaries, assistant, and search) require an internet connection.
What data leaves my device?
Three things, and only when you actively use the features that need them:
- AI feature requests — when you use dictation corrections, instruction responses, or meeting summaries, the transcribed text (never audio) is sent to Google Gemini via a server-side proxy. Audio is processed entirely on your Mac
- License validation — a periodic check to verify your license key with Polar (our payment provider). No personal data beyond the key itself is sent
- Usage reporting (Pro only) — aggregate token counts and feature names are sent to track subscription usage against your plan. No transcription text is included
What data stays on my device?
All audio, transcripts, meeting recordings, and speaker profiles are stored locally. MimicScribe does not sync data between Macs or upload recordings to any server.
Where is my data stored?
| Data | Location |
|---|---|
| Database (transcripts, meetings, speaker profiles) | ~/Library/Application Support/app.mimicscribe/mimicscribe.db |
| Audio recordings (if enabled) | ~/Documents/MimicScribe/Recordings/ |
| Meeting templates | ~/Library/Application Support/app.mimicscribe/Templates/ |
| Speech models | ~/Library/Application Support/FluidAudio/Models/ |
You can open these folders in Finder by pasting the path into Go > Go to Folder (Shift+Cmd+G).
How do I back up my data?
Time Machine backs up both ~/Library/Application Support/ and ~/Documents/ by default, so your database, templates, and audio recordings are all covered automatically.
If you don’t use Time Machine, the key locations to back up are:
~/Library/Application Support/app.mimicscribe/— database and templates~/Documents/MimicScribe/Recordings/— audio files
These are standard files that can be copied, moved, or synced with any backup tool.
Speech recognition models don’t need to be backed up — see the next section.
Speech recognition models
MimicScribe downloads two models on first launch:
| Model | Purpose | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Parakeet TDT 0.6B (v3) | Speech-to-text transcription | ~460 MB |
| Speaker diarization | Identifying who is speaking | ~34 MB |
Both are stored in ~/Library/Application Support/FluidAudio/Models/ and use about 500 MB of disk space total.
Safe to delete. If you need to free up space, you can delete the entire FluidAudio/Models folder. No data is lost — only the pre-trained model weights are removed.
When you next launch MimicScribe, it will automatically re-download the models in the background. If you try to dictate or record before the download finishes, you’ll see a brief “Loading model…” overlay that disappears once the models are ready. The re-download requires an internet connection; after that, all transcription runs fully offline.
Optional analytics
Settings > Privacy offers two opt-in toggles:
- Send anonymous usage signals — specific event names are listed in the settings panel so you can see exactly what’s reported
- Send anonymized crash logs — helps us fix bugs faster
Both are off by default. No personal data, audio, or transcription text is ever included.