Privacy Policy
The short version
- Your recordings stay on your phone. Audio is sent to be transcribed and isn’t kept on our servers.
- Your notes stay on your phone. They’re only stored in your account if you have Pro and turn on Backup & sync.
- We use OpenAI to transcribe and rewrite; your data isn’t used to train their models.
- Topics, search and reminders work from your notes’ text, and what SayLess works out from them stays on your phone.
- We don’t sell your data, show ads, use cookies or track you across apps.
- You can delete your account and data at any time, in the app.
- Who we are
- What we collect
- Your recordings
- Topics, search and reminders
- Permissions
- Cookies and analytics
- How we use it
- Who processes it
- International transfers
- How long we keep it
- Your rights
- Security
- Children
- Changes
- Contact
1. Who we are
SayLess is based in the Netherlands and is the controller of your personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In this policy, “we” means SayLess. You can reach us at [email protected].
This policy covers the SayLess app for Android and this website.
2. What we collect
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Account: your email address, and your name and profile picture if you sign in with Google | To sign you in and keep your notes in your account |
| Voice recordings you make in the app | To turn them into text (see Your recordings) |
| Your content: transcripts, notes, earlier versions of notes, folders and writing styles you create | To show and rewrite your notes. They stay on your phone, and are only stored in your account if you turn on Backup & sync (Pro) |
| What SayLess works out from your notes: your topics and their summaries, to-dos, deadlines and reminders, and what it needs to find and group your notes | To sort your notes by topic, find related notes and remind you of what’s due (see Topics, search and reminders). These are kept only on your phone |
| Settings: default style, languages and similar preferences | To keep the app set up the way you like on every phone |
| Usage records: for each request, how many seconds were transcribed, how much text was processed, and what it cost us | To apply the Free and Pro limits, prevent abuse and keep the service affordable |
| Subscription status: whether you have Pro and until when | To unlock Pro. We never see your card or payment details: Google Play handles payment |
We do not collect your location or contacts, we don’t use advertising IDs, and the app has no ads or third-party analytics.
3. Your recordings
- Recordings are saved on your phone.
- When a recording is transcribed, the audio is sent over an encrypted connection to our server, which passes it to OpenAI to convert it into text. The audio is not stored on our server after that. OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days, only to detect abuse, and then deletes it; it isn’t used to train their models.
- The resulting text is sent to OpenAI again to be rewritten in the style you choose, and, when you use Listen, to be read aloud.
- Recordings are never uploaded for backup: with Backup & sync on, only the text of your notes is stored.
4. Topics, search and reminders
To sort your notes, find related ones and keep track of what’s open, SayLess uses the text of your notes. Here is what leaves your phone for that, and what doesn’t:
- Finding and grouping notes (every plan): so SayLess can find notes by what they’re about and group them into topics, the title and text of your notes are processed by OpenAI. Private notes are never sent for this. What comes back is kept only on your phone.
- On Free, topics are found and shown locked; nothing more is sent for them.
- Topic summaries (Pro): to write a topic’s summary, what it noticed and what to do next, the text of the topic’s notes is sent to OpenAI. The results are kept only on your phone.
- Finished to-dos: when a new note says you did something (“booked the yoga class”), SayLess can suggest ticking it off. It never ticks anything without you.
- Reminders and deadlines: reminders you set, ones set from a time in a short note, and reminders of deadlines in your topics are scheduled on your phone only and never sent to us.
Nothing from this is kept by us. You can turn topics off in the app (Settings › Topics) and date hints off (Settings › Date hints).
Voice typing in other apps isn’t part of the current version of SayLess. We’ll update this policy before it is.
5. Permissions on your phone
SayLess only asks for what its features need. You can turn each one off in Android’s settings; the related feature then stops working, the rest of the app keeps working.
| Permission | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Recording notes, only while you’re recording |
| Foreground service | Keeping a recording or read-aloud going when the screen turns off or you switch apps; Android shows a notification while it runs |
| Notifications | Reminders, reminders of deadlines in your topics and the weekly recap; asked the first time they’re needed |
| Alarms & reminders | Showing a reminder at the exact time you chose, even while the phone is idle |
| Biometrics | Unlocking private notes with your fingerprint or face (Android checks it; SayLess only learns whether it matched) |
| Vibration | A short buzz as feedback, for example when you long-press a note to edit it |
| Internet | Transcribing, rewriting, read-aloud, topics and syncing |
SayLess doesn’t ask for your location, contacts, camera, photos or files.
6. Cookies and analytics
This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics or tracking. The app contains no advertising, analytics or tracking tools, and doesn’t follow what you do in other apps. To keep the service running we only see the usage records described above, such as how many minutes were transcribed.
7. How we use your data, and on what legal basis
- To provide the service you asked for (transcribing, rewriting, reading aloud, topics and reminders, syncing, your account and subscription). Legal basis: performance of our contract with you (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).
- To apply plan limits, prevent abuse and understand our costs through usage records. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a fair and affordable service (Art. 6(1)(f)).
- To answer you when you contact support. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in helping you (Art. 6(1)(f)).
- To meet legal obligations, such as tax records for purchases. Legal basis: legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)).
We don’t sell your data, use it for advertising, or make automated decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects. AI rewriting changes only the text you asked to be rewritten.
8. Who processes your data
We use these service providers. They act on our instructions under data processing agreements and may only use your data to provide their service to us.
| Provider | What for | Data |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, sign-in and our server functions | Account, settings, usage records, subscription status, and your notes only if you turn on Backup & sync. Stored in the EU (Ireland) |
| OpenAI | Speech-to-text, rewriting, read-aloud, topics and finding notes | Audio you record and the text being processed. Under OpenAI’s API terms this data is not used to train their models, and is kept for at most 30 days for abuse monitoring |
| Resend | Sending sign-in code emails | Your email address |
| Google sign-in (if you choose it) and payments through Google Play | Account details from Google; purchase details (Google’s own privacy policy applies to payments) | |
| RevenueCat | Keeping track of Pro subscriptions | An account ID and your purchase history in SayLess |
9. International transfers
Some providers, such as OpenAI, Resend, Google and RevenueCat, are based in the United States. Where data leaves the European Economic Area, it is protected by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or by the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
10. How long we keep your data
- Notes, versions, folders and your own styles: on your phone until you delete them. If you use Backup & sync, the copies in your account are kept until you delete them, turn backup off (then they’re removed straight away), or 30 days after your Pro subscription ends (so they’re still there if you renew).
- Settings (such as your default style and languages): in your account until you delete it.
- Private notes: they're unlocked with your phone's own fingerprint, face or screen lock; SayLess never sees or stores those. Private notes are stored and synced like your other notes (with Backup & sync on). Ask your notes uses them only while they're unlocked; the weekly recap never does.
- Weekly recap: if you turn it on, opening your recap sends that week’s notes to OpenAI to write it. The recap is saved as a note on your phone; nothing is kept by us.
- Ask your notes: when you ask a question, the question and the notes that best match it are sent to OpenAI to answer it. Nothing is kept by us.
- Topics: their summaries, what they noticed and what SayLess needs to find and group your notes are kept only on your phone, and go when you delete the notes they come from or the app (see Topics, search and reminders).
- Reminders and deadline reminders: only on your phone, never sent to us. When you say when to be reminded, that short recording is transcribed like any other and isn’t kept.
- Audio: not kept on our servers; recordings on your phone stay until you delete the note or the app.
- Usage records: while your account exists. When you delete your account, they are kept only in anonymised form (no longer linked to you or your email) so we can understand our costs.
- Purchase records: as long as Dutch tax law requires (usually 7 years), held by Google Play and RevenueCat.
Deleting your account (Account › Delete account in the app, or see how to delete your account) removes your account and content from our servers and from your phone.
11. Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- access your data and get a copy of it,
- correct data that is wrong,
- have your data deleted,
- restrict or object to processing based on our legitimate interests,
- receive your data in a portable format, and
- withdraw consent where we rely on it.
Most of this you can do in the app itself: edit or delete notes, and delete your account. For anything else, email [email protected]; we answer within one month. You can also complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, or the authority where you live.
12. Security
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest by our providers. Every account can only reach its own data, enforced by the database itself. Our API keys stay on our servers, never in the app.
13. Children
SayLess is not meant for children under 16, and we don’t knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has given us data, contact us and we’ll delete it.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when the app or the law changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. For important changes we’ll let you know in the app before they take effect.
15. Contact
SayLess, the Netherlands
Email: [email protected]