Dictate privacy

Arc Forge. Dictate is an Arc Forge desktop app that types dictated text into the focused app on your computer.

Local-first. Dictate does not include Arc Forge telemetry, advertising, or automatic crash upload. Most app state stays on your device.

What Arc Forge may see. We may receive indirect download, install, release, website, app-store, GitHub, npm, support, and bug-report information depending on where you get Dictate and what you choose to send us.

General policy. This page supplements the main Arc Forge Privacy Policy.

User-initiated capture. Dictate uses microphone input only when you actively dictate, such as through push-to-talk or an explicit command.

Raw audio. Dictate processes microphone audio for transcription and does not intentionally retain raw microphone audio.

Local transcription. The local transcription option runs on your device after speech models are downloaded. Audio processed this way is not sent to Arc Forge.

Hosted transcription. If you select OpenAI, xAI, Gemini, or another hosted provider and configure an API key, audio for that transcription request is sent to the selected provider under that provider's terms and privacy settings.

Settings. Dictate stores local configuration such as selected model, startup preference, hotkeys, and app settings.

Recent history. Dictate keeps a small local recent transcript history so you can recover or copy recent dictation. This history is stored on your device.

Logs. Dictate writes local logs for troubleshooting. Logs may contain app status, errors, model names, environment details, or text you should review before sharing.

Models and cache. Local speech models, model preparation state, and related downloaded data may be stored on your device.

API keys. Dictate stores hosted-provider API keys through the operating system secret store where available, not intentionally in the YAML config file.

Validation. Dictate may contact the selected provider to validate a configured API key or confirm provider status.

Provider billing. Hosted transcription providers may charge your provider account directly. Arc Forge does not control those provider accounts or their retention rules.

Custom providers. If you configure a custom provider base URL or secret helper, that configuration is under your control and may have its own privacy and security behaviour.

Distribution platforms. If you download Dictate through GitHub, npm, jsDelivr, Microsoft Store, or another platform, that platform may provide Arc Forge with aggregate download, install, update, crash, certification, or listing analytics.

Update checks. Dictate may check GitHub release or tag endpoints to help identify current releases. Those requests are handled by GitHub and are subject to GitHub's own terms and privacy practices.

Website analytics. If you visit Arc Forge pages about Dictate, normal website analytics and server logs may apply as described in the main Arc Forge Privacy Policy.

No in-app ads. Dictate is not designed to show advertising or sell behavioural advertising data.

Issue reports. If you open a GitHub issue, send support email, submit a form, or share screenshots, logs, or examples, Arc Forge receives the information you include.

Review before sharing. Remove API keys, personal hotwords, private names, workspace names, confidential text, and sensitive dictation before posting or sending logs.

Security reports. Report security issues through the Dictate repository's private vulnerability reporting path when available, or contact Arc Forge without public exploit details.

Support links. Dictate support currently runs through GitHub issues and hello@arcforge.au.

Uninstall options. Dictate uninstallers can remove app files. Use the documented remove-user-data option when you also want to remove local config, logs, recent history, and downloaded model data.

Manual removal. Local state is stored in platform app-data folders such as `%APPDATA%\dictate`, `%LOCALAPPDATA%\dictate`, `~/.config/dictate`, and `~/.local/share/dictate`.

Provider deletion. Hosted transcription requests and API account records are handled by the provider you selected. Use that provider's controls for provider-side deletion or account requests.

Arc Forge requests. Email hello@arcforge.au for privacy requests about support messages, forms, or other information Arc Forge holds. Last updated 5 June 2026.