Privacy Policy

1. Core Principle

WhisPaste is designed with privacy first. The application collects no analytics, no telemetry, and no tracking data. All user data stays on your device unless you explicitly choose to use a cloud-based transcription service.

2. Audio Recording & Transcription

WhisPaste records audio from your microphone when you activate recording (via hotkey or button). The recorded audio is processed in one of two ways, depending on your settings:

• Local / Offline transcription: Audio is processed entirely on your device using a local AI model (Whisper via sherpa-onnx). No audio data leaves your computer.
• Cloud transcription (OpenAI Whisper API): Audio is sent to OpenAI's servers for transcription. This requires you to provide your own OpenAI API key. The audio is transmitted directly from your device to OpenAI — WhisPaste does not route, store, or process audio on any intermediary server.

When using the OpenAI API, OpenAI's data processing terms apply. Please review the OpenAI Privacy Policy for details on how they handle audio data.

3. Transcription History

Transcribed text is stored locally on your device in an SQLite database located in %APPDATA%\WhisPaste\. This data never leaves your device. You can view, search, export, and delete your transcription history at any time through the application.

4. API Key Storage

Your OpenAI API key is stored locally in the configuration file at %APPDATA%\WhisPaste\config.json. The key is never transmitted anywhere except directly to OpenAI's API endpoint when performing a transcription request. WhisPaste does not send your API key to any other service or server.

5. Configuration & Local Storage

All application settings (language, hotkey, theme, model preferences, etc.) are stored locally in %APPDATA%\WhisPaste\config.json. No configuration data is transmitted to external servers.

6. AI Model Downloads

For local/offline transcription, WhisPaste can download AI models from HuggingFace. During a model download, a standard HTTPS request is made to HuggingFace's servers. No personal data or identifiers are sent — only the model file URL is requested. Downloaded models are stored locally on your device.

7. Smart Mode (Local LLM)

WhisPaste's Smart Mode can use a local LLM (large language model) to post-process transcriptions (e.g., formatting, summarization). This model runs entirely on your device. No transcription data is sent to external servers for Smart Mode processing.

8. Auto-Update

WhisPaste checks for updates by querying the GitHub Releases API. This request contains no personal data — it simply fetches the latest release version information. No user identifiers, device information, or usage data are transmitted. Auto-update is disabled automatically when running as an MSIX Store package.

9. Third-Party Data Sharing

WhisPaste does not share any data with third parties. The only exception is when you explicitly choose to use the OpenAI Whisper API for transcription, in which case audio data is sent directly to OpenAI under their terms. No other data is shared with any third party.

10. Network Connections

WhisPaste only makes network connections for the following purposes:

• OpenAI Whisper API — when cloud transcription is enabled (user-initiated)
• HuggingFace — when downloading offline AI models (user-initiated)
• GitHub Releases API — for automatic update checks

All network connections use HTTPS encryption. No background network activity occurs beyond the update check.

11. Children's Privacy

WhisPaste does not knowingly collect data from children. Since the application does not collect any personal data or require account creation, there are no age-related data concerns.

12. Changes to This Policy

This privacy policy may be updated to reflect changes in the application. Significant changes will be noted in the application's release notes on GitHub.

13. Contact

For privacy-related questions or concerns, please refer to the Legal Notice (Impressum) page for contact information.