Privacy Policy

1. The Desktop Application & On-Device Processing

Sideprobe is a native macOS application designed to act as an in-call copilot for discovery calls, customer interviews, and user research sessions. By architectural design, all core intelligence runs on your local machine.

This means:

• Microphone capture and system audio loopback processing run strictly within local device memory.
• Speech-to-text transcription and speaker diarization execute on-device using native macOS speech models and FluidAudio neural models.
• Interview brief tracking and real-time cue generation are evaluated locally on your Mac.
• Raw audio recordings, transcripts, and session notes are saved exclusively to your local application data directory and are never uploaded to any remote server or cloud infrastructure.

2. Local AI Inference & Summarization

Post-call meeting summaries, action items, and briefing syntheses are generated on-device using a local Ollama model runtime installed during onboarding.

No third-party cloud LLM or AI provider receives your conversation content by default. Your data is never used to train, fine-tune, or improve any machine learning models.

3. macOS System Permissions

To provide real-time guidance during live online meetings, Sideprobe requests specific macOS permissions:

• Microphone Permission: Enables capturing your local microphone voice.
• Screen & System Audio Recording (TCC): Required by macOS to capture system audio output from meeting software (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams) so the app can hear and separate the other participants on the call.

4. Network Connections & Offline Licensing

The Sideprobe macOS application connects to remote servers only for:

• Initial Model Downloads: Downloading the local AI model runtime (approx. 2 GB) during first-time onboarding.
• License Activation & Coupon Exchange: Exchanging a license key or coupon for an Ed25519-signed receipt at activation via sideprobe.ai. Once signed, the receipt is stored locally and validated offline on every launch without requiring internet connectivity.
• Software Updates: Checking for signed desktop application updates hosted on our secure content delivery network.
• Usage Statistics: Counts of how you use the app — how many meetings you run and whether they are online or in person, how long they last, the word count of sessions and dictations (only the number, never the words), how many suggestions you use, and errors — never their content. Also which Mac and models you run: the type of Mac, its chip, memory, macOS version and the year it came out, and which on-device AI models. When the app opens, the country your connection comes from is noted too; it is worked out from the connection when it reaches us, and your IP address is not stored with your usage data or passed on. During the alpha and beta this is a condition of taking part: it is sent to sideprobe.ai for every tester, is linked to your account, and cannot be turned off. It is never sent while a live session is recording. We use it to see how Sideprobe is used and which models work on which Macs. You can see what is waiting to be sent and what was sent recently in Settings. For questions or requests about your data, write to hello@sideprobe.ai.

5. Website Analytics & Waitlist Information

Our website (sideprobe.ai) collects minimal information necessary to operate the service and manage product access:

• Waitlist Email: When you request early access or join our waitlist, your email address is processed via Resend to deliver access instructions and coupon codes.
• Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention: We use Upstash Redis to apply rate limits to waitlist submissions and license exchange requests to prevent automated abuse.
• No Cross-Site Tracking: We do not deploy third-party advertising trackers, pixel beacons, or invasive behavioral profiling tools.

6. Payment Processing & Purchases

Payments for Sideprobe licenses are processed securely by Stripe (stripe.com). When you purchase a license, Stripe collects your billing information, email address, and payment details according to their PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant standards.

Sideprobe receives confirmation of purchase and your email address to issue your cryptographic license key and receipt. Sideprobe never sees, processes, or stores your full credit card number or bank credentials.

7. Data Rights, Retention & Deletion

Because your interview data, transcripts, and notes remain on your Mac, you maintain absolute custody and control over your records at all times. Deleting a session or uninstalling the app permanently removes all local files from your device.

In accordance with global data protection laws (including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and LGPD), you have the right to request access to or permanent deletion of any personal data we hold (such as your waitlist email or purchase record). To exercise your rights, email hello@sideprobe.ai.

8. Third-Party Service Providers

We work with trusted infrastructure providers to deliver our web services and software:

• Stripe: Payment processing and invoicing.
• Resend: Transactional emails, access invitations, and license delivery.
• Upstash: Distributed caching and rate-limiting infrastructure.
• PostHog (EU): Analysis of app usage statistics, hosted in the European Union. Receives usage counts, details of your Mac and models, and your country only — never meeting content, and never your IP address.
• Cloudflare & Vercel: Web hosting, DNS management, and CDN distribution.

9. Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect product enhancements or regulatory changes. Any modifications will be posted on this page with an updated revision date.