Alchemist Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 12, 2026

This policy says what Alchemist Labs LLC ("Alchemist," "we," "us") collects, what we do with it, and what we do not do. It is written to be read. It covers the Alchemist desktop app, the optional cloud services, and the website at getalchemist.app. It is part of the End User License Agreement.

The short version

• The app runs on your device without an account. Your recordings, transcripts and everything derived from them stay on your computer, in a database encrypted at rest.
• There is no telemetry, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking in the app or on the website. We do not know who you are until you create an account.
• The cloud features are off until you turn them on. Synced content is encrypted before it leaves your device. Cloud transcription and AI requests pass through our servers with your identity removed and go only to providers that keep nothing.
• We never sell data, and we share it only with the handful of companies that run the pieces we do not run ourselves, listed below by name.
• You can export everything at any time, and deleting your account deletes everything we hold.

The app on your device

Everything the app can do locally is free and needs no account: recording, transcription with a local model, the timeline, search, vocabulary, styles, export. In that mode your data is a single database on your machine, encrypted with SQLCipher using a key held in your operating system's keychain. We cannot read it and we never receive it.

The app makes a small number of network requests on its own, none of which carry your content:

• Update checks. On launch and about hourly, the app asks our download server whether a newer version exists. Like any web request, this shows our hosting provider your IP address. There is no setting to turn it off in this version.
• Downloads. Speech models and helper tools are downloaded from our servers when you install or change them.
• Location and weather. Only if you turn on timeline enrichment in Settings. The app asks ipinfo.io for a coarse location from your IP address and keeps only city, region, country and timezone; the IP itself is discarded. Weather for that city is fetched through our server from WeatherAPI. Both are stored with your content, encrypted like everything else.

There are no crash reporters, usage counters, or session recorders in the app.

Your account

You need an account only for the cloud features. You can sign up with GitHub, Google, or an email address. We store the email address and, if you signed in through GitHub or Google, the display name they provide. Passwords, if you use one, are handled by our authentication provider and never seen by us. We send receipts and important product notices to that email and nothing else unless you subscribe to the newsletter.

Payments are handled by Stripe. We keep a Stripe customer reference and your plan status; your card details are held by Stripe and never touch our systems.

Sync

If you enable sync, your content is encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM before upload, then sent over TLS 1.3 and stored as encrypted blobs. What is never stored in the clear: transcripts, titles, keywords, summaries, the app you dictated into, location and weather, and your device identifier. What is stored readable, because sync and usage metering need it: your account id, timestamps, word counts, durations, which model ran and whether it ran locally or in the cloud, the device model name, and usage costs.

In the standard mode we manage the encryption key, so a new device works as soon as you sign in. In that mode we hold a copy of the key and could decrypt your synced data if we were legally compelled to. A user-managed key mode, where the key is derived from a password only you know, is in testing and will be offered in Settings; in that mode nobody, including us, can decrypt your cloud data, and a lost password means it is gone.

When your subscription ends, synced data stays on our servers for one month and is then deleted. When you delete your account, it is deleted immediately. Your local database is unaffected in both cases.

Cloud transcription and AI

If you choose a cloud transcription or AI option, the audio or text for that request is sent to our server, which strips your account identity and forwards it to a provider. We use only providers that process the request under zero-data-retention terms, meaning they do not store it and do not train on it. Currently those are OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, Mistral and Fireworks; we may add or remove providers. Our server keeps the request only as long as it takes to return the result and records the usage amount against your account.

Bug reports

Nothing is sent unless you press Report a bug. When you do, the report contains your description, the app version and channel, your platform, OS version, CPU, GPU, memory, locale, timezone and desktop environment, and the last lines of the app's log. The log excerpt is scrubbed before sending: search queries, window titles, file paths under your home folder, email addresses and similar personal strings are replaced. If you are signed in, your email is attached so we can reply. Reports are stored in our issue tracker, Linear, and kept until the bug is closed and for a reasonable period after.

The website

getalchemist.app sets cookies only to keep you signed in to your account. There are no analytics scripts, advertising pixels, or third-party trackers on it. If you join the newsletter or a waitlist we store your email and send through Resend; every message has an unsubscribe link. Our web host and download server, Cloudflare, sees the IP addresses of visitors in the ordinary course of serving pages, as any host does.

Who we share with

We share data only with the companies that operate parts of the service on our behalf, each only what its job needs:

We do not sell personal information, we do not share it with advertisers, and we do not give it to anyone else except when the law requires it, in which case we will tell you unless we are legally prevented from doing so. If Alchemist is ever acquired, your data goes with the business under this same policy.

Your choices and rights

• Export. The app exports your words as plain Markdown at any time, free.
• Access and correction. Write to us and we will tell you what we hold about your account and fix anything that is wrong.
• Deletion. Delete your account from the account page. That removes your account, your synced data, and your subscription at once. Your local data stays on your device until you remove it.
• Marketing. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link, and we send no marketing to account emails that did not opt in.

If you live somewhere with specific privacy rights, such as the European Union, the United Kingdom, or California, you have those rights in full and can exercise them by writing to the address below.

Security

Three independent layers, each with its own key: SQLCipher on the database at rest, TLS 1.3 on every connection, and AES-256-GCM on content before it reaches the cloud. Builds are code-signed on Windows and notarized on macOS. We have verified with packet capture that a local-only configuration produces no outbound traffic and that cloud configurations talk only to getalchemist.app. No system is perfect; if you find a problem, write to us and we will act on it.

Changes

We will post changes here with a new date, and email account holders when a change matters. We will not make this policy less protective of data already collected without asking you first.

Contact

Alchemist Labs LLC, Watkinsville, Georgia [email protected]