Featherweight Dictation Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Mockello ("Mockello," "we," "us," or "our"), a partnership firm registered with the Registrar of Firms, Tamil Nadu, under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932, and based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, handles personal data when you use Featherweight Dictation: the Mac app, the websites at dictation.featherweightsoftware.com and featherweightsoftware.com, where you pay, your Featherweight Dictation account, and the service behind them (together, the "Service").

Featherweight is a brand of Mockello.

1. The short version

• Hold, talk, let go. Featherweight Dictation records while you hold the key. When you let go, our server uses xAI and OpenAI to turn your speech into text and lay it out, and the text is pasted where your cursor is.
• We do not store your audio or your words. We keep only facts about each dictation, such as its length and word count.
• We keep a small account record: your email, your name if you gave one, your sign-up answers, your Macs and your plan.
• We do not sell your data or use it for advertising. The website has no advertising or analytics cookies.
• Payments go through Razorpay. We never receive your full card number or other payment details.
• You are in control. You can sign out any Mac from your account page and ask us to delete your account at hello@featherweightsoftware.com.

2. Who is responsible for your data

Mockello is responsible for the personal data described in this Policy. For Indian data-protection law, Mockello is the body corporate responsible for personal data under its control and, as the relevant provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the "DPDP Act") take effect, will act as the Data Fiduciary for it. Where other laws use the term, Mockello is the controller.

Privacy questions, requests and grievances go to the Mockello Grievance Officer at hello@featherweightsoftware.com.

3. What we collect

3.1 Your account

You sign in through Clerk, with a one-time code sent to your email or with Google. From Clerk we receive your email address, your name if one is provided, and your Clerk user ID. We never receive a password.

When you sign up, we ask for your company, your role, where you heard of Featherweight Dictation and what you will dictate most, and whether you would like update emails.

We also keep your plan details: when your trial starts and ends, how many trial words you have used, and your subscription status.

3.2 Your Macs

For each Mac you sign in from, we keep:

• the Mac's name, the app version and when the Mac was last seen;
• a device token that keeps the Mac signed in, which we store only as a hash; and
• a hardware identifier, which we store only as a keyed hash (HMAC). We use it to give one free trial per Mac and to count Macs.

You can use up to 7 Macs per account, and sign any of them out from your account page.

3.3 Your dictations

Each time you dictate:

1. While you hold the key (fn, right Option or right Command), and only then, the app records from your microphone.
2. When you let go, the app sends only the speech portions of the recording to our server. With them go the name of the app you are in, your language (the one set in the app, or else your Mac's), and any custom words from the app's settings.
3. Our server sends the audio to xAI to turn speech into text. If that fails, it uses OpenAI instead.
4. Our server then sends the transcript and the name of the app you are in to OpenAI, to lay the text out for that app. Short, plain takes skip this step, as does every take when Smart formatting is turned off in the app.
5. The text comes back to your Mac and is pasted where your cursor is.

We do not store your audio or your words. For each dictation we store only metadata: your plan, the length of the audio, the word count, which provider was used, timings, and an internal cost estimate. During a trial we also count your words. We use your recordings only to turn them into text, not to identify you by your voice.

xAI and OpenAI process your audio and text to return results, under their own API terms and data policies.

Please think twice before dictating highly sensitive information, such as passwords or health details, and only dictate information about other people if you are allowed to share it.

3.4 Payments

Razorpay processes payments for your subscription. To start a checkout, we open a subscription with Razorpay that carries our internal ID for your account, and we fill in your email address and name in Razorpay's checkout. You give Razorpay your payment details, and any contact details it asks for, directly.

Razorpay sends us notices about your subscription and its payments: Razorpay's IDs for them, the status, your plan, the amounts, the kind of payment method (such as card or UPI) and your billing dates. We keep these notices, and nothing else Razorpay sends. We never receive full card numbers or other payment details.

3.5 Emails

Resend sends our service emails: a welcome email, a note when your trial is about to end, a note when it has ended, and a thank-you when you subscribe. Update emails go only to people who opted in.

3.6 Technical and operational data

• Operational events. Axiom receives operational events, such as errors, timings and counts. They are linked to an internal account ID and can include your plan, the app version, the name of the app you dictated into, your language and some of your sign-up answers. They never include your dictated words or audio.
• Connection data. Our server, website and download service receive your IP address and basic request details when you connect. We use these to deliver the Service and keep it secure, for example by limiting repeated sign-in attempts.

3.7 On your Mac

• Clipboard. To paste, the app puts the text on your clipboard for a moment, then restores what was there before.
• Keychain. The device token that keeps you signed in is stored in your Mac's Keychain.
• Settings. Your settings, including your custom words, are stored on your Mac.
• Permissions. The app needs Microphone permission to hear you, and Accessibility permission to paste and to read the name of the app in front. You can withdraw either in System Settings, but dictation will not work without them.
• Updates. The app checks for updates on its own and downloads them from Cloudflare R2.

4. How we use your information

We use personal data to:

• create and secure your account, and sign you in on your Macs;
• turn your speech into text and paste it;
• run your trial and plan, and apply their limits;
• take payments and manage your subscription;
• send service emails, and update emails if you opted in;
• understand who uses Featherweight Dictation and what for, using your sign-up answers;
• keep the Service reliable, fix problems and manage our costs;
• prevent fraud and abuse, such as repeat trials on the same Mac; and
• meet legal, tax and accounting duties, and enforce our Terms of Service.

We do not use your audio or your words to train AI models.

5. Legal bases

For people in India, we process personal data only for lawful purposes connected with the Service. We give notice and obtain consent where required, or rely on another ground or legitimate use permitted by Indian law, including the Information Technology Act, 2000 and its rules and, as its provisions take effect, the DPDP Act.

Where another law requires a specific legal basis, including in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, we rely on:

• Contract: to provide your account, dictation, trial and subscription.
• Legitimate interests: to secure, maintain and improve the Service and to prevent abuse, where your rights do not override those interests.
• Consent: for update emails and the Mac permissions you grant. You can withdraw consent at any time, without affecting earlier lawful processing.
• Legal obligation: to meet tax, accounting and other legal duties.

6. Who we share it with

We share personal data with the service providers that run Featherweight Dictation, and only what each one needs:

We may also disclose personal data:

• when the law or a valid government request requires it, or to protect people, Mockello or the Service;
• to professional advisers bound by confidentiality; and
• to a successor in a merger, acquisition, reorganisation or sale of assets, with appropriate safeguards.

We do not sell or rent personal data. We do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are defined under applicable US state privacy laws.

7. Cookies

The website uses Clerk's sign-in session cookies, which keep you signed in. There are no advertising or analytics cookies. Razorpay's checkout may set its own cookies.

8. How long we keep it

• Account, Mac and usage records are kept while your account is active.
• Signed-out Macs stay listed on your account as signed out.
• Your audio and words are never stored by us.
• Deletion: to delete your account, email hello@featherweightsoftware.com. We will delete your personal data, except records the law requires us to keep, such as billing records. Residual copies may remain in backups and logs for a limited time until they are overwritten or expire.

9. Your rights and choices

You can:

• sign out any Mac, or cancel your subscription, from your account page;
• withdraw Microphone or Accessibility permission in System Settings, or turn off Smart formatting in the app;
• stop update emails at any time by emailing hello@featherweightsoftware.com; and
• ask us to access, correct or delete your personal data, or withdraw a consent you gave.

Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to restrict or object to processing, to receive your data in a portable format, and to complain to your local data-protection authority. To make a request, email hello@featherweightsoftware.com. We may need to verify your identity first. We will not treat you differently for using your rights.

9.1 Rights and grievances in India

Subject to Indian law and the relevant provisions being in force, people in India may have rights to obtain information about how their personal data is processed, to request its correction, completion or erasure, to withdraw consent, and to seek grievance redressal.

To raise a grievance, email the Mockello Grievance Officer at hello@featherweightsoftware.com with enough detail for us to find your account. We will acknowledge consumer grievances within 48 hours and seek to resolve them within one month, as applicable. Other privacy requests will be handled within the period the law requires.

Once the relevant DPDP Act provisions are in force, you may also nominate another person to exercise your rights in the event of your death or incapacity and, after using our grievance process, complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

10. International transfers

Mockello operates from India. Our server is in Germany and our database is in Ireland. Some of our providers, including our speech and layout providers, process data in other countries, which may include the United States. These countries may have different data-protection laws.

Where required, we use contractual or other lawful safeguards for these transfers, and we will follow any transfer restrictions notified under the DPDP Act.

11. Security

We protect personal data with encryption in transit, device tokens and hardware identifiers stored only as hashes, and restricted access to our database. No system is completely secure, so please keep your Mac and email account secure too. If we become aware of a breach affecting personal data under our control, we will investigate and give the notifications the law requires.

12. Children

Featherweight Dictation is only for people aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has given us personal data, please contact hello@featherweightsoftware.com.

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy as Featherweight Dictation, the law or our practices change. We will post the revised version here and update the "Last updated" date. If a change materially affects your rights or how we use personal data, we will give additional notice where required.

14. Contact us

• Company: Mockello (a partnership firm), Avadi, Chennai 600071, Tamil Nadu, India
• Grievance Officer: Mockello Grievance Officer, hello@featherweightsoftware.com
• Privacy, grievances and general contact: hello@featherweightsoftware.com
• Billing and cancellation: info@featherweightsoftware.com