Privacy
Your words never leave your Mac.
Cadence was built local-first from the start. Not local as a checkbox added later. Here is exactly what that means in practice.
What Cadence does not collect
There is no account to create. There is no analytics SDK, no crash reporter phoning home, and no usage telemetry of any kind. Cadence does not know how often you use it, which features you reach for, or how long your recordings are. That information simply never leaves your machine.
- No sign in or user account.
- No analytics or usage tracking.
- No crash reporting to a remote server.
- No advertising identifiers.
How transcription works
Your speech is transcribed on your Mac using the Apple Neural Engine — the same hardware Apple uses for on-device Siri. The audio never leaves your machine during transcription. The first time you run Cadence it downloads the transcription model once (a few hundred megabytes). After that, everything works offline.
The optional AI cleanup and summaries
When you ask Cadence to clean up a transcript or generate a summary, it uses Apple Intelligence, which runs on your Mac. No text is ever sent to a server.
These features require an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 26 and Apple Intelligence enabled in System Settings. If any of those are missing, Cadence disables the AI toggle in Settings and shows you the specific reason — for example "needs macOS 26" or "turn on Apple Intelligence." The feature is never silently missing; the app is always clear about what is needed and what will run.
Where your files live
Every recording and transcript is stored in a folder on your Mac in your user library. You own the folder. You can move it, back it up, or delete it at any time. Cadence never syncs these files to iCloud or any other service.
The one network request
Cadence makes one ongoing network request: a periodic license key check. When you enter your license key the app confirms with Polar (the payment processor) that it is valid. This check sends only your license key — nothing about your recordings, your transcripts, or your machine. Once confirmed, Cadence keeps working offline and only checks in occasionally to verify the key is still active.
The first-run model download is a one-time fetch from Apple's servers. No personal data is attached to it.
Meeting capture and system audio
When you record a meeting, Cadence captures your microphone and the audio playing through your Mac on separate tracks. It does not interact with Zoom, Meet, or any conferencing app directly. Your meeting audio never leaves your Mac.
Cadence lowers the volume of background music while you dictate. It does this by adjusting system volume locally. It does not inspect or record what is playing.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email us at [email protected].