Privacy isn't a policy page. It's the architecture.
Most notetakers promise to look after your conversations on their servers. Lalela is built so your conversations don't need looking after: they stay on your machine. This page says exactly what that means — including the edges.
No meeting bots
Nothing joins your calls. Lalela records your mic and your Mac's own audio output, the same sound you already hear.
On-device transcription
Whisper runs on your Apple Silicon GPU. In the default mode, meeting audio never touches a network.
Audio is discarded
After transcription the audio is gone. What's kept is text — readable, editable, deletable by you.
Voiceprints stay local
Speaker recognition is opt-in and biometric data never leaves the device. Not to our cloud, not to anyone's.
Files you own
Notes are Markdown in a folder you pick. No export ransom — your notes are already exported, permanently.
No training on your data
We never use your transcripts to train anything. The free-tier proxy forwards only the text needed for your request and stores none of it.
Exactly what leaves your device — and when
"Local-first" claims deserve specifics. This is the complete list.
| Data | Leaves the device? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting audio | Never — with one exception you choose | Transcribed on your Mac and discarded. Exception: if you explicitly pick cloud transcription (default on iPhone, optional elsewhere), audio is uploaded to private storage, transcribed by AssemblyAI, then deleted from storage immediately. |
| Transcripts & notes | Only if you sign in and sync | Saved as Markdown + a local database on your Mac. Signing in syncs meetings to your private Supabase workspace (row-level security, only you and people you share with) so the web and iPhone apps can see them. |
| Voiceprints (speaker recognition) | Never | Opt-in, computed on-device, stored only in the local database. They are biometric data, so they are never synced, shared or uploaded — full stop. |
| Transcript text sent to AI | Only when you ask for AI, and only in the mode you chose | Local model: nothing leaves the Mac. Free allowance: the transcript text for that request is proxied through our server to the model provider, then discarded — used for your answer, not for training. Your own key: goes directly from the app to your provider under your agreement with them. |
| Screenshots of shared content | Never (stored locally) | Captured only when you click Capture (or enable the change-triggered option), saved next to the meeting's Markdown files. |
| Account email & plan | If you create an account | Stored in Supabase auth; used for sign-in, sharing and metering your free AI allowance. |
| Analytics & telemetry | None in the app today | The desktop app ships no analytics SDK. The marketing site keeps standard web-server logs. |
Recording responsibly
A private notetaker doesn't exempt you from consent. Recording laws differ by country and by state — many require all parties to agree. Lalela keeps you honest: a clear recording indicator while capture is running, one-click pause and stop, easy deletion, and imported content is always labeled as externally sourced so you know what was recorded by whom. Tell people you're taking notes; it's the right thing to do and usually the law.
Security practices
- Signed & notarized. The Mac app is Developer ID-signed and notarized by Apple, with a secure auto-updater (cryptographically signed updates).
- Row-level security. When you do sync, every table in the cloud workspace is protected by Postgres row-level security — your rows are readable only by you and the people you explicitly share a folder with.
- Keys stay server-side or on device. Our AI-provider keys never ship in the app; your own BYOK key is stored locally on your Mac and sent only to your chosen provider.
- Least-privilege APIs. The hosted endpoints require an authenticated user, meter usage per account, and accept only our own storage URLs.
- Small surface, open formats. No analytics SDKs in the app, no third-party trackers, and your data in formats you can audit with a text editor.
Questions we haven't answered?
Read the FAQ or write to us — privacy questions get real answers, not boilerplate.
Read the FAQ