Privacy Policy

Last updated: 20 September 2026

1. Plain-language summary

Vays is a private voice memo app for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. We do not run any backend servers. We do not collect, transmit, or store your voice recordings, transcripts, summaries, or chat messages. By default, everything happens on your Apple devices, in your own app sandbox.

The only ways data leaves your device are: (a) syncing between your iPhone and your own Mac over your local network, (b) optional external AI providers in the Mac app (OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible service you configure yourself, such as LM Studio on your own computer), which you set up explicitly and which can receive text but never audio, (c) downloading AI model files from public model repositories on first use, and (d) local agent access on the Mac, off by default, which lets an AI agent running on that same Mac read the text of your memos, so a cloud-backed agent passes on what it reads to its own vendor. The iOS app has neither the external AI provider option nor agent access, and stays entirely on-device.

2. Who we are

Vays is developed by Arvind Juneja. There is no company data pipeline and there are no backend servers behind it; the architecture described in this policy is the whole story.

This privacy policy applies to the Vays apps for iOS, macOS, and watchOS distributed through the Apple App Store and the Mac App Store.

3. What data Vays handles

Vays processes the following categories of data, all of which are stored exclusively on your device unless you explicitly choose to sync them:

• Voice recordings: audio captured by the microphone when you tap the record button. Stored in your app's Documents directory.
• Transcripts: text generated from your recordings by the on-device transcription engines (NVIDIA Parakeet TDT v3, NVIDIA Nemotron or WhisperKit) or, if you pair with a Mac, by the same engines running on your own Mac.
• Memo summaries: titles, summaries, key points, and action items generated by the on-device LLM (Gemma 4 E2B), by your local Ollama instance on Mac or, if you configure one on Mac, by the external AI provider you chose.
• Quick Tasks: structured tasks extracted from short voice commands.
• Chat conversations: messages you send to the chat feature and the AI's responses, including any image you attach.
• Settings: your preferences (model selection, transcription language, server URLs, etc.) stored in the app's user defaults.
• Purchase receipt: Apple's StoreKit transaction receipt, used only to confirm a one-time purchase (Mac app) or an optional tip.

We do not collect any data that personally identifies you. We do not have access to any of the data above; it lives only on your device.

4. Data that stays on your device

Vays stores all of the data above in your Apple-provided application sandbox, namely:

• Voice recordings: ~/Documents/VaysRecordings/ on iOS, ~/Documents/VaysRecordings/ on macOS
• Processed memos and summaries: ~/Documents/VaysMemos/
• Recently Deleted (Mac): ~/Documents/VaysDeleted/, where a deleted memo's files wait 30 days before they are erased, next to a small record of the deletion kept up to 180 days so a paired iPhone learns about it too
• Quick Tasks: app's Documents directory
• Chat history: app's Documents directory
• AI model weights (Gemma, Parakeet, WhisperKit): app's Library directory
• Settings: standard UserDefaults store

This data is automatically encrypted at rest by iOS / macOS using your device's hardware-backed encryption. It is included in your iCloud Backup if you have iCloud Backup enabled (this is an Apple feature; we do not control it).

When you delete the Vays app, iOS / macOS deletes the entire app sandbox, including all of the above data.

5. Network connections Vays makes

Vays makes the following network connections, all of which are either local-network-only or initiated by an explicit user action:

• Bonjour discovery on the local network. The Mac app advertises a _localpeer._tcp Bonjour service on your Wi-Fi network. The iOS app discovers it and connects directly over HTTP to your own Mac, only on your own LAN. There is no relay server, and no traffic ever leaves your local network through this path.
• Apple StoreKit servers. When you launch the app, view the purchase or tip screen, or restore purchases, the OS-provided StoreKit framework contacts Apple's servers to fetch product info and confirm your purchase. Vays itself does not connect to any other Apple servers.
• Model download (one-time). When you first enable on-device transcription or on-device AI, the app downloads model weights from public model repositories: Hugging Face (Parakeet, Nemotron, Gemma, and the WhisperKit model repository). These are anonymous downloads of public files. Once downloaded, the model files stay on your device and Vays does not contact those servers again.
• Ollama (Mac, optional). If you have Ollama installed, the Vays Mac app connects to the local Ollama HTTP endpoint (localhost:11434). Ollama itself runs entirely on your Mac.
• External AI provider (Mac, optional, opt-in). If you configure an external AI provider in the Mac app's Settings (OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible service such as LM Studio, llama.cpp server, OpenRouter or Groq), the text you route to it is sent directly from your Mac to the server address you entered, authenticated with your own API key if that service needs one. Vays does not proxy this traffic and has no server of its own in the path. If the address is outside your computer or your local network, Vays shows a confirmation before the first transmission to that host. Subject to that provider's privacy policy, not ours. See section 7.
• Local agent access (Mac, optional, opt-in). When you turn local agent access on in the Mac app's Settings, Vays answers Model Context Protocol requests on 127.0.0.1, only for programs running on that same Mac and only with the token Vays generated for you. No traffic leaves your Mac through this route and Vays has no server of its own in the path. What the connected agent then does with the text it reads is governed by that agent's own privacy policy. See section 8.

6. Permissions Vays requests

Vays asks the OS for the minimum set of permissions needed to function:

• Microphone: required to record voice memos. Without this permission Vays cannot do its primary job.
• Reminders: optional. Quick Tasks can be saved to the Apple Reminders app if you enable this permission.
• Photo Library: optional. Used only if you attach an image to a chat message. Vays only reads images you explicitly select; it does not browse your library.
• Speech Recognition (macOS only): used for the Live Transcription window, which calls Apple's on-device speech recognition framework. Apple processes this on the Mac, not in the cloud.
• Local Network: required for Bonjour discovery and the Mac sync described above. Vays only talks to your own devices: your Mac from the iPhone and, if you configure one in the Mac app, an AI server you run on your own network.

You can revoke any permission at any time in the system Settings app.

7. Optional external AI provider (Mac, opt-in)

By default, Vays talks to no AI service outside your devices. In the Mac app you can optionally configure one external AI provider: OpenAI, or any service that speaks the OpenAI chat completions API, including servers you run yourself such as LM Studio or llama.cpp on your own computer or on another machine on your local network. You choose the address, the model and the account; Vays ships with no provider configured and no key of its own. The iOS app has no such option and stays entirely on-device.

What is sent. Only text, and only for the features you route there: chat messages when you pick the external provider in the chat tab; in Live Transcription, the phrase you ask about together with a short excerpt of the surrounding live transcript, when you pick it as the explanation provider; and, if you also turn on the separate memo-analysis switch, the transcript text of your memos (including speaker names) and your Quick Task voice commands. Memos synced from a paired iPhone are included only if you turn on a further switch for them. Audio recordings, your speaker library and your API keys are never sent.

Confirmation first. If the address you enter is outside your computer or your local network, Vays shows a confirmation before the first transmission to that host, spelling out what will be sent, and keeps a visible cloud indicator in the app for as long as that provider is active. Addresses on your own computer or local network do not trigger the confirmation, because nothing leaves your network.

Who receives it. The text goes directly from your Mac to the address you entered. Vays does not operate, proxy, store or log this traffic, and has no relationship with or control over the provider you choose. That provider's terms and privacy policy govern what happens to your data there, including whether it is retained or used for training; ours do not. Your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain and is never synced or exported by Vays.

If you use OpenAI, your data is also subject to OpenAI's privacy policy. You can return to on-device processing at any time by turning the provider off in Settings.

8. Local agent access (MCP, Mac, opt-in)

The Mac app can expose your memo library to an AI agent running on the same Mac, through a local Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. It stays off until you turn it on in Settings, it accepts connections only from this Mac and refuses every other caller, and every call must carry a token that Vays generates and you paste into your agent's configuration. You can regenerate that token or switch the whole thing off at any time. Nothing in this path reaches us: there is no Vays server involved and no traffic leaves your Mac because of it.

What the agent can read. Reading is all that agent access does on its own: search your memos, read one memo (summary, key points, action items, notes and the transcript text, including speaker names), list action items, and list the people in your speaker library by name. The voice data behind those names stays inside the app; no voiceprint, no enrollment recording and no audio sample is reachable this way. Audio recordings are never exposed through this path at all: the agent receives text only. Memos synced from a paired iPhone are part of your Mac library, so they are visible too.

What the agent can change, if you let it. Writing is a second switch of its own, next to the first one in Settings, and it stays off until you turn it on, so agent access by itself remains read-only. With writing on, the agent can do exactly two things: save a new memo from text it supplies, and mark an action item as done. It still cannot delete anything, cannot export your library, and cannot touch your speaker library in any way. Switching writing back off restores read-only access immediately; memos the agent already created stay in your library like any other memo, yours to edit.

The agent is not ours. This is the part that matters. Vays hands memo text to whichever agent you connect, and we have no control over what that agent does next. If it is a cloud-backed assistant, such as a coding agent that ships its context to its vendor's servers, your memo text goes there and is governed by that vendor's privacy policy, not ours. Turning this on is a decision about the agent you trust, not only about Vays. If you want the text to stay on your Mac, connect only an agent that runs locally.

9. Payments

Vays for Mac is a one-time paid app on the Mac App Store. Vays for iPhone and iPad is free; it includes an optional "tip jar" in-app purchase for people who want to support development; it unlocks nothing and is entirely voluntary. There is no subscription and nothing else to buy.

Apple handles the entire payment flow. Vays receives only the StoreKit transaction receipt that confirms a purchase. We do not see your Apple ID, payment method, billing address, or any other personal information.

10. No analytics, no tracking, no ads

Vays contains no third-party analytics SDKs, no tracking pixels, no advertising frameworks, and no telemetry of any kind. We do not measure usage. We do not see crashes (unless you opt in to MetricKit's overnight reports, which Apple delivers to us via the system metrics service; these contain no PII). We do not know how many people use the app or what features they touch.

The Privacy Manifests (PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy) shipped in the app declare exactly three Required Reason API categories:

• UserDefaults (reason CA92.1): to read and write the app's own settings.
• File Timestamp APIs (reasons C617.1 and 0A2A.1): to display recording dates and verify downloaded model file sizes.
• Disk Space APIs (reason E174.1): to check free space before model downloads.

That is the entire list. No advertising, no tracking, no fingerprinting categories are declared because none are used.

11. Children

Vays is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect any data from anyone (including children) because, as described above, we do not run servers and do not collect anything at all. The app is rated 4+ on the App Store.

12. Changes to this policy

If we materially change this privacy policy, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top and post a notice on the app's website. Your continued use of Vays after a change means you accept the updated policy.

13. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or how Vays handles your data, email [email protected] or visit our Support page.