Privacy

Version 5 · Last updated 7 November 2026

MuteNote records your calls on your own laptop and writes notes from them. This page explains, in plain terms, what stays on your laptop, what goes anywhere else, and why. In this policy, “we” means MuteNote, made and run by Samuel Mbugua, Nairobi, Kenya, who is responsible for your personal data (the “controller”). Questions and requests: [email protected]. We don’t have a data protection officer; that address reaches the people who run MuteNote. We follow Kenya’s Data Protection Act, 2019, and, for people in the EU, the UK and Switzerland, the GDPR, the UK GDPR (with the UK’s PECR rules for cookies and marketing emails) and the Swiss data protection law; where you live gives you rights under your own law too, and “Your rights” below applies to everyone.

On your laptop, and nowhere else

Your recordings, transcripts, notes, marks and settings are stored in folders on your laptop. MuteNote never uploads your audio unless you choose to keep your meetings on your account (next paragraph). Transcription runs on your laptop, with one exception: on a paid plan with meetings kept on your account, our service transcribes instead (see “When a recording is transcribed” below). If you delete a meeting in the app, it’s gone from your laptop.

You can choose where your meetings live: on your device only (the laptop, or that browser in the web version), or on your MuteNote account. The desktop app starts on your laptop and you can turn the account on; the web version starts with your account when you first sign in, because a browser can clear its own storage, and you can switch it off under Settings, Account. If your meetings are on your account, the text of each meeting (the transcript, the notes with their actions, and your marks) is kept by our account service so it outlives one device and follows you to another. The recordings stay on your device unless you also turn on “Keep the recordings on the account too”; then each recording is kept in our storage as well, and you can have the copy on your device deleted to free space and fetched back when you press play. Nothing we keep is used to train any model, by MuteNote or by the AI it uses. You can switch back to “this browser only” at any time (your meetings come down first, then the account’s copies are deleted), delete one meeting (the account keeps only a note that it was deleted, for 30 days, so your other devices learn of it), or delete everything in one go under Settings, Account: you get a receipt on screen and by email, and our backups forget the data within 8 days. Deleting your account deletes it all too.

Remembered voices (off unless you turn them on)

To tell speakers apart, MuteNote makes a voiceprint of each stretch of speech, on your laptop, and uses it only within that meeting. If you turn on “Remember voices” in Settings, then when you name a speaker MuteNote keeps that person’s voiceprint on your laptop, so it can name them in later meetings. A voiceprint can identify a person, so only keep the voices of people who are fine with it. Voiceprints never leave your laptop: not to us, not to the AI that writes notes, not to your Google Drive. Settings lists every voice kept and forgets any of them; turning the setting off forgets them all.

When a recording is transcribed

Turning speech into text happens on your laptop, or in your browser in the web version, and no audio leaves it. On a paid plan with meetings kept on your account, it happens on our service instead: the app sends each side of the recording (your microphone, and the call) to our service about ten minutes at a time, our service passes it to DeepInfra, whose Whisper model returns the words and their timing, and neither keeps the audio: we never write it to disk, and DeepInfra holds it in memory only while transcribing and doesn’t use it for training. This gives the same accuracy on any computer, 99 languages, and minutes instead of an hour. If our service can’t be reached, the app transcribes on your device as before. Free accounts, and anyone who keeps meetings on their device only, always transcribe on the device.

When notes are written

Writing notes needs an AI model. You choose which one in Settings, and what leaves your laptop depends on that choice:

Your MuteNote account

You only need an account for notes written by MuteNote and for paid plans. Our account service keeps:

• your email address;
• sign-in codes, stored only as scrambled values and valid for 10 minutes;
• sign-in sessions, stored only as scrambled values; a session ends after 180 days unused;
• how many hours of notes you’ve used each month, and whether automatic top-ups are on;
• when you first signed in, and which days and months you used MuteNote while signed in (the days are kept 60 days);
• which of our welcome emails we’ve sent you, and whether you’ve unsubscribed from them;
• the reminders you turn on, if any (see “Reminders” below);
• the meetings you choose to keep on your account (see “On your laptop, and nowhere else” above): their text, and their recordings if you turn that on too.

It holds transcripts, notes and recordings only when you choose to keep meetings on your account; otherwise it sees transcript text only as it passes through to write notes, as above, plus the few details of each reminder you turn on.

Emails we send

Besides sign-in codes, we send a few emails to help you get started: a welcome, one reminder if you haven’t had notes written after a few days, a note when your first notes are done, and a short monthly recap of how many hours of notes MuteNote wrote. They’re built only from the account details above, never from your meetings. Every one has an unsubscribe link, and sign-in codes keep arriving after you unsubscribe.

Reminders (off unless you turn them on)

You can ask MuteNote to email a reminder about an action, to you or to the person it’s for, or to send the people in a repeating meeting their open actions before the next one. Because the email has to come from somewhere when your laptop may be closed, our account service keeps, for each reminder you turn on, only what that email needs: the action’s text, its due date, the meeting’s title, a link to where it was agreed, your name and email, and the name and email of the person it’s for, with when to send it. These details are encrypted where they’re stored. Nothing else from your meetings is sent: no recordings, transcripts or notes.

A reminder is deleted after its last email, when you mark the action done or turn the reminder off, and when you delete your account. The email says who set it up and comes from “your name via MuteNote”, so replies go to you. Every one has a one-click link to stop reminders from MuteNote; after that, nobody can set one up for that address. If you use the desktop app without an account, you can have reminders as notifications on your laptop instead, and nothing is sent.

The Getting started steps, counts and milestones on the Meetings screen are worked out on your laptop from your own meetings, and aren’t sent anywhere.

Payments

Paddle sells MuteNote subscriptions and top-ups as the merchant of record. When you buy, Paddle collects your name, email, billing address and payment details, works out tax, and issues invoices, under Paddle’s privacy policy. We never see your full card number. We ask Paddle what your email has bought so the app knows your plan and hours.

Google Calendar and Google Drive

If you connect Google, MuteNote reads your calendar events (only to name a recording after the meeting on now, and to note who else was invited, which helps the notes name the speakers and fills in who a recap email can go to) and, if you turn on “Save notes to Google Drive”, puts a copy of each meeting’s notes and transcript, and its audio if you choose, in a MuteNote folder in your Drive. It can only see files it created there. This goes straight between your device and Google: the access is kept in your system’s keychain (desktop app) or your browser (web version), and MuteNote’s servers never receive it, your calendar or your files. The only things that leave your device are the name a recording gets from its meeting and the names of who else was invited: they go with the transcript when notes are written, to the AI you picked (or, with notes written by MuteNote, through our notes service to our AI provider, as described above). Invitees’ email addresses stay on your device: they’re only used when you choose “Send recap”, which opens a draft in your own email app for you to send. Disconnect any time in Settings, or in your Google account’s security settings.

MuteNote’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use it only for the two features above, never for ads, never to train AI models, and we don’t sell it or share it with anyone else.

Sending actions to Jira, Linear or Slack (off unless you set it up)

If you choose a service under Settings → General → Send actions to, and then send actions from a meeting, the actions you tick (their text, owner and due date) and the meeting’s name go straight from your laptop to that service, with the token or webhook link you gave it. From the desktop app, MuteNote’s servers never receive them, and tokens are kept in your system’s keychain. Browsers can’t reach Jira directly, so in the web version actions sent to Jira, with your Jira site, email and API token, pass through our account service on their way: it forwards them and doesn’t store or log them. Nothing is sent unless you press Send.

Anonymous step counts (off unless you turn them on)

If you tick “Share anonymous step counts” (in setup, or in Settings → Privacy), MuteNote tells us which steps you reach, so we can see where people get stuck and fix it. Each count is one of these steps: first opened, audio check passed or failed, speech model downloaded, recording started or ended, notes written or opened, signed in, and used today. A step can carry only these details: whether the recording was a call, a practice or an import, its length in broad bands (under 1 minute, 1–10, 10–30, over 30), and whether the notes had any actions. With them goes a random ID your copy of MuteNote makes, your system (Windows, Linux, Mac or web) and the app version.

It never includes your audio, words, transcript, notes, names, meeting titles, email address or file paths, and it isn’t linked to your account. Our server drops anything not on the list above. We keep step counts for 13 months. Settings → Privacy shows exactly what was sent, and “Delete my step counts” deletes everything sent from your copy.

The web version

MuteNote in your browser (mutenote.com/app) works like the app: your recordings, transcripts and notes are kept in that browser’s own storage on your computer, and transcription runs in the page (on a paid plan with meetings kept on your account, on our service, as above). The first time, the browser downloads the speech model from Hugging Face and the code that runs it from jsDelivr; like any download, they see your IP address, never your recordings. Clearing the site’s data in your browser deletes your meetings there.

The browser extension

The MuteNote Meet extension reads two things, on meet.google.com only: whether Google Meet’s microphone button is muted, and the names Meet shows on the tiles of the people talking, while they talk. The app keeps those names with that meeting’s recording, to put the right name on each voice in the transcript, and deletes them with the meeting. It tells the MuteNote app on the same laptop, through the browser’s built-in channel to desktop apps (Chrome and Firefox both have one). Nothing goes over the internet.

Problem and error reports

If you send a problem report from the app, we receive your message, your email if you’re signed in or type it in, the app version and your operating system. When something fails, the app asks whether to send that error; if you say yes, or turn on automatic error reports (off unless you choose them), the app sends error messages with file paths, email addresses and meeting titles removed. Reports never include recordings, transcripts or notes. We keep reports for 12 months.

How people use the website and the web version (Microsoft Clarity)

The website (mutenote.com) and the web version (mutenote.com/app; not the desktop app or the checkout) use Microsoft Clarity to see how they are used: where people click, how far they scroll and how they move between screens, so we can make the hard parts easier. Text you type and the words on the page are masked, so they aren’t recorded; in the web version every screen is masked, so your meetings, notes, names and questions never reach Clarity, only the shapes of the screens and where you clicked. Clarity is run by Microsoft; see the Microsoft Privacy Statement. If you visit from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, Clarity runs only after you allow it in a banner; your choice is kept in your browser for a year and covers both the website and the web version. “Analytics choices” at the foot of the home page, and in the web version under Settings, Privacy, asks again, anywhere in the world. Anywhere, you can also block clarity.ms in your browser or use a content blocker.

Updates and the website

The app checks our website once a day for a new version. Like any website visit, our host sees your IP address. The pricing section loads Paddle’s checkout script. We count visits to the website and the web version with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and doesn’t identify you: we see totals such as pages viewed and countries. When you download the app we note the time, the file, your device type and browser (for example “Windows · Chrome”), your country, and the website you first came to us from (for example YouTube). We don’t record your IP address or anything that identifies you, and we delete these notes after 12 months. If you join the Mac waitlist, we keep your email and the job you picked for 12 months, use them only to email you once when MuteNote for Mac is ready, and to see who wants it. To remember where you came from, the website keeps that site’s name in your browser’s storage for 30 days.

Who handles your data for us

We use these companies to run MuteNote. Each only gets what its job needs:

Some of them are outside your country, and outside the EU and UK. For those transfers we rely on each company’s data processing terms, which include the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses and the UK’s addendum to them.

Recording other people

MuteNote doesn’t join your calls, so it won’t announce itself. Recording laws differ by country and state, and many require everyone’s consent. You’re responsible for telling people you’re recording; MuteNote gives you a consent message to paste into the meeting chat.

Why we use your data, on what basis, and for how long

Each thing we do with your data, the legal basis for it, and how long we keep it:

We don’t sell your personal data, don’t share it for advertising, and don’t use it, or anything you keep with us, to train AI models.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

• See what we hold (your right of access) and get a copy you can take elsewhere (your right to data portability): the app shows it under Settings, Account, and we’ll send the rest on request.
• Correct anything wrong (your right to rectification): your email in Settings, anything else by writing to us.
• Delete your data (your right to erasure): one meeting, or everything kept on your account (Settings, Account, with a receipt), or your whole account (Settings, Account). Invoices stay with Paddle, which the law requires the seller to keep.
• Say no (your right to object) to, or pause (your right to restriction of processing), anything we do on the basis of our legitimate interests, such as the emails above or analytics outside Europe: unsubscribe links, “Analytics choices” and this address all work.
• Withdraw consent as easily as you gave it: Clarity through “Analytics choices”, step counts and error reports under Settings, Privacy. Withdrawing doesn’t affect what was done before.
• Complain to a data protection authority: in Kenya, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner; in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO); in the EU, the authority of your country; in Switzerland, the FDPIC. We’d rather hear from you first, at [email protected].

Write to [email protected] from the email on your account, or tell us how to confirm it’s you. We answer within 30 days, and sooner where your law requires it. There’s no charge. If you’re in California, these rights include the right to know, delete and correct, and we don’t sell or share your personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of.

Automated decisions and AI

We make no decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. Notes, summaries, decisions and actions in MuteNote are written by an AI model from your transcript, and the app says so wherever it shows them; they can be wrong, and every point links to the moment in the recording so you can check.

If something goes wrong

If a security breach on our side puts you at risk, we’ll tell you without undue delay, say what happened and what we’re doing, and tell the authorities within the time the law sets (72 hours under the GDPR and Kenya’s Act).

Children

MuteNote is only for people aged 18 or older. If you think someone younger has given us their email, write to [email protected] and we’ll delete their account.

Requests from the authorities

We share account data with the police or a court only when the law requires it, and only what we hold (listed above). We hold transcripts, notes and recordings only if you chose to keep meetings on your account; otherwise we hold only the details of reminders you turned on, until they’re sent. See Terms, “Reporting misuse”.

Changes

When this policy changes, its version and date at the top change, “What changed” below says what’s different, and everyone with a MuteNote account gets an email listing the changes. Earlier versions are available on request.

What changed