Bloom privacy policy
Bloom is a Mac app made by Beeddy. It records and imports audio, turns speech into text on your Mac, and lets you search and play your recordings. This policy explains what Bloom keeps, where, and when it goes online. The short version: your recordings and transcripts stay on your Mac. Bloom has no account, no analytics and no tracking, and we don’t collect your data.
What Bloom keeps, and where
Everything Bloom stores is on your Mac:
- Recordings: the audio you record (AAC,
.m4a) and copies of the audio and video files you import. Bloom always copies an imported file into its library; your original stays where it was. - Transcripts: the text of each recording with the time of each sentence, and a search index of all transcripts so search is fast.
- Details of each recording: its title, date, length and language, the name of the microphone it was recorded with or the name of the file it was imported from, and a small waveform for the player.
- Speech models: the Whisper models you choose to download, and the language models macOS downloads for its own speech recognition (macOS manages those).
- Settings: your choices in Bloom’s settings, such as theme, shortcuts, engine and language.
By default the library is inside Bloom’s own container in your user folder (~/Library/), which other apps can’t read. If you choose another place in Settings › Storage, Bloom moves the library into a “Bloom Library” folder there.
You’re in control of it:
- Deleting a recording moves it to the Trash, so you can still put it back from Finder.
- When you export a transcript or copy it to the clipboard, Bloom writes it where you choose.
- Your Mac’s own backups, such as Time Machine, may include the library, like any other files.
- Deleting Bloom doesn’t delete the library. To remove everything, also delete Bloom’s container folder above (and the “Bloom Library” folder, if you moved it).
What never leaves your Mac
Your audio, your transcripts, the titles and details of your recordings, and your searches. Bloom never uploads them, and it has no server to send them to. Transcription runs on your Mac, with Apple’s on-device speech recognition or, if you choose it, a Whisper model running on your Mac.
When Bloom goes online
Bloom uses the internet only for these things:
- Whisper models, from Hugging Face, only when you ask. When you download a Whisper model in Settings › Transcription, Bloom fetches the model files from Hugging Face (huggingface.co), where the models are published. The first time you transcribe with a model, Bloom may also fetch a small vocabulary file that goes with it from the same place. These are ordinary downloads: Bloom sends nothing about you or your recordings and uses no account. Like any web server, Hugging Face’s servers see your IP address and the standard information macOS sends with a download (a default User-Agent naming the app and the macOS version).
- Apple’s speech languages, through macOS. The first time you transcribe in a language, macOS downloads the speech model for it from Apple. Apple’s privacy policy applies.
- Purchases, through Apple. The free trial and the purchase are in-app purchases handled by Apple’s App Store (StoreKit). Bloom only checks, on your Mac, which of its purchases your Apple Account owns; it never sees your payment details. Apple’s privacy policy applies.
Links in Bloom, such as this policy or the support address, open in your browser or your email app.
No analytics, no tracking, no accounts
Bloom contains no analytics, no advertising, no crash-reporting service and no other third-party code that collects data. It doesn’t track you across apps or websites, and there’s nothing to sign in to. Bloom uses one open-source library for Whisper, WhisperKit, which contains no analytics or tracking.
Bloom writes short error messages to your Mac’s system log, for example when a transcription fails. They stay on your Mac and don’t contain your audio or transcripts. If you choose in macOS to share analytics with app developers, Apple may send us crash reports; that’s Apple’s setting, and Apple’s privacy policy applies.
Permissions
- Microphone. Bloom asks for it to record. It uses the microphone while you record, and while Settings › Recording is open, to show the input level so you can check that Bloom hears you; that level test isn’t saved. macOS shows its microphone indicator whenever the microphone is on. If you don’t allow it, you can still import and transcribe files. You can change this any time in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone.
- Speech recognition. Bloom turns speech into text with Apple’s speech recognition on your Mac. If macOS asks you for permission, that’s what it’s for; Bloom doesn’t use Apple’s server-based recognition.
- Files. Bloom can read only the files you pick or drop on it, and the library folder you choose.
- Keyboard shortcut. Bloom’s shortcut for starting and stopping a recording (⌥⌘R by default) is registered with macOS, which tells Bloom only when that shortcut is pressed. Bloom doesn’t watch your typing and doesn’t ask for Accessibility access.
Children
Bloom doesn’t collect personal information from anyone, children included.
Changes
If this policy changes, we’ll publish the new version on this page with a new effective date.
Support
Questions, problems or ideas: write to support@beeddy.com. It helps to include:
- the Bloom version (Settings › About, for example “Version 1.0 (100)”) and your macOS version;
- what you did, what you expected and what happened instead;
- for a transcription problem: the recording’s language and the engine (macOS, or which Whisper model). If Bloom shows “Show Details” on a failed transcription, copy that text into your email.
You don’t need to send recordings or transcripts. If you choose to attach one, we use it only to look into your question and delete it when we’re done. We use your email address and what you send only to answer you.