Privacy Policy
Last updated October 22, 2026
The short version
- Your history, its audio, your insights and your seals are stored on your Mac. Our servers keep your words only in two cases: feedback you send us, and samples you share to help make Verve better.
- To make Verve better, we collect how you use it and, by default, samples of what you said and what Verve wrote. You choose how in Settings › Data and privacy: Help make Verve better, Anonymized (names, emails, numbers and addresses replaced on your Mac first), or Share nothing. Samples are deleted after 12 months.
- To polish your words, and on paid plans to turn your voice into text, they pass through our AI provider, OpenAI. We don't keep them.
- On the Free plan, your voice never leaves your Mac: Apple's model on your Mac turns it into text. Only the text you have polished passes through our AI, with the hints listed below.
- Verve never takes screenshots. It reads the text box you're typing in and the window's title, on your Mac. Only the app's name and the kind of writing it suggests go to our AI, and you can turn that off. Command Mode is the exception: the text you select and your instruction go to OpenAI to be rewritten. When you ask Command Mode about what's on your screen and nothing is selected, the visible text of the window you're in goes too, never password fields.
- Unless you choose Share nothing, when a Command Mode request reads your screen, a selection or your clipboard, the text it read is kept with its sample, always with names, emails, numbers and addresses replaced on your Mac first. It can include other people's words, such as messages on your screen. It's kept 12 months, to improve Command Mode. Password fields are never read or kept.
- No ads, no tracking across other apps or websites, and we never sell your data.
Who we are
Verve is a dictation app for the Mac. It is run by Sebastian Gonzalez, Lima, Peru ("Verve", "we", "us"), which is responsible for your personal data. You can reach us about anything, privacy included, at hello@vervewrites.com.
What stays on your Mac
Verve keeps these on your Mac. We don't receive them, except a dictation you include with feedback, and the samples described in "What we collect to make Verve better":
- Your history: each dictation's text (what you said and what Verve typed), the app and window it went into, and timings. With "Notice your corrections" on, also each word you fixed right after Verve typed it, next to what Verve had typed: only those words, never the text around them. For Command Mode: what you selected, what you asked for, and the text that replaced it or that Verve wrote at your cursor.
- Your voice measurements: numbers like your talking pace, pauses and pitch range. Verve measures them while you talk and keeps only the numbers, never the audio.
- Your insights, dictionary, snippets and settings, including Dictionary suggestions you answered "Not now".
- Your seals: which seals you've earned and the date and time of the dictation that earned each, plus which ones Verve has already shown you and when your Mac first had each kind (so older ones aren't announced as new). They're kept in Verve's settings on your Mac, apart from your history, so they stay when Keep history or Delete all history removes the dictations that earned them. There's no button in the app to remove them; deleting Verve's settings does (see "How long we keep data").
- Audio, only if you turn on Settings › Data and privacy › "Keep a copy of my audio".
- Audio of a dictation that failed, whether or not you keep audio, so it isn't lost, with the app and window title it was meant for. Verve retries it and deletes it as soon as it's recovered. If it can't be recovered within a day, Verve deletes it anyway.
- A log file for troubleshooting. It records what Verve did, never the words you dictated.
You choose how long history is kept (Settings › Data and privacy › Keep history), and you can delete all of it at any time. Your seals stay either way.
What Verve looks at on your screen
Verve never takes screenshots. For dictation it never reads other windows. To put your words in the right place, it uses macOS Accessibility to read the text box you're typing in (the text around your cursor) and the name of the app and window. It uses them on your Mac to space and capitalize your words, to check that the paste worked, and, if "Notice your corrections" is on, to read the box once 10 seconds later and keep the words you fixed. None of this leaves your Mac, except the app's name, the kind of writing it suggests and whether your words start a new sentence, which help the AI choose a tone (an email reads differently from a chat). Verve also briefly saves and restores your clipboard when it pastes.
Command Mode is different, because you ask it to work on text. When you hold the Command Mode keys, Verve reads the text you selected and sends it, with your spoken instruction, to OpenAI to be rewritten. With nothing selected, Verve sends your instruction to write new text at your cursor, and nothing of what's already in the box. If your request is about what's on your screen ("answer this", "summarize this page") and nothing is selected, Verve reads the visible text of the window you're in through Accessibility, up to about 6,000 words, never password fields, and sends it with your instruction, marked as text to work on, not instructions to follow. It never reads other windows. Either way, your dictionary words and, unless Context awareness is off, the app's name go with it, as they do for polishing. Where an app doesn't share the selection through Accessibility, Verve copies it with ⌘C and then puts your clipboard back. If you use a clipboard manager, it may keep that copy, as it would any copy you make. Command Mode never reads password fields.
You can turn this off in Settings › Data and privacy › Context awareness. Verve then doesn't read what's in the text box or the window's title, and doesn't tell the AI which app you're in, for dictation or for Command Mode. It still checks what kind of element has the focus, so it knows whether it can paste, and how many characters it holds, to tell whether the paste landed. Command Mode still reads the text you select, because that's the text it rewrites, but it no longer reads the window for requests about your screen. The trade-off: your words arrive like the start of a new sentence, without matching the text around them, and "Notice your corrections" stops too. Our Data controls page lists every setting and what's always on.
What is sent to give you the service
| What | When and why | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Your voice (audio) | Pro and trial: while you hold the dictation key, so it can be turned into text. If that fails, Verve keeps the recording on your Mac and sends it to OpenAI again, retrying for up to a day. Free: never; it's transcribed on your Mac by Apple's on-device model. | OpenAI (speech to text) |
| The text you dictated, your dictionary words and snippet phrases, and the app's name (unless Context awareness is off) | To polish your words: remove fillers, apply changes of mind, punctuate, and spell your names and terms your way. Passes through our server, which doesn't store it. | Our server, then OpenAI |
| Your dictionary words and snippet phrases | Pro and trial: as hints to the speech model, so names and terms are heard your way. | OpenAI |
| Text you select for Command Mode (or, when you ask about your screen with nothing selected, the visible text of the window you're in), your spoken instruction (as text), your dictionary words and snippet phrases, and the app's name (unless Context awareness is off) | Every plan (Free has 10 commands a week): only when you hold the Command Mode keys, to rewrite the text you selected, or, with nothing selected, to write new text at your cursor from your instruction alone. Passes through our server, which doesn't store it for the rewrite. Unless you chose Share nothing, a copy with personal details replaced on your Mac is kept with the product data sample (see "What we collect to make Verve better"). | Our server, then OpenAI |
OpenAI doesn't use this data to train its models. It may keep it for up to 30 days to detect abuse, then deletes it.
What we store on our servers
- Your account: your email, your plan and its status, trial and renewal dates, and on a paid plan the IDs our payment provider gives your customer record and subscription. If you joined with an invite code and no email, a private placeholder address made from the code takes the email's place; we never send anything to it.
- Sign-in records: when you signed in, and from which IP address and browser or app, kept by Supabase, which runs our sign-in.
- A device identifier: a one-way code made from your Mac's hardware ID. It can't be turned back into the ID. We use it to give each Mac one free trial and to keep your sign-in working. If you delete your account, the code stays on our list of Macs that have had a trial, with nothing linking it to you.
- Daily usage counts: how many dictations and words you polished each day, and how much AI processing they used. These are numbers only, never your words. We use them to run the Free plan's weekly allowance, to keep costs sustainable, and to spot abuse.
- Invite codes you redeem, and, if we invited you, a short note saying who the invite was for.
- Invite a friend: your own invite code; for each friend who joins with it, when they joined and whether it earned you a week of Pro (never who they are); and if you joined with a friend's code, which code and when. To give each Mac one friend week, we keep the one-way device code of the Mac you joined on, and like the trial list it stays after you delete your account with nothing linking it to you. To limit how many people join from one network in a day, we keep a one-way code made from your IP address for two days.
- Free days of Pro you earned (a friend who started dictating, a report that helped): how many days, why, and when they were added to your plan.
- Feedback you send us: your message, the app version and your macOS version. If you report a dictation and tick "Include this dictation", we also receive what you said, what Verve typed, and the app's name. When a report helps, we note that, and the free day of Pro it gave you.
We also store the product data described in the next section.
Our servers are run by Supabase in the United States. Like any web service, they briefly record standard request details such as IP address and time in security logs.
What we collect to make Verve better
We want Verve to get your words right more often, so we learn from how it's used. You choose how much in onboarding and, any time, in Settings › Data and privacy › Share with Verve.
| Mode | What we receive |
|---|---|
| Help make Verve better (the default) | Usage, facts about your text, and text samples, as described below. |
| Anonymized | The same, but before anything leaves your Mac, Verve replaces personal details in the samples: names become placeholders like [Name 1], and emails, phone numbers, street addresses, card and ID numbers, and the personal parts of links are replaced too. It's done by software on your Mac, and it can miss something, such as an unusual name, so we call these samples pseudonymized, not anonymous. |
| Share nothing | None of this. Our server still counts what your plan needs, as described above (daily usage counts for the Free allowance and fair use). |
- Usage: which features you use and how often, how long each step took, errors (their kind, never their message), the steps of onboarding you reached, your plan, Verve's version, your macOS version and language setting, and a few of your settings (such as Keep history and Context awareness). Sent as one summary per Mac per day, plus each onboarding step as you reach it.
- Facts about your text: its length and language, the app it went into (its name and kind, such as email or chat, never the window's title), and what Verve changed: fillers removed, corrections, rewrites, whether you pressed Undo, and, when Notice your corrections is on, how many words you changed afterwards. For Command Mode: the kind of request and how it ended.
- Text samples: what you said and what Verve typed. For Command Mode: your instruction and Verve's result, including its answers to your questions.
- What Command Mode read: when a request works on your screen, a selection, your clipboard or the draft in your text box, the text it read goes with its sample, cut to about 2,000 words (the part closest to what you asked about), with facts about it: how many words were read, from where, the kind of app, and whether the answer seems to use it. In both modes, Help make Verve better included, Verve replaces personal details in it on your Mac before it's sent, the same way the Anonymized mode does. This text often holds other people's words, such as an email or a chat thread on your screen. We keep it to understand in what situations and with what kind of text people use each Command Mode feature, and to fix it when it goes wrong.
Never collected, in any mode: anything typed in password fields (Verve never reads them), the window's title, and your clipboard unless a Command Mode request names it. Share nothing collects none of the above.
How we keep it. These records are tied to a random ID made on your Mac, not to your email or account. Your Mac sends them over an encrypted connection in batches, with a size limit for each sample and each day. Only our own service can read them; the app can't, and neither can anyone signed in. When you're signed in, we note which of these IDs sent data while you were, only so we can delete it with your account. We use samples to test and improve Verve, including the AI that polishes your words. We never sell them or share them with anyone to train their AI.
How long. Text samples, with what Command Mode read, are deleted after 12 months, usage summaries and onboarding steps after 24 months. Delete account deletes all of it that's linked to you, and the data your Mac sent before you signed in. Choosing Share nothing stops new data at once and deletes what's still waiting on your Mac; to delete what we already received, delete your account or write to us.
Payments
Paid plans are sold by Polar, which acts as the merchant of record and handles your card, billing address and taxes. We never see your card details. We share your account's ID, email, chosen plan and device identifier with Polar so it can bill you and apply the one-trial-per-Mac rule. Polar sends us your subscription's status and dates. You manage your subscription, card and invoices on Polar's page, from Settings › Plan and billing › Manage subscription. When you delete your account, we ask Polar to cancel your subscription and anonymize your customer data, except what it must keep by law, such as tax records. Polar's own privacy policy applies to the data it collects.
Signing in and updates
When you sign in, we email you a sign-in link. Verve checks in with our server about once an hour to keep you signed in and to confirm your plan. Every 6 hours it also checks a public file to see if there's a new version; that request carries only the app's version, like any web request.
Crash reports
When Verve crashes or hits an error, it sends a report to Sentry so we can fix it: the stack trace, Verve's version and build, your macOS version and Mac model, and the last error lines of Verve's log with personal details removed. A report never contains what you dictated or wrote, your clipboard, what's on your screen, your email, your name, your Mac's name or your IP address.
What we don't do
- We don't use advertising or tracking tools, we don't follow you across other apps or websites, and we don't build profiles of you for marketing. The usage we collect stays with us, to make Verve better.
- We don't sell or rent your personal data, text samples included.
- We never keep password fields. What Command Mode reads on your screen, in a selection or in your clipboard is kept only with personal details replaced on your Mac, for 12 months, and never with Share nothing.
Our legal bases (GDPR)
- To provide Verve to you (your contract with us): your account, transcription, polishing, Command Mode, your plan and payments.
- Our legitimate interests: keeping Verve secure and working (crash reports), preventing abuse such as repeated free trials, keeping the service affordable with usage counts, fixing problems you report, and making Verve better with usage and text samples. You can object to the last one any time with Share nothing, or choose Anonymized.
- Your consent: including a dictation with your feedback. You can withdraw consent anytime.
- Legal obligations: keeping records required by law, such as tax records, which Polar keeps as merchant of record.
Who we share data with
Only the service providers above, each under a contract that limits them to processing your data on our behalf or for the purposes described: Supabase (hosting, database, sign-in), OpenAI (speech to text, polishing and Command Mode), Polar (payments), Sentry (crash reports) and our email provider for sign-in emails. We may also disclose data if the law requires it.
International transfers
Our providers process data in the United States. Where data leaves the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent safeguard, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified.
How long we keep data
- Account data, sign-in records and daily usage counts: while your account exists. Delete your account in Settings › Account and we delete them right away. If you write to us instead, we do it within 30 days.
- Product data (see "What we collect to make Verve better"): text samples 12 months (what Command Mode read included), usage summaries and onboarding steps 24 months, and deleted with your account.
- Feedback: until we've dealt with it, and in any case deleted when you ask or when you delete your account.
- Data on your Mac: as long as you choose, under your Keep history setting. Uninstalling Verve and deleting its folder removes it. Seals aren't part of history: they stay in Verve's settings until those are deleted too. There's no button for that in the app; quit Verve and run "defaults delete com.sagh.verve" in Terminal, which also clears your dictionary, snippets and settings.
Your rights
You can download everything Verve keeps about you, from your Mac and from our server, at any time in Settings › Data and privacy › Download your data. It's ready immediately, as one folder of readable files, and includes the product data your Mac sent while you were signed in. You can delete your account yourself at any time in Settings › Account › Delete account. You can also ask us to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to withdraw consent. Email hello@vervewrites.com and we'll answer within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. In the European Union, that's the supervisory authority of the country where you live or work.
Security
Everything Verve sends is encrypted in transit. Your Mac never holds our providers' permanent keys: it gets temporary keys that expire within an hour. Your sign-in is kept in your Mac's Keychain. We collect as little as we can, so there's less to protect.
Children
Verve isn't meant for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their data.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. The date at the top shows the latest version.