Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Shosin Labs ("we", "us") handles information in connection with our website and the Murmur app for iOS and Android.

Your recordings and transcripts stay on your device

Murmur is built so that the sensitive material — what you actually said — never reaches us.

• Recording. The microphone is used only while you are actively recording.
• Transcription. By default, speech is converted to text by a speech-recognition model running locally on your device, and the audio is not sent to any server. On-device transcription is free, unlimited and needs no account. Cloud transcription is a separate choice you make for one recording at a time — see Cloud transcription.
• Speaker identification. Telling speakers apart, and the speaker data Murmur derives in order to recognize the same person across recordings, is computed and stored locally on your device.
• Translation. Transcript translation runs on-device.
• Storage. Recordings, transcripts, speaker data and your notes are stored in the app's private storage on your device.

Unless you explicitly choose cloud transcription for a recording, we do not receive, store, or have any ability to access your recordings or transcripts.

Cloud transcription (optional)

Murmur can also transcribe a recording with a larger model that runs on our servers. This is never automatic: you choose it for one recording at a time, from the model picker shown when you start a transcription, and it requires signing in with your Google account. On-device transcription remains free, unlimited and available without an account.

When you choose cloud transcription for a recording, the following happens to that recording only:

• What is sent. The recording's audio is uploaded to our servers and passed to our speech-recognition provider, which returns the transcript.
• What we keep. We retain that audio, the transcript, and a technical record of the request (such as the model used, the audio's length, and whether it succeeded) for up to 365 days. We keep it for two reasons only: to investigate problems with a transcription, and to check the usage counted against your monthly allowance.
• When it is deleted. After 365 days it is deleted automatically. That deletion is enforced by the storage system itself, not by a manual process.
• How it is protected. It is stored encrypted, is not publicly accessible, and the app is never given a link to it. Only our operations staff can read it.
• Deleting it sooner. Deleting your account in the app erases all of this material for your account immediately — see Your choices.

Recordings you do not run through cloud transcription are never uploaded, and neither are their transcripts, your notes, or your speaker data.

What we do collect

Murmur includes Google Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics, which collect a limited amount of anonymous, technical information so we can understand how the app is used and fix crashes.

This data never includes your audio, your transcripts, your notes, your speaker names, or your search terms.

In the current version of Murmur there is no in-app switch to turn this collection off. You can stop it entirely by uninstalling the app.

Network connections Murmur makes

• Speech model download. On first setup (and if you later choose a different model), Murmur downloads a speech-recognition model from our content delivery network. This request carries no personal data — it is a plain file download.
• Analytics and crash reporting. The anonymous data described above is sent to Google Firebase.
• Signing in. If you sign in, we exchange your Google identity token for a session token of our own and store an account record identified by an opaque user id. This is what a cloud-transcription allowance is attached to.
• Cloud transcription. Only for a recording you explicitly choose to transcribe in the cloud, as described above.

Apart from these, Murmur does not need a network connection. Once a model is installed, recording and on-device transcription work fully offline.

Backup and sync

• Android. Murmur's data participates in Android's standard Auto Backup, which copies app data to your own Google Drive account. That backup belongs to you; we have no access to it. You can turn it off in your device's system settings.
• iOS. Murmur can optionally sync your recordings and transcripts through your own private iCloud account. The data stays within your iCloud, which we cannot access. It can be turned off in the app's settings.

Advertising and tracking

Murmur contains no advertising, no advertising SDKs, and no cross-app or cross-site tracking. We do not use your data for targeted advertising, and we do not sell or rent your personal information.

Sharing your information

We do not share your personal information with third parties, except that the anonymous analytics and crash data described above is processed on our behalf by Google as our service provider. See Firebase's privacy information. We may disclose information if we are legally required to do so.

Children

Murmur is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your choices and deleting your data

• You can delete any individual recording, transcript, or speaker from within the app at any time.
• Uninstalling Murmur removes its recordings, transcripts and other data from your device.
• Microphone access can be revoked at any time in your device's system settings; Murmur cannot record without it.
• If you signed in, you can delete your account from within the app. That removes your profile, and permanently erases every cloud-transcription recording, transcript and request record we hold for you.
• If you would like us to delete the anonymous analytics data associated with your app installation, contact us at the address below and we will do so.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. If a future version of Murmur introduces a feature that sends any content off your device, we will update this policy and the app's store privacy disclosures before that feature becomes available to you.

Contact

Questions about this policy or about privacy in Murmur: support@shosin-labs.com