Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 13, 2026

What LiveBrain Is

LiveBrain is a macOS menu bar application for real-time meeting transcription and AI-powered question answering. It runs locally on your Mac. This policy explains what data LiveBrain collects, stores, and (optionally) transmits.

What Stays on Your Device

Everything by default. Specifically:

• Audio recordings — Mic and system audio are saved locally in ~/Library/Application Support/LiveBrain/recordings/. Never uploaded anywhere.
• Transcripts — Generated on-device using Apple's built-in speech recognition. Stored in a local database on your Mac.
• Questions and answers — Your questions and AI responses are stored locally.
• Attached files — When you attach folders, text is processed locally using an on-device model. These never leave your Mac.
• API keys — Your OpenAI API key is stored in macOS Keychain, not in any file or database.
• AI model files — The embedding model is downloaded once and stored locally.

Third-Party Services

LiveBrain sends your questions and conversation context to OpenAI's API using your API key. This is a direct relationship between you and OpenAI — LiveBrain has no access to your API key server-side and does not proxy these requests. Review OpenAI's privacy policy for how they handle API data.

Optional Feedback Program

LiveBrain includes an optional feedback program to help improve the product.

It's opt-in

You are never enrolled automatically. After a recording session, you may be asked to rate it. If you choose to participate, the following data is collected:

What we collect

• Session metadata (duration, template type, number of questions asked)
• Anonymized transcript text
• Anonymized questions and AI responses

What we never collect

• Audio recordings
• Files or documents you've attached
• Your API key
• Your name, email, or any account information (LiveBrain has no accounts)

How We Anonymize Data

Before any feedback data leaves your device, it goes through an on-device anonymization process:

• An AI model scans the text for personally identifiable information (PII): names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, social security numbers, financial figures, and other identifying details
• Each piece of PII is replaced with a realistic but synthetic substitute (e.g., a real name becomes a different fake name)
• The replacement mapping exists only in memory during processing and is not stored or transmitted
• The anonymized text is what gets sent — there is no way to reverse the anonymization

What the Server Receives

If you opt in to feedback, our server receives:

• Anonymized session data as described above
• No audio, no files, no API keys, no identifying information
• Data is stored in a SQLite database on our server

Data Retention

Feedback data is retained for 12 months, then permanently deleted.

Your Rights

• Opt out anytime — Disable feedback participation in Settings. Takes effect immediately.
• Request deletion — Email dougthedevshow@gmail.com to request deletion of any feedback data.
• Data portability — Your local data is yours. The database is a standard SQLite file you can export or delete at any time.

Children's Privacy

LiveBrain is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. Changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

Contact

For questions about this privacy policy: dougthedevshow@gmail.com