Pipe Up privacy policy

Who we are

Pipe Up is made by FierceSpeed in New Zealand. The Privacy Act 2020 applies to it.

For anything in this policy, including a request to see, correct or delete your information, use the contact form. You can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

The short version

• Pipe Up listens only while you hold its key on Windows or a Mac, or on Android from when you tap its button until you finish or cancel.
• On Windows or a Mac you can run everything on the computer. Speech and cleanup then happen there, and nothing you say leaves it.
• With cloud models, your recording goes to a speech-to-text provider and your words go to a language model to be tidied.
• Through your team, those requests pass through FierceSpeed's relay, which keeps no recordings. It keeps your email address, your team membership, counts of what you used, and your dictionary and writing settings so they match on every device. It keeps the text of what you said only if you turn on Keep my history online.
• On Android, Pipe Up uses Android's accessibility service only to find the text box you're typing in, show its button there and type your words in. It skips password boxes. The only thing it keeps from what it reads is the app's name, beside your words in History.
• There are no advertisements, no analytics and no crash reports, and nothing is sold.

When Pipe Up listens

On Windows, Pipe Up records while you hold its dictation key (Ctrl+Win unless you changed it), or in hands-free mode until you stop it. A meeting is recorded only when you start it, accept Pipe Up's offer to record a call, or turn on automatic meeting recording. It stops when you stop it, or when the call ends. On a Mac it works the same way, and the dictation key is Control+Cmd unless you changed it.

If you turn on "Keep the microphone warm", the microphone stays open between dictations and Pipe Up holds the last third of a second in memory, so your first word isn't cut off. That moment is overwritten continuously and is used only when you press the key.

On Android, Pipe Up records after you tap its button and stops when you tap the tick, or after 8 minutes. While it records, the button opens into a bar that shows your voice level, and Android shows its own microphone indicator. The cross, or holding the bar, throws the recording away.

What stays on your PC

Pipe Up keeps its files in your Windows account, in the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\PipeUp:

• Your settings and your dictionary. When you're signed in to a team, your dictionary and writing settings are also kept in the team service, so they match on your other devices.
• History: the text of your dictations and commands, the app and window they went into, and timings, so you can find or paste them again. It's on unless you turn it off. You can have entries deleted after a number of days, or clear it at any time. Recordings of dictations aren't kept. It stays on your PC unless you turn on Keep my history online.
• Meetings you record: the transcript and the notes. The meeting's audio is kept only if you turn that on. The transcript and notes stay on your PC unless you turn on Keep my history online.
• The speech and cleanup models you downloaded, and log files for fixing problems, which can include dictated text.

API keys you enter, your team sign-in and private calendar links are kept in Windows Credential Manager, not in those files.

What stays on your Mac

Pipe Up for Mac works like the Windows app. It keeps the same things, in your Mac account, in the folder ~/Library/Application Support/PipeUp: your settings and dictionary, your history, meetings you record, the models you downloaded and log files.

API keys you enter, your team sign-in and private calendar links are kept in the macOS Keychain, not in those files.

When you use cloud models, your recordings go only to the speech provider you or your team picked, and your words only to the text provider. If you run everything on the Mac, nothing you say leaves it.

Pipe Up asks macOS for Accessibility and Input Monitoring so it can notice its hotkeys and paste your text. It doesn't record or keep anything else you type.

What stays on your phone

• Your settings, your words list, and your team's name and default models. When you're signed in, your words list is also kept in the team service, so it matches on your other devices.
• Your team sign-in, encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore.
• History: the text of your dictations and the name of the app they went into, so you can find or copy them again. It's on unless you turn it off. You can delete single entries or clear it at any time.

Recordings are held in memory only until they're sent, and then discarded. Pipe Up on Android saves no audio. History stays on your phone unless you turn on Keep my history online. Android's cloud backup is turned off for this app.

The Pipe Up button on Android

Pipe Up's button works through Android's accessibility service. You turn it on yourself in Android's settings, after Pipe Up explains what it does. Pipe Up uses it to:

• notice when a text box is selected, and skip it if it's a password box;
• read where that box is on the screen, its text and the cursor position, to place the button and put your words in at the cursor;
• type your words into the box.

It reads nothing else on the screen. Of what it reads, it keeps only the name of the app you're typing in, beside your words in History, unless you've turned History off. That name is also the only thing it reads that's sent anywhere: it goes with the request to tidy your words, so chat apps get a more casual style, and with your history if you turn on Keep my history online.

Pipe Up isn't an accessibility tool for people with disabilities. It uses this service because that's how Android lets an app type into other apps. You can turn it off at any time in Android's accessibility settings.

Pipe Up on iPhone

The iPhone app is in development. It will work like the Android app: it sends your recording through the team service to the speech provider your team chose, and the team service keeps no recordings. Your history stays on your phone unless you turn on Keep my history online. This policy will be updated before the iPhone app is available.

What leaves your device, and when

Nothing you say leaves your device unless you use a cloud model or turn on Keep my history online. Pipe Up on Android always uses cloud models, because a phone can't run them. On Windows and Mac you choose: on the computer, or in the cloud.

When you use a cloud model:

• Speech to text. Your recording, your words list (as spelling hints) and the language go to the speech provider: Groq, OpenAI or xAI, or another server your team set up.
• Tidying. The words you said, the name of the app you're typing in, your words list and any instructions you wrote go to a language model: Claude at Anthropic, or Groq, OpenAI or xAI. On Windows and Mac, you can stop the app's name being sent.
• Command mode, Quick chat and meeting notes, on Windows and Mac. Your instruction and any text you selected, or the meeting's transcript.

Through your team, requests go through FierceSpeed's relay and reach the provider under your team's account, without your name or email address. With your own keys on Windows or a Mac, they go straight from your computer to the provider, under your own account.

Each provider handles what it receives under its own terms, and its retention applies. FierceSpeed can't see what a provider does with it and doesn't control it.

The team service

If your team uses Pipe Up together, or you create an account on the website, you sign in to FierceSpeed's team service: the team website, where you sign in, manage your dictionary and settings, and admins run the team, and the relay that passes requests to the providers.

The team service keeps:

• your email address and, if you sign in with Google, the name and account identifier Google gives it;
• your team, your role, who invited you and when, and when Pipe Up last connected;
• for each day and each month, how many requests you made, how many seconds of audio, how much text the models read and wrote, and the estimated cost;
• your dictionary and your writing settings (style, extra instructions, language and chosen models), so they match on your computer, phone and the website;
• only if you turn on Keep my history online: a copy of your history (the text of your dictations and commands, what the speech model heard, the app's name, which device, and timings), your meeting notes and transcripts, and how many words you dictated each day.

It doesn't keep your recordings. Unless you turn on Keep my history online, it doesn't keep the text of what you said either: recordings and text pass through the relay's memory on the way to the provider and back. The online copy of your history leaves out window titles and any text you selected.

Your dictionary, settings, online history and meeting notes are encrypted with a key kept apart from the database, so a copy of the database alone doesn't reveal them. FierceSpeed holds that key, so this isn't a promise that FierceSpeed couldn't open them. The relay opens them only to answer your own signed-in requests.

Your team's admins can see each member's email address, role, when they last connected and their usage for the month. They can't see what anyone said, or anyone's dictionary, settings or online history.

When Pipe Up signs in through the team website, the website hands your sign-in to Pipe Up at your own device's address (127.0.0.1), so it doesn't pass through another server. Google, which runs the service for FierceSpeed (Firebase), keeps technical logs of requests, such as the time and IP address, to keep it secure and running.

Where information is processed

The relay and the team's records are in Sydney, Australia, on Google Cloud. Google's sign-in and website hosting also work from other countries. The speech and language providers are in the United States and may process requests elsewhere. Everything travels over encrypted connections.

What Pipe Up does not do

• No advertisements.
• No analytics, and no crash or diagnostic reports sent to FierceSpeed.
• No location, contacts, photos or files. On Android, Pipe Up asks only for the microphone and the internet; on a Mac, for the microphone, Accessibility and Input Monitoring.
• No sale or sharing of anything for advertising or marketing.
• FierceSpeed doesn't train AI models on what you say.

Removing your information

• On Android, clear your history, or single entries, on Pipe Up's History tab. Sign out removes your sign-in. Removing the app removes everything it kept.
• On Windows, clear your history, or single entries and meetings, in Pipe Up. Signing out removes your team sign-in, and keys and calendar links can be removed in settings. Uninstalling asks whether to delete your history, settings and downloaded models as well.
• On a Mac, clear your history, or single entries and meetings, in Pipe Up. Signing out removes your team sign-in. Remove keys and calendar links in Pipe Up's settings before you remove the app, or they stay in your Keychain. Removing the app leaves its folder: delete ~/Library/Application Support/PipeUp to remove your history, settings and models.
• Keep my history online, on the website or in any of the apps: turn it off and the online copy of your history, meeting notes and daily word counts is deleted. Anything you delete on a computer or phone is also deleted online. Removing something on the website deletes only the online copy.
• In the team service, an admin can remove you from the team, which ends your access on every device. Your member record and usage counts stay with the team's records while the team uses Pipe Up. To have your account, your dictionary and those records deleted, use the contact form.

Children

Pipe Up is a work tool. It isn't made for children and is not intended for anyone under 16.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

To reach FierceSpeed, use the contact form.