LectureSync Privacy Policy

Data the developer collects

None. LectureSync has no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, no telemetry, and no developer-operated backend. There are no accounts to create, and we do not receive your recordings, transcripts, notes, settings, or API keys. (This refers to the apps themselves. The marketing website uses basic analytics, described under This website below.)

Where your data is stored

All of the following are stored on your device, and are never sent to the developer:

• Recordings. On the Mac, from the microphone and, if you enable it, from system audio. On iPhone and iPad, from the microphone. Saved in the app's own storage or a folder you choose.
• Transcripts, notes, and study cards. Stored in the app. On the Mac they are also written as Markdown files into the folder you select, such as an Obsidian vault.
• Your review history. Which cards you have seen and how you graded them, used to schedule when you see them next.
• App settings, in the app's local preferences.
• API keys for any transcription or notes service you configure, stored in the Keychain on your device. On iPhone and iPad the key is used only to make requests to the provider you chose.

Syncing between your own devices (iCloud)

If you are signed in to iCloud, LectureSync syncs your courses, lectures, transcripts, notes, study cards, review history, and, on demand, your lecture audio between your own devices, using Apple's CloudKit private database in your iCloud account.

• It is your iCloud storage and your data. Apple's iCloud terms and privacy policy govern it.
• Nothing is written to a public or shared CloudKit database, and nothing is shared with other users.
• The developer cannot read your private database and receives nothing from it.
• Sync is not required. If you are not signed in to iCloud, the app works and keeps everything on the one device.

Transcription

• On iPhone and iPad, transcription runs entirely on the device using Apple's on-device speech recognition. Your audio is not uploaded for transcription.
• On the Mac, transcription runs on your Mac by default, either with Apple's on-device speech recognition or with a local Whisper model. You may instead configure a remote transcription provider, in which case the section below applies.

Third-party services you choose to use

Writing notes and study cards can be done entirely on your Mac with an on-device model, in which case no text leaves your Mac. On iPhone and iPad, and on the Mac if you prefer it, this step uses a cloud service that you set up:

• What is sent. The transcript text of the lecture being processed, and on the Mac the lecture audio as well if you have configured a remote transcription provider. Nothing else. Your review history, your other lectures, and your API key are not sent as data to be stored.
• Who it is sent to. The provider you select and enter a key for, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, OpenRouter, an OpenAI-compatible endpoint of your choosing, or a model server running on your own machine. LectureSync does not pick a provider for you, has no business relationship with any of them, and is not a party to the request.
• On what terms. That provider's own privacy policy and terms govern what it does with the text, including whether it retains it or uses it for training. Some providers offer settings for that. Read the policy of the one you choose. This is the reason the app asks you to bring your own account rather than choosing for you.
• Your control. The app tells you which service is configured before you save a key, and no lecture is sent anywhere until you have set one up. Remove the connection and nothing further is sent. Lecture text you already sent is subject to that provider's retention, not ours, so contact them if you need it deleted.
• On-device model downloads. The first time you use an on-device model on the Mac, LectureSync downloads open-source model files from Hugging Face. This transfers no personal data; it only fetches publicly available files.

LectureSync does not transmit your data anywhere else, and never to the developer.

Permissions LectureSync requests

• Microphone, to record lecture audio for transcription. Requested the first time you record.
• Speech Recognition (iPhone and iPad), to transcribe your recordings into text on the device.
• Screen Recording (Mac only), and only if you use the system audio capture option, which records audio playing on your Mac. No video frames are recorded, stored, or sent.
• Folder access (Mac only). You select your notes folder, and macOS grants LectureSync access only to the folders you choose.
• Notifications are used for silent background sync between your devices. No marketing notifications are sent, because there is no server to send them.

Deleting your data

• Delete a lecture, course, or card in the app and it is removed from your devices and from your iCloud private database.
• Remove a configured service to delete its API key from the Keychain.
• Delete the app to remove its local data. To clear the synced copy as well, delete your content in the app first, or remove LectureSync's data from iCloud in your device's iCloud settings.

Your responsibility when recording

You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to record lectures, classes, or other people, and for complying with the recording-consent and copyright laws that apply to you. LectureSync is a tool; how you use it is up to you.

Notes are generated automatically

Notes and study cards are generated from your transcript and can contain mistakes. Check them against the lecture before relying on them.

Children's privacy

LectureSync is a general-purpose study tool, is not directed to children, and the developer collects no data from anyone, including children.

This website

Everything above describes the LectureSync apps. The marketing website at lecturesync.app is a separate, static site and uses Google Analytics to understand aggregate visitor traffic, for example page views, referring sites, and approximate (city-level) location derived from your IP address. As part of this, Google may set cookies and process limited technical data; Google acts as our analytics provider, and its handling is governed by Google's privacy policy.

This website analytics is entirely separate from the apps and never involves your lectures, recordings, transcripts, notes, or study cards. You can block it with most ad/tracker blockers, your browser's "do not track" or cookie controls, or Google's opt-out browser add-on.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at lecturesync.app/privacy with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about this policy: info@lecturesync.app.