Symon
Legal

Privacy policy.

What Symon collects, where it goes, and how long it stays there. Short version: your voice and transcripts never leave your Mac unless you use a cloud feature explicitly.

Effective date: 2026-04-19

Who this applies to

This policy applies to anyone who downloads, installs, or uses the Symon macOS desktop application ("Symon", "the app", "the Service"). It is published by the individual developer operating under the name Symon at symonsays.run. Contact: support@symonsays.run.

What Symon stores on your Mac

Nearly everything Symon knows about you lives on your own machine, in ~/Library/Application Support/symon/. Specifically:

  • Microphone audio — captured only while you hold the Fn key. Streamed to Apple's SFSpeechRecognizer servers for real-time speech-to-text. Audio is not stored locally and is not sent to Symon's servers or to Google.
  • Text transcripts — the final text result of each dictation session is written to a local SQLite database (transcripts.db). This database is owned by you and stays on your Mac.
  • Screenshots — captured when you trigger "Read screen" (Fn+R) or "AI Q&A" (Cmd+Shift+C). Screenshots are sent to Google Gemini Vision via Symon's proxy to extract text or describe what is on screen. They are not stored server-side; only the resulting text response is returned to the app.
  • Memories and action items — structured notes derived from your dictation sessions, stored in the same local SQLite database.
  • App preferences — your settings (dictionary words, custom instructions, hotkey configuration, voice speed) stored as a local JSON file at preferences.json. Not synced anywhere.

What Symon stores on its servers

Symon operates a backend API on Railway for account and billing management. That server stores only:

  • Your email address (used for account identification and subscription receipts)
  • Your Stripe customer ID and subscription state (active, cancelled, past due)
  • Hashed API tokens (used to authenticate requests from the app — the plaintext is never stored)
  • Per-request usage events: the name of the API endpoint called (e.g., "polish", "screen-read"), approximate token count, cost in cents, and timestamp. No transcript text. No screenshots. No audio.

Usage events are retained for 13 months for billing reconciliation, then deleted.

Third-party processors

Symon routes certain operations through external services. Each processor receives only what it needs for its specific function:

  • Apple SFSpeechRecognizer — receives audio for speech-to-text. Governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.
  • Google Gemini — receives transcript text (for polish) and screenshots (for screen reading and Q&A), routed through Symon's proxy. Governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
  • Google Cloud Text-to-Speech — receives the text to be read aloud, routed through Symon's proxy. Returns audio. Governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
  • Stripe — handles payment processing and subscription billing. Symon never sees raw card numbers. Governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy.

Cookies, analytics, and trackers

The Symon macOS app does not use cookies, session trackers, or third-party analytics SDKs. The marketing website (symonsays.run) does not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or any other behavioral tracking service as of this writing. If that changes, this page will be updated before the change takes effect.

Data retention

Your local SQLite database persists until you delete it manually. You can find it at ~/Library/Application Support/symon/transcripts.db. Server-side usage events are deleted after 13 months. Account records (email, Stripe IDs, token hashes) are deleted within 30 days of a verified account deletion request.

Your rights and controls

  • Access and export — your local database is a standard SQLite file. You can open it with any SQLite browser to read or export your data at any time.
  • Deletion — delete the app's Application Support folder to erase all local data. To delete your server-side account data, email support@symonsays.run with the subject "Account deletion request." We will confirm and complete the deletion within 30 days.
  • Subscription data — Stripe manages payment records per their own retention policies. You can manage your subscription and payment method through the Stripe customer portal or from inside the Symon app.

Children

Symon is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe a minor has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we make a material change to how we collect or use data, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and note the change in the Symon changelog. Continued use of the app after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Contact

Questions about this policy: support@symonsays.run.