Vendor review

Last updated: 1 August 2026

This page exists to be forwarded. If someone has asked you to get a dictation tool approved, this is the page to send them, and it should answer the whole question without a call.

There are two separate claims below. They are kept apart on purpose, because different people check them. The first is about what the software does. The second is about what paperwork it creates. The second one is usually the one that decides whether a tool gets approved, and it is the one almost no tool in this category can make.

Claim 1: dictation never leaves the device

This is a claim about behaviour.

Phantom Voice transcribes speech with a whisper.cpp model running locally on the Mac's own GPU. Dictation audio and the resulting transcript are never transmitted. There is no server of ours that receives dictated content, because no such server exists.

The optional cleanup pass, which tidies punctuation, also runs against a local model. It is off by default and it never sends text to a hosted AI service.

You do not have to take this on trust. It is an architectural property, so it is testable: block the app at the firewall (Little Snitch, LuLu, or an egress rule), dictate, and confirm the transcript still appears. Once the speech model has been downloaded, dictation works with networking off entirely.

Claim 2: there is no sub-processor to add to your register

This is a claim about paperwork, and it follows from the first one rather than repeating it.

Because dictated content is never sent anywhere, no third party processes it. For the dictation content itself, that means:

• Nothing to add to your sub-processor register. There is no processor to name.
• Nothing to add to your privacy notice about where dictated content goes, because it does not go anywhere.
• No data processing agreement covering dictation content, as we never act as a processor for it.
• No international transfer assessment for dictation content. Nothing crosses a border because nothing leaves the device.
• No annual re-review of a processor that does not exist. This is the cost that recurs forever, and it is the one that never begins.

Cheap cloud tools often get blocked in organisations while far more expensive ones are approved. It is rarely the price. It is that somebody has to own the ongoing review, and nobody wants to own one for a ten dollar utility. Here there is nothing to own.

What does involve a third party

A review page that overclaims is worse than no review page, so here is the complete list. None of these ever receive dictation audio or transcripts.

• Paddle - payments, acting as Merchant of Record. Involved only at the moment of purchase, and only with billing details.
• Resend - delivers the licence email, and the confirmation emails for the review and question forms on this site.
• Vercel - hosts this website. Website analytics are cookieless and aggregate, set no cookie, and build no profile. Add ?no-analytics=1 to any page address to opt this browser out.
• Cloudflare Turnstile - anti-spam on this site's review and question forms only. Not part of the app.
• YouTube - the demo video embedded on the product page. The player loads with that page, so Google sees the visit. It is a standard YouTube embed and carries no dictation content. Not part of the app, and not present on this page.
• Model download and update check - the app fetches the speech model you choose, and checks for new versions. Neither request carries your audio or your transcript.

The full detail is in the privacy policy.

Deployment facts

• macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon.
• Distributed as a signed and notarised Developer ID application. Not sandboxed by the App Store, because system-wide text insertion requires Accessibility.
• Requests three macOS permissions on first run: Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring. Each is granted by the user through System Settings and can be revoked there.
• No account, no login, no subscription. A licence is a signed token delivered by email and verified on the device.
• One purchase covers every Mac the buyer personally uses.

Questions

If your review needs something this page does not answer, email leftinverse@gmail.com and we will answer in writing so you can attach it to the file.