Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Alder (“we”, “our”, or “us”) respects your privacy. Our core philosophy is simple: what happens on your Mac, stays on your Mac. This Privacy Policy explains how our macOS application and website handle your data.

2. What stays on your Mac

Alder processes dictation, cleanup, personalization, translation, and delivery on your Mac. Your microphone audio, transcript text, dictation history, personal dictionary, snippets, and app context are not sent to us for recognition or language processing.

• Alder does not upload your voice recordings for recognition.
• Alder does not send your transcript text to a cloud language model.
• Alder does not request access to Contacts or your address book, and it does not read or upload contact records. Names in the personal dictionary are added by you and remain on your Mac.
• Recovery audio may be stored locally so interrupted recordings can be recovered or reprocessed. You control its retention in Alder’s settings.
• Free-plan usage is counted on your device. Alder does not receive your dictated words or a transcript of what you said.

3. Account, purchases, and paid access

Alder does not receive or store your full payment-card details.

• Direct purchases: Lemon Squeezy, our merchant of record, processes checkout, tax, receipts, and refunds. We may receive the purchaser email, order and subscription identifiers, plan and entitlement status, and related purchase metadata needed to provide account access, activate or restore Unlimited, support a purchase, or issue a refund. Lemon Squeezy’s handling of checkout data is governed by its privacy policy.
• App Store purchases, if offered: Apple processes payment and account information. Alder receives only the transaction and entitlement information needed to verify or restore the purchase, not your card details.

When you sign in, the DZG Account service processes your verified email address and authentication information. Alder stores sign-in tokens, the verified email, and a random device identifier in this Mac’s Keychain. Entitlement checks may send that device identifier, device name, app version and release date, plus standard network metadata such as IP address and request time. Existing customers who use a legacy activation key may continue to send the key and activation status for validation. These requests do not include microphone audio, transcript text, vocabulary, snippets, or dictation history.

4. Website analytics

Our website uses first-party, session-scoped analytics to understand aggregate traffic and improve downloads. These records can include page interactions, coarse location, browser details and referrer or campaign information. We do not retain raw IP addresses or search-query text in these reports. Payment reports can include coarse country, city and region from the payment provider’s customer records. Analytics never contain your Alder microphone audio or transcript text.

The website also takes part in DZG Studio’s public Planet map. Unless your browser sends Do Not Track, an open tab sends a short-lived random tab identifier, the product name, and an approximate city or region. The map can show that someone in that area is exploring Alder or started a download. It never receives a name, email address, order amount, dictation content, or stable user identifier. Live visits expire after about 90 seconds without a heartbeat. Older activity is kept only as a coarse product and location summary for up to 30 days.

Optional website analytics

If you choose Allow in the website’s optional analytics notice, we use a first-party cookie and Google Analytics 4 identifiers to connect your original visit source, campaign, published landing page, download starts and verified Alder purchases. Google receives website events and, where a consented browser can be matched, purchase and full-refund events. Google processes standard network metadata such as IP addresses. We do not send Google your email, license key, dictation content or payment details.

Anonymous app usage statistics are controlled by the sharing checkbox in Alder. They are separate from website visits and purchase attribution. We do not connect the app’s anonymous install identifier to a browser or order, and we do not use IP addresses or device fingerprinting to infer that connection. A download alone does not identify an installation.

The first-party browser cookie lasts up to 90 days from a consented visit. Detailed browser journey and order-attribution records are retained for 90 days. Changing browser or device, clearing cookies, or declining analytics can leave the original source unknown. Verified commerce records held by our payment provider remain subject to its policies and applicable recordkeeping obligations.

Use Privacy choices → Stop sharing on the website to stop future linked collection for that browser. Uncheck Share my usage statistics in Alder to stop optional app usage statistics. Website withdrawal needs an internet connection to reach the service; collection is disabled in the current browser immediately. Previously collected reports are not retroactively deleted by switching off sharing. Contact dev@dzgapp.com for a data request. You can download, use and buy Alder without optional analytics.

5. Optional app diagnostics and support reports

• Optional anonymous diagnostics: If you opt in, Alder may send a random installation identifier, app version and build channel, macOS version, Mac hardware model, coarse country, event timing and status, permission results, model-download or configuration stages, and non-content error domains or codes. The edge service hashes the random installation identifier before storage. Sharing is unchecked by default and can be enabled on the final setup screen or in About Alder. First-run events remain in memory until that choice and are discarded without being sent if you decline. You can turn sharing off at any time.
• Content is excluded: Anonymous diagnostics never include microphone audio, transcript text, dictation history, personal dictionary entries, snippets, filenames, app names, prompts, document content, account credentials, legacy license keys, or purchase data.
• User-initiated support reports: If you choose Report a Problem and press Send Report, we receive the problem description you typed, your optional reply email, a diagnostic zip containing app logs, macOS/app/hardware details, permission state, speech-engine health, and troubleshooting metadata such as audio device names. Support reports do not include microphone audio, saved transcript text, dictation history, vocabulary, custom words, account credentials, or legacy license keys unless you type that information into the description yourself. Diagnostic report metadata is retained for up to 90 days.
• Website messages: If you use a DZG Studio product contact form, we receive the name, reply email, message, product name, and any file you deliberately attach. We use that information only to review and answer your request. Website messages are retained for up to one year unless a longer period is needed to resolve the request or meet a legal obligation.
• Optional product updates: If you subscribe on a DZG Studio product website, we retain your email address, the product you selected, language, signup source, and consent time so we can send relevant product updates. This list is separate from support and purchase records. You can ask us to remove the address at any time.

6. Retention, sharing, and your choices

Local content remains under your control and can be deleted in Alder or by removing the app and its local data. Account, purchase, entitlement, subscription, and authorized-device records are retained as needed to provide paid access, prevent fraud, issue refunds, and meet tax or legal obligations. Anonymous app diagnostics and user-initiated diagnostic report metadata are retained for up to 90 days. Website messages are retained for up to one year, and product-update signups remain until you ask us to delete them.

• We do not sell or rent your personal information.
• We share information only with service providers that help operate Alder, process purchases, host the website, deliver downloads, analyze website traffic, or provide support; or when required by law or necessary to protect users and the service.
• You may request access, correction, or deletion of personal information we control by emailing dev@dzgapp.com. Some purchase records may need to be retained for legal, tax, fraud-prevention, or contractual reasons.

7. Children, changes, and contact

Alder is not directed to children under 13. We may update this policy as Alder or applicable law changes; the date above identifies the current version. Questions or privacy requests can be sent to dev@dzgapp.com.