Some conversations shouldn't be sent to a transcription company. Quern writes down every word, tells the speakers apart and summarises the meeting on your iPhone. There's no upload, no account and no server of ours.
On this iPhone
Sent to a serverNothing
Keeping it on the iPhone takes the transcription company out. These three are still yours.
Tell everyone you're recording, and get their agreement where your rules or the law require it. Quern records openly, with a light and a timer on screen.
Quern's recordings are in your iPhone's iCloud or computer backups if those are on. Leave Quern out of iCloud Backup in your iPhone's iCloud settings, or turn on Advanced Data Protection so the backup is end-to-end encrypted. Left out, recordings are lost if the iPhone is.
Keep a passcode on it. Deleting a recording in Quern removes it from the iPhone; copies you export are wherever you sent them.
Each with the guidance from your own professional body, so you can check it for yourself.
Nothing is sent to a transcription company, so there's no processor to explain and nothing that has left that you can't get back.
BACP's 2026 Ethical Framework, which applies from 3 November 2026, includes new guidance on using AI and digital technology. With Quern, how the data is handled is short to explain: it's made and kept on your iPhone. Your client's informed consent to recording is still yours to get.
The Law Society and the Bar Council both advise against putting confidential information into AI tools you don't control. Quern's transcription and summaries run on the iPhone in your hand, so privileged material isn't handed to a vendor.
A recording is still a document: it can be disclosable, and clients should know you are making it. Check the transcript before relying on it.
Recorded openly, with an accurate record of who said what that you can share with everyone who was there. Nothing goes to a notetaker company or its servers.
Your employer's policy, a lawful basis and people's agreement still apply; the ICO's guidance on monitoring workers is the place to start.
A cloud transcription service holds a copy of every interview it transcribes; Quern holds nothing, because there's nothing of ours to hold it. It works in Airplane Mode, so it can be offline for the whole interview.
Quern records openly, with the recording light and timer on screen. It is not for covert recording.
Not for NHS patient consultations.
NHS England's guidance on ambient scribes asks for assurance Quern doesn't have (DTAC, DSPT and clinical safety documentation), and isn't meant for tools individuals choose outside their organisation's supervision. Research interviews only where your ethics approval covers recording them this way.
The privacy policy says exactly what's stored, and the comparison what it costs next to cloud notetakers.
Coming soon to the App Store