Privacy

What stays on your iPhone

Audio you record or import, transcripts, speaker names, summaries, chapters, titles, folders and tags are stored in Quern's own storage on your iPhone. Transcription uses Apple's on-device speech recognition. Speaker labels use models that come with the app and run on the device. Summaries use Apple Intelligence's on-device model; Quern doesn't use Apple's cloud (Private Cloud Compute) for them.

To find moments across your recordings, Quern keeps a search index of their words on your iPhone. It's left out of iCloud and computer backups, and it's rebuilt from your recordings whenever they change.

Recognising voices

When you name a speaker, Quern asks whether to recognise that person's voice in future recordings. Only if you say yes does it keep a voiceprint: a short list of numbers describing how that voice sounds, which Quern compares with the speakers of later recordings to suggest who they are. You confirm each suggestion before the name is used. A voiceprint can identify a person, so it's treated with extra care: it's kept only on your iPhone, in a file that is locked when your iPhone is locked and left out of iCloud and computer backups, and it's never sent anywhere. You can see every voice Quern recognises, and forget any or all of them, in About Quern › Recognised voices. Forgetting a voice deletes its voiceprint; names already in recordings stay as they are. If you answer Not now, Quern notes that name with its settings on your iPhone, so it doesn't ask about it again. That's a name, not a voiceprint, and Forget all voices clears it too. Please ask people before you have Quern learn their voice. If you mark one of the voices as yours ("This is me"), Quern notes which one in its settings, so it can say "You".

When you correct a name, Quern remembers the spelling you chose, in its settings on your iPhone, and suggests it the next time it hears the name the old way. You can see and forget these in About Quern › Remembered spellings.

What we collect

Nothing. The Quern app has no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no account. We don't know who uses Quern or how. This website is different: see This website.

When Quern uses the internet

Quern works offline once it's set up. It connects to the internet only to:

• Download speech recognition for your language, from Apple, the first time it's needed. iOS handles this download.
• Start the free trial, unlock Quern, or restore a purchase, through the App Store. Apple handles payments; we never see your payment details. Apple's privacy policy.

Backups and sharing

Your recordings are part of your iPhone's own data, so they are included in your iCloud or computer backups if you have backups turned on. Those backups are Apple's service and your choice; Quern doesn't read or send them.

If you export or share a recording (Markdown, PDF, text or subtitles), it goes where you send it. From there, that app or service's own privacy terms apply.

Quern adds your recordings' titles and summaries to Spotlight, so you can search them on your iPhone. That index stays on your device. You can turn it off in Settings › Siri › Quern.

Crash reports

If you've chosen in Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements to share analytics with app developers, Apple may send us anonymous crash reports. They contain technical details about the crash, never your recordings. You can turn this off at any time.

Deleting your data

Delete a recording in Quern and it's gone from your iPhone. Deleting Quern deletes everything it stored. Because we hold nothing, there is nothing for us to delete, and no data to request from us.

Recording other people

Recording laws vary from place to place, and some require everyone's agreement. Let people know you're recording.

Children

Quern isn't directed at children and collects no data from anyone.

This website

quern.app asks whether Google Analytics may count visits, through Google Tag Manager. Only if you choose Allow does anything from Google load: it then sets cookies and tells Google which pages you visited, roughly where from, and on what kind of device, so we can see which pages are read. Choose No thanks and nothing from Google loads and no cookie is set. Your choice is kept in your browser, and you can change it at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page. Google's privacy policy.

None of this touches the app: Quern on your iPhone never sends anything to Google or to us.

The launch email

If you give your email address on quern.app to hear when Quern launches, it goes to Mailchimp, which keeps the list and sends the email; Mailchimp asks you to confirm first. It's used for that and nothing else, and every email has a link to unsubscribe. This is the website, not the app: Quern itself never asks for your email.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published here with a new date. If Quern ever needed to collect anything, this page would say so first, and so would the app.

Contact

Quern is made by Martin McDermid, an independent developer in the United Kingdom. Questions about privacy: [email protected].