4Dictate Privacy Policy

This policy covers the 4Dictate app only. It explains what 4Dictate sends, where, and what it keeps on your device. Mr-Bizzy's other apps have their own policies; 4Zones' is at mr-biz.uk/4zones/privacy.

1. When 4Dictate sends anything

Only after you start something: a dictation (with your shortcut key or the floating button), a spoken command, a retry, a voice message you share to 4Dictate, or a press of the Check or Rewrite key. 4Dictate never listens in the background and has no wake word. The microphone is used only while a recording you started is in progress, and Android shows a "Recording" notification the whole time. Everything is sent directly from your device to the service concerned; nothing passes through us.

2. What is sent, and where

Transcription — whenever you dictate

• What: the audio of what you just said. If you have entered words under "Names to spell correctly", that list goes with it as a spelling hint (to OpenAI, Groq and your own servers; not to Deepgram).
• Where: the transcription service you chose — Deepgram, OpenAI or Groq — with your API key, over an encrypted connection.
• Recordings too short or too quiet to contain speech are not sent.

Voice messages you share to 4Dictate

If you share a voice message to 4Dictate from another app (for example WhatsApp), so you can read it: the audio of that message goes to your transcription service, as above, and its text to your tidy-up service if your profile tidies up. A voice message can contain another person's voice; it goes only where your own dictations go. Its text is shown to you and kept in Transcriptions with the message, like your own recordings. It is never typed into an app and never treated as a command.

Your own speech servers — optional, off by default

If you add a speech server in Settings, recordings go to it first, and to the service above only if it cannot be reached. At the start of each recording 4Dictate checks the server is reachable; no audio is sent for that check. You run these servers; we do not operate one.

Tidy-up — optional, off by default

If you switch on "Tidy up my dictation" in a profile, the text of your dictation (not the audio) is sent with that profile's instructions to the AI service you picked — OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, DeepSeek, Cerebras or OpenRouter — with your API key. OpenRouter passes requests on to the company that makes the model you chose (for example OpenAI, Google or Anthropic), whose policy then also applies. If you set up your own tidy-up server, the text goes there first.

When 4Link apps are installed (see below) and you speak a command that is not one of your own commands, the same tidy-up service also receives the list of those apps' functions — their names and descriptions, not your data — so it can choose one, or none.

Grammar check — optional, off by default

If you enter a grammar server, pressing Check sends text to it: your selection in the app you are writing in or, if nothing is selected, the text in that box (up to 10,000 characters around your cursor). This can include text you typed yourself. If the profile's Check strictness is Standard or Strict, the same text then also goes to that profile's AI service for proofreading.

Rewrite — only when you press it

If you select text and press the edit pad's Rewrite key, the selected text is sent to your active profile's AI service (see Tidy-up above) with instructions to rewrite it clearly, using your API key, and the rewritten text replaces your selection. Only the selection is sent, and only when you press the key.

Other apps on your device (4Link)

If you use 4Zones (by the same developer), 4Dictate asks it on your device to carry out the action you spoke — for example switching a layout — and reads the list of names 4Zones offers. Nothing about this leaves your device.

4Link is the same idea for more apps. Apps by the same developer, and other apps you have approved in Settings → Connected apps, publish a list of things they can do (for example "save a note"). In command mode, when what you said is not one of your own commands, 4Dictate asks your profile's tidy-up service to pick one of those functions and fill in its details from your words — or to pick none. Then:

• Anything that adds, changes or deletes something is shown to you first — the app, the function and the details in plain words — with a Do it / Cancel choice. Nothing happens until you say Do it. The exception is an app for which you have switched on Add without asking or Change without asking in Connected apps: then what was done is shown to you in a notification instead. Deleting always asks.
• The details of that one action (for example the text of the note) are passed to that app, on your device. That is all the app receives, and the Connected apps screen shows, for each function, what it receives.
• An app that is not by the same developer receives nothing until you have approved it in Connected apps and allowed 4Dictate on that app's own pairing screen. You can remove an approval at any time in Connected apps, and it stops at once. Uninstalling the app removes it too.
• Nothing about this leaves your device through 4Link. 4Dictate never operates another app's screen for this: the app does the work itself, and 4Dictate's accessibility service is not involved.

Your watch (4Watch)

4Watch, on a Wear OS watch paired with your phone, sends 4Dictate on that phone these instructions: start a dictation, start a command, stop, stop and send, cancel, and how long the phone took to answer, which is shown with that recording. The phone sends the watch what it is doing, its microphone level while it records, and a one-line result (for example "Typed into WhatsApp", or the answer to a question you asked), which the watch shows for a few seconds and does not keep. They travel over the watch's own connection to your phone. If you use the watch's microphone or the 4Watch keyboard, 4Watch records on the watch and sends the recording to your phone. If the phone cannot be reached, the recording waits on the watch for up to 10 minutes and is then deleted.

Away from your phone, the 4Watch keyboard can do the work on the watch, over its own Wi-Fi or mobile data: the recording goes to your own servers or your transcription service, and the text to your tidy-up service if your profile tidies up. For this, your phone copies to the paired watch the active profile's speech and tidy-up settings, its keys, instructions and your names list. They are kept encrypted on the watch with a key that never leaves it, and are not backed up. "Let the watch transcribe when the phone is away" is on unless you turn it off; turning it off removes them.

4Watch sends nothing to us.

Spoken messages

Spoken messages, if on, are read out by your device's text-to-speech engine. They are not sent anywhere by 4Dictate.

What every connection reveals

As with any internet request, a service you send data to can see your device's IP address and the standard Android identification of its model and Android version. 4Dictate adds no identifier of its own.

3. Things you choose to share

• Send diagnostics shows you the report first. Nothing is sent unless you press Send, and then only through the app you pick (for example email) to the person you pick. It contains the app version, device model and Android version, which features are on, counts (not contents) of your rules and commands, and the names of connected keyboards. It contains no transcripts, API keys, server addresses or app names.
• Export settings saves a file where you choose. It contains your replacement rules, voice commands, profiles and their instructions, your names list and your server addresses. It never contains keys — not your transcription or AI service keys, and not the keys or username for your own servers — nor your recordings, transcripts, your last command or what was playing.
• Send to my other device makes that same file (no keys) and hands it to the app you pick, for example Quick Share, to send to your other phone or tablet. Nothing passes through us. The receiving device shows what would change before anything is loaded, keeps its own keys, and can undo the load.
• Save my settings automatically (off unless you turn it on) writes that same file, whenever your settings change, to a folder you pick, keeping the last five. If you pick a folder your cloud drive syncs, your cloud provider holds those copies under your account with them.

4. What 4Dictate keeps on your device

• Recordings and transcripts. Each recording, and each voice message you shared, is kept with its transcript (what was heard, what was typed, and which app it went into) in the app's own folder. Settings → Keep recordings decides how long: until you delete them (the default), 7 days or 30 days; older ones are removed when you next dictate. You can also delete any recording from the Transcriptions screen. Clearing the app's storage or uninstalling deletes them all.
• Your settings: replacement rules, voice commands, profiles, the names list, server addresses, and the words of your most recent command so the Commands screen can offer them back.
• What's playing: the title and artist of the last media notification, so you can ask "what's playing".
• API keys: your transcription and AI service keys are stored encrypted using Android's protected key store, and are never included in exports or diagnostics. So are the keys for your own speech and grammar servers.
• Time of consent: when you agreed to the accessibility disclosure.
• Connected apps (4Link): which apps you approved and which of their functions; a copy of each app's function list; and a log of the last 500 4Link calls (time, app, function, result — never the text sent).

None of this is included in Android's cloud backup or phone-to-phone transfer; 4Dictate opts out of both.

5. The accessibility service

4Dictate uses an Android accessibility service so it can type into other apps without replacing your keyboard. With your permission it:

• finds the text box that has your cursor and reads the text around it at the moment your words go in, so they are inserted without wiping what is there. The previous text is held in memory only so the edit pad's Undo can restore it; it is never saved or sent;
• reads your selection, or the text box, when you press Check, and your selection when you press Rewrite (see section 2);
• reads button labels to find an app's Send button when you say a send command, and the list on screen when you say a scroll command;
• reads media notifications, to answer "what's playing";
• receives key presses so your shortcut key works from any app; every other key goes straight through and is not recorded.

It never taps or swipes on your behalf. You can turn it off at any time in Android Settings → Accessibility; 4Dictate still records and transcribes, but cannot type into other apps.

6. Permissions

Microphone (to record when you start a dictation) • Display over other apps (the floating button and edit pad) • Notifications (the Recording notification) • Internet • Start after restart (to put the floating button back) • Control 4Zones (only if 4Zones is installed). 4Dictate does not ask for contacts, location, photos, files, phone or SMS, and uses no advertising or device identifier.

7. The services 4Dictate can send data to

Service	Used for
Deepgram	Transcription
OpenAI	Transcription, tidy-up, proofreading, rewriting
Groq	Transcription, tidy-up
DeepSeek	Tidy-up
Cerebras	Tidy-up
OpenRouter	Tidy-up, passed on to the model's maker
Servers you enter	Speech, tidy-up, grammar — run by you or whoever you chose

Each service handles what it receives under its own privacy policy, which you accepted when you created your account and key with it.

8. Children

4Dictate is intended for adults and is not directed at children. It needs the user's own accounts with the services above.

9. Your rights

We hold no personal data about you, so there is nothing on our side to access, correct or delete. Data sent to a transcription, AI or grammar service is held by that service; contact it to exercise your rights there. Everything on your device can be deleted by you: see Deleting your data below. In the UK you may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Deleting your data

4Dictate has no account and no server of ours, so there is nothing to request from us: everything 4Dictate keeps is on your device, and you delete it yourself, at any time.

1. One recording: in 4Dictate, open Transcriptions, tap the bin on that recording and confirm Delete. Its audio and transcript are removed at once.
2. Automatically: Settings → Recording → Keep recordings → 7 days or 30 days. Older recordings and their transcripts are deleted when you next dictate.
3. Everything: Android Settings → Apps → 4Dictate → Storage → Clear storage, or uninstall 4Dictate. This deletes all recordings, transcripts, settings, rules, profiles, keys and the time you agreed to the disclosure. Nothing is kept, and there is no backup copy: 4Dictate opts out of Android's cloud backup.
4. Data held by a service you chose: audio and text that 4Dictate sent to a transcription, AI or grammar service (section 7) is held by that service under your account with it, for as long as its own policy says. Delete it, or ask for it to be deleted, through that service.

10. Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published on this page with a new effective date.

11. Contact & Support

4Dictate is developed by John Paul Bizeray, trading as Mr-Bizzy, United Kingdom.
Support Email: [email protected]