1. Who we are
Akova ("Akova", "the app", "we", "us") is a macOS dictation application developed and sold by Stavros Thalassinos, a sole proprietor established in Greece (VAT/ΑΦΜ EL160320426), registered address Thesi Alonaki 0, Prodromos, Paros, 84400, Greece.
For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and Greek Law 4624/2019, which implements and supplements the GDPR in Greece, Stavros Thalassinos is the data controller for the limited personal data described in this policy — that is, the party that determines the purposes and means of the processing (GDPR Art. 4(7)).
Contact for privacy matters: stavros.thalassinos@sthlabs.net
Because we are a small business established solely in Greece and process minimal personal data, we are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). You can reach us about any privacy question at the email above.
2. The one-sentence version
Akova transcribes your speech on your own Mac. Your audio and your transcripts are never sent to us, and by default they are never sent to anyone. The only personal data we ever handle is the minimum needed to sell you a licence and provide support.
3. How Akova processes your voice and text
This is the part that matters most, so we are explicit about it.
On-device by default. Akova records audio from your microphone only while you are actively dictating, transcribes it locally on your Mac using on-device speech models (WhisperKit / Apple speech frameworks), and pastes the resulting text into the app you are using. Optional text clean-up ("structuring") runs locally too — either through Apple Intelligence (on-device Foundation Models) or through a local Ollama model running on your own machine.
We never receive your audio or transcripts. Your recordings, partial transcripts, final transcripts, and any locally stored dictation history stay on your device. We have no server that receives them, no account that stores them, and no ability to read them.
Audio is not persisted. Audio is held in memory only for as long as needed to transcribe it and is then discarded. Akova does not save your raw audio to disk.
Local history (optional). If you enable dictation history, transcripts are stored locally on your Mac (and, where the feature offers it, encrypted at rest). This data lives on your device under your control; you can search, export, or delete it at any time. It is never uploaded to us.
4. Optional cloud features (only if you turn them on)
Some features can, at your explicit choice, send data to a third party you select. These are off by default and none of them send data to Akova.
- Third-party cloud transcription / structuring (planned / optional): If you choose to use a cloud transcription or language-model provider (for example an OpenAI, Groq, or OpenRouter API using your own API key), the relevant text and/or audio is sent directly from your Mac to that provider under their privacy policy and terms — not through us. You enter and store your own key; we never see it or the data you send. Review the chosen provider's privacy policy before enabling such a feature.
- Usage allowance metering (planned): Some future features may cost money to run for each use (for example cloud transcription or hosted larger models). Where such a feature is included in a paid plan with a monthly allowance, we would need to count how much of that specific feature you have used, in order to apply the allowance. That count is a number of units consumed and the date it was consumed — never the audio, the transcript, or anything you dictated. No such feature exists today; if one ships, its exact behaviour will be documented here first.
- Local network capture (planned): A future paired-device capture feature is designed to keep audio on your local network / devices and persist no audio. If and when shipped, its behaviour will be documented here.
If you never enable a cloud feature, Akova operates fully offline for its core dictation function.
5. Personal data we actually collect
We deliberately keep this list short.
| Data | Why | Legal basis (GDPR Art. 6) |
|---|---|---|
| Name and email address | To sell you a licence, deliver your licence key, send purchase receipts and important product/security notices | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Licence key and activation records (e.g. number of activated devices, activation timestamps and, for subscription licences once those launch, whether the subscription is active and the date the current period ends) | To validate your licence, enforce the device limit and, for a subscription, confirm it is still active | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)); legitimate interest in preventing licence abuse (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Payment metadata (amount, currency, country, last-4/card brand, transaction ID — not full card numbers) | To process your purchase, meet tax/VAT and accounting obligations | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)); performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Support correspondence (emails you send us) | To answer your questions | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Optional, opt-in diagnostics/analytics (crash reports, anonymised usage events) — only if you consent | To find bugs and improve the app | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) |
We do not collect your microphone audio, your transcripts, your dictation history, or the contents of the apps you dictate into. We do not build advertising profiles, and we do not sell personal data.
6. How you buy Akova, and who processes payment
Akova is sold through two channels. The payment processor is the party that actually handles your card details:
- Direct purchase (from akova.app): payment is processed by our merchant of record, Sold through Link, LLC (formerly Lemon Squeezy LLC), trading as "Lemon Squeezy". Because it operates the checkout, sets the general terms of the sale and authorises the charge to you, it is treated as the supplier for EU VAT purposes under Article 9a of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 — so it, not us, is the seller of record for tax purposes, issues your invoice, and collects and remits EU VAT on the sale. It processes your payment card as an independent controller for that payment data under its own privacy policy: lemonsqueezy.com/privacy . We receive from it only your name, email, licence, and non-sensitive transaction metadata (see §5).
- Mac App Store purchase: payment, billing, tax, and refunds are handled entirely by Apple, acting as an independent controller, under Apple's Privacy Policy . For App Store sales we typically do not receive your name or email at all unless you separately contact us.
Subscription plans (planned). Monthly and annual plans are not yet available. When they launch they will be billed through the same two parties described above — Lemon Squeezy for direct subscriptions, Apple for Mac App Store subscriptions. No new payment provider is introduced, and the only additional data involved is the subscription status and renewal date described in §5. Cancellation, renewal and refund terms for those plans will be set out in the Terms before they can be purchased.
We never store your full payment card number.
7. Third parties we share data with
We use a small number of service providers strictly to run the business, and we share only what is necessary. Every provider listed here is contractually or by policy required to give your data the same or equal level of protection as this policy.
The split below follows the GDPR's own definitions. A provider is our processor where it processes personal data solely on our behalf and on our instructions (Art. 4(8)), and we hold or rely on a data-processing agreement with it. A provider is an independent controller where it decides for itself the purposes and means of its processing (Art. 4(7)) — which is what a merchant of record or app store does when it runs its own checkout and fraud screening, sets its own buyer terms, and keeps its own tax and accounting records to meet obligations that fall on it rather than on us. In those cases we cannot instruct it, and its own privacy policy governs that data.
Our processors (act on our behalf, under a data-processing agreement):
- Resend — sending receipts, licence keys, and support replies.
- Sentry (Functional Software, Inc., trading as "Sentry") — automatic crash
and error reports, only if you turn them on (see §5; the app asks once, on
first run, and defaults to off). Reports are sent to Sentry's EU data region
(ingestion and storage at
de.sentry.io). A report contains the error, where it happened in Akova's code, the app version, and your macOS version. It does not contain your microphone audio, your transcripts, your dictation history, or anything you type; home-folder paths, email addresses and IP addresses are stripped on your Mac before the report is sent. You can withdraw consent at any time in Akova ▸ Settings ▸ Diagnostics, which stops any further reports immediately. Privacy policy: sentry.io/privacy
Independent controllers (their own privacy policy applies to the data they handle):
- Sold through Link, LLC (formerly Lemon Squeezy LLC), trading as "Lemon Squeezy" — payments, licensing, VAT (direct sales). Privacy policy: lemonsqueezy.com/privacy
- Apple — payments and distribution (App Store sales). Privacy policy: apple.com/legal/privacy
We do not use a separate usage-analytics provider. Crash and error reporting through Sentry, described above, is the only diagnostics processor, and it stays off until you turn it on.
Licence keys are issued and validated by our own self-hosted, cryptographically signed system (Ed25519) — no third-party licensing provider is involved.
We do not sell your personal data and do not share it for third-party advertising.
8. International transfers
Some providers above may process data outside the European Economic Area (for example in the United States). Where that happens, transfers are protected by an appropriate GDPR safeguard — typically the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and/or the provider's certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us which mechanism applies to a given provider.
9. How long we keep data
- Purchase, licence, and tax records: retained for as long as your licence is active and thereafter for the period required by Greek tax and accounting law (generally up to 5–10 years for invoices/tax documents), then deleted or anonymised.
- Support correspondence: typically up to 24 months after the issue is resolved.
- Opt-in diagnostics: retained no longer than 12 months, then deleted or aggregated.
- On-device data (audio, transcripts, history): controlled entirely by you on your Mac; deleted when you delete it or uninstall the app.
10. Your rights under the GDPR
Because we are established in the EU, you have the right to: access your data, rectify inaccurate data, request erasure ("right to be forgotten"), restrict or object to processing, request data portability, and withdraw consent at any time (for anything based on consent, such as opt-in analytics) without affecting prior processing.
To exercise any right, email stavros.thalassinos@sthlabs.net. We will respond within one month as required by the GDPR. Exercising your rights is free unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Greek Data Protection Authority ( Hellenic Data Protection Authority / Αρχή Προστασίας Δεδομένων Προσωπικού Χαρακτήρα, dpa.gr) or your local EU supervisory authority.
11. Children
Akova is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has provided us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
12. Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the limited personal data we hold, including transport encryption (TLS), access controls, and reliance on reputable processors. No system is perfectly secure, but because your voice and transcripts never leave your device, the most sensitive data Akova touches is never exposed to us in the first place.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the app evolves (for example when a new optional cloud feature ships). We will post the new version here with an updated "Last updated" date and, for material changes, notify you by email or in-app where reasonable. Related documents: Terms of Sale & EULA and Refund Policy.
14. Contact
Stavros Thalassinos
Thesi Alonaki 0, Prodromos, Paros, 84400, Greece
Email: stavros.thalassinos@sthlabs.net