Privacy Policy

Overview

MicAware is an iOS app developed by AIBridges (Cranston, RI). It is a privacy education tool that helps you understand what topics and personal data could be identified from everyday conversations by apps with microphone access.

MicAware is built with a privacy-first architecture. All speech recognition, keyword detection, and topic analysis happens entirely on your iPhone using Apple’s on-device Speech framework. No audio, text, or analysis results are ever transmitted to any server.

What Data We Store

MicAware stores a small amount of data locally on your device using UserDefaults:

• Detected topics — Keywords and category labels identified during listening sessions (e.g. “Brands: Nike”). No raw audio or full transcripts are saved.
• Session metadata — Start time, end time, and word count for each listening session.
• App preferences — Whether passive mode was enabled. No other settings are stored.

This data never leaves your device. It is not transmitted to AIBridges or any third party.

What We Do NOT Collect

• No audio recordings are saved or transmitted — ever
• No full transcripts are stored — only matched keyword labels
• No personally identifiable information (name, email, phone number)
• No location data or GPS coordinates
• No analytics, telemetry, or usage tracking
• No advertising identifiers or device fingerprinting
• No network requests — the app makes zero server calls
• No user accounts — there is no sign-up, login, or registration
• No iCloud sync — data stays on the device where it was created

We do not operate any data collection servers. There is no “phone home” behavior of any kind.

Microphone & Speech Recognition

MicAware uses your device’s microphone and Apple’s SFSpeechRecognizer framework to convert speech to text in real time. Here is exactly how it works:

• Audio from the microphone is streamed directly to Apple’s on-device speech engine
• The recognized text is scanned for keyword matches (brands, topics, health terms, etc.)
• Only the matched keyword labels are saved — the full transcript is discarded when the session ends
• No audio buffers are written to disk at any point

Important: MicAware explicitly sets requiresOnDeviceRecognition = true, which ensures speech recognition is performed entirely on your device. No audio is sent to Apple’s servers.

The microphone is only active while the app is in the foreground and visible on screen. MicAware does not use background audio modes and cannot record when the app is minimized or the screen is locked.

On-Device Processing

Every component of MicAware runs locally on your iPhone:

• Speech recognition — Apple’s SFSpeechRecognizer with on-device mode enforced
• Keyword detection — A local dictionary of ~300 keywords checked against recognized text
• Topic categorization — Simple string matching, no machine learning models or cloud APIs
• Report generation — Privacy reports are generated from locally stored session data

The app requires no internet connection to function. It works identically in airplane mode.

iOS Permissions & Why We Need Them

MicAware requests the following iOS permissions:

No other permissions are requested. MicAware does not access your contacts, photos, location, camera, health data, or any other sensitive iOS resource.

Third-Party Services

MicAware does not integrate with any third-party services whatsoever:

• No analytics platforms (no Google Analytics, Firebase, Mixpanel, etc.)
• No advertising networks or ad SDKs
• No crash reporting services (no Crashlytics, Sentry, etc.)
• No external APIs or web services
• No social media SDKs or sharing frameworks

The app is entirely self-contained. The only system framework used is Apple’s built-in Speech framework, which is part of iOS and governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy.

Data Retention & Deletion

All data stored by MicAware resides locally on your device in iOS UserDefaults. We have no access to it.

• Automatic cleanup — Listening sessions older than 30 days are automatically deleted on app launch.
• Manual clear — You can delete all data at any time from Settings > Clear All Data within the app.
• Uninstall — Deleting the app from your iPhone removes all stored data permanently.

Since we do not collect or store data on any server, there is no remote data to delete.

Children’s Privacy

MicAware is a general-purpose privacy education tool. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone, including children under the age of 13. Since no personal data is collected or transmitted, no special provisions are necessary under COPPA.

Changes to This Policy

If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we will also notify users through the app’s update notes on the App Store.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this privacy policy or the data practices of MicAware, please contact us:

• AIBridges — Cranston, Rhode Island
• Contact Form
• (401) 327-2971
• aibridges.org