Aside
Privacy Policy
This policy explains what Aside processes, what we store, and what we never see. The short version: your meeting audio is transcribed on your computer and is not uploaded, unless you switch on cloud transcription yourself. That setting is off by default and covered in section 2. We only receive the specific excerpts needed to generate an answer when you ask for one, and we don’t store conversation content on our servers.
- Audio: transcribed on-device by a local Whisper speech model. Not uploaded and not stored by us — unless you turn on cloud transcription (off by default), in which case it is transcribed on our servers and discarded.
- Transcripts & session history: stored locally on your computer.
- Sent to us only when you request an answer: the question, a short transcript excerpt, or a screen capture — forwarded to Anthropic to generate the answer, not stored by us.
- Stored by us: your account email and usage metadata (answer counts, token counts, timestamps) for billing and limits.
- Payments: handled by Paddle. We never see your card details.
- This website uses no analytics or advertising trackers.
1. Who we are
Aside (“we”, “us”) provides a meeting copilot app for macOS and Windows. Contact: support@meetaside.com.
2. Audio and transcription: on-device by default
Aside listens to your microphone and system audio during sessions you start, and transcribes that audio locally on your device using an on-device Whisper speech model (WhisperKit on macOS, whisper.cpp on Windows). Raw audio is processed in memory on your device. It is not uploaded to our servers or to any third party, and we have no ability to access it. Your transcripts and session history are stored locally on your device, not on our servers.
2.1 Cloud transcription (optional, off by default)
Some computers cannot transcribe fast enough to keep up with live speech. Without GPU acceleration the on-device models can run several times slower than real time, and Aside has to skip parts of the conversation to stay current. For those machines, Settings › Transcription › Transcribe in the cloud moves transcription to our servers instead.
This setting is off by default and only ever enabled by you. Aside will point you at it if it detects that your computer is falling behind, but pointing at it is all it does — the app never turns it on for you, and the setting screen states plainly that enabling it means transcription is no longer done entirely on your device.
While it is on, each utterance is sent to our servers over an encrypted connection and forwarded to Groq, our speech-to-text provider, which transcribes it and returns the text. The audio is discarded once transcribed. Neither we nor Groq store it, review it, or use it to train anything. Only the resulting text returns to your device, where it is stored locally like any other transcript. The on-device model stays loaded and takes over automatically if a request fails. Turning the setting off returns Aside to transcribing entirely on your device, immediately and with nothing retained on our side.
This is the same shape as answers, which have always been forwarded to Anthropic. Both are named here because you should know exactly who touches your data, not just that we do not keep it.
3. What is sent when you request an answer
When Aside generates an answer — because it detected a question, because you asked one with the hotkey, or because you used Screen Assist — the app sends the minimum needed to answer:
- the detected or typed question;
- a short excerpt of the surrounding transcript, for context;
- for Screen Assist, the screen capture you triggered;
- your answer-style settings and custom vocabulary hints, where relevant to the request.
Our API receives this request, checks your plan limits, and forwards the content to Anthropic (our AI subprocessor) to generate the answer, which is streamed back to your device. We do not store the content of these requests or responses. They pass through our systems to serve your request and are not retained as conversation records.
4. What we store
We keep the minimum needed to run accounts, billing, and plan limits:
- Account data: your email address and plan/subscription status.
- Usage metadata: answer counts, token counts, model used, and timestamps — numbers, not content — so we can enforce answer caps and bill correctly.
- Support correspondence: emails you send us.
- Feedback you choose to send: if you answer the in-app “How useful was Aside?” prompt, we store your rating and anything you type into the feedback box, linked to your account so we can follow up and improve the app. It’s never shared, and it never includes transcripts or answers — only what you write.
We do not store your audio, transcripts, questions, answers, or screen captures.
5. Payments
Purchases are processed by Paddle.com as merchant of record. Paddle collects and processes your payment details (card number, billing address, tax information) under its own privacy policy; we receive only what we need to associate a subscription with your account (such as your email and subscription status), never your full payment details.
6. Subprocessors
- Anthropic — generates AI answers from the excerpts described in Section 3, under its commercial API terms.
- Paddle — payments, tax, and billing, as merchant of record.
7. This website
Our website does not use analytics, advertising trackers, or marketing cookies. If you open a checkout, Paddle may set cookies strictly needed to process the transaction.
8. Data retention and deletion
Account data and usage metadata are kept while your account is active and for as long as needed for legal and accounting obligations. You can request deletion of your account and associated data at any time by emailing support@meetaside.com; we will delete data we hold about you except what we must retain by law (for example, billing records). Everything stored locally on your computer — transcripts, history, settings — is yours to delete directly by removing it in the app or uninstalling.
9. Security
Requests between the app and our API are encrypted in transit (TLS). Access to production systems is restricted and authenticated. No system is perfectly secure, but our design keeps the most sensitive material — your audio and transcripts — on your device in the first place.
10. Your responsibilities to other participants
Aside processes audio from conversations that include other people. Depending on where you and they are, you may be required to notify them or obtain consent before transcribing a conversation. You are responsible for meeting those obligations, as described in our Terms of Service.
11. Your rights
Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete personal data we hold about you, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise them, email support@meetaside.com. We respond within the timelines required by applicable law.
12. Children
The Service is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them.
13. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a material way, we will give notice by email or in the app before the change takes effect. The “Last updated” date above always reflects the current version.
14. Contact
Privacy questions and requests: support@meetaside.com.