Your working files.
Heard observes supported agent events and session records on your Mac. It does not copy your repository or full terminal history into the hosted account database.
Security & privacy
Everything stays
on your machines.
Heard follows your local agent sessions on your machine. Cloud features send selected content to providers. Here’s what stays local, what leaves, and what you control.
LOCAL FIRSTData flow
On your Mac
Local session observation, your working files, and local speech when configured.
Only for the feature you use
Selected text for hosted voice and AI features. Reports and replies for connected cloud agents.
Separate sharing controls
Analytics and Help improve Heard have their own settings. Shared improvement data can be deleted.
Local processing does not mean every feature runs offline.
On your machine
Your Mac holds the working context.
Your local voice option.
The open source engine can synthesize speech with Kokoro on your Mac. Hosted rewriting and voice providers are separate choices; using your own key still sends content to that provider.
Your screenshots.
Screenshots Parrot uses to check its work stay on your Mac. They are not included in Help improve Heard uploads.
Feature by feature
What can leave your Mac.
Hosted processing, connected agents, and improvement sharing are different data paths. The narration proxy’s retention rules do not apply to all of them.
Managed narration
A selected text snippet reaches the configured speech provider through Heard’s proxy. Generated audio streams back to your Mac.
RetentionHeard does not persist the text or audio after the request.
Hosted rewriting
An agent event or selected context reaches the configured language model to prepare the spoken update.
RetentionHeard does not persist hosted rewrite text after the request.
Voice messages from your iPhone
On Heard Power, voice messages you send Parrot from your iPhone are transcribed by Groq through the managed proxy.
RetentionGroq processes the audio to return the transcript. Groq’s own policy covers how long it keeps it.
Connected cloud agents
Agents send status, a summary of up to 500 characters, and optional detail of up to 2,000 characters. Messages you send are stored for the agent to pick up.
RetentionReports are deleted after 7 days. Uncollected messages expire after 7 days; messages are deleted after 30 days either way.
Depending on your setup, voice and AI providers include ElevenLabs, Speechify, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Groq. Providers may process operational data under their own policies.
Help improve Heard
Know what you’re sharing.
When this setting is on, Heard shares masked records of agent activity, Parrot questions and answers, and reactions such as stopping a line or asking for a shorter answer. We use these records to train and evaluate Heard’s own models. Authorized team members may review them to find and fix problems.
Names, project names, contact details, keys, tokens, and links are replaced with placeholders on your Mac before upload. A line that cannot be masked confidently is not sent. Uploads use a random install ID rather than your email or account ID; a separate account mapping allows authorization and deletion.
Check your setting.
Sharing is on by default except in the EU, EEA, UK, and Switzerland, where it stays off until enabled. Business and team accounts are off by default.
Only activity recorded while sharing is on is uploaded. Turning it off stops sharing immediately. Use Delete what I’ve shared to remove past uploads. Shared data is kept until you delete it, request deletion, or it is no longer needed to train Heard’s models.
We do not sell this data or provide it to other companies to train their models.
Your controls
Choose the setup that fits your work.
Choose your providers.
Use managed services, configure your own keys, or build the open source engine for local speech. Check the provider’s own policies for its processing and retention.
Control analytics.
Turn client product analytics and usage stats off in Settings. Account and subscription lifecycle records may still be recorded to operate the service.
Control improvement sharing.
In Settings → General → Help improve Heard, turn sharing off at any time. “Delete what I’ve shared” removes previously shared data from Heard’s servers.
Revoke connected agents.
Disconnect an agent to revoke its access. Heard receives what it sends through Heard’s tools, not the rest of your conversation with that assistant.
Accounts & operations
What Heard keeps.
Account and billing records. Email address, plan state, usage counters, device token hashes, and subscription identifiers support sign-in and service delivery. Payments use Stripe’s hosted pages; Heard does not store full card numbers or live device bearer tokens.
Product analytics. When enabled, the Mac app sends install or account identifiers, app and plan information, system details, and categorical events. It does not include narration text, code, terminal output, project paths, file names, or function names. The website uses analytics without advertising trackers or session recording.
Error reports. Technical errors and recent technical log lines help diagnose failures. These exclude speech, files, and session content. Reporting can be turned off with usage stats in Settings.
Service providers. Supabase handles account records; Cloudflare runs the API and proxies and stores masked improvement uploads in R2. Stripe, Resend, PostHog, and Vercel provide payments, account email, analytics, and hosting.
Retention and deletion. Account records and plan audit history are kept for the account’s lifetime, subject to deletion requests. Sign-in codes expire after 10 minutes; Stripe webhook logs are retained for 14 days. Contact [email protected] for access, correction, or account deletion.
The Apache 2.0 engine can be built from source for local Kokoro speech or your own provider configuration. The downloadable Mac app is the official managed build with hosted plan features.
For a local setup, check each enabled feature—not just the voice. A local speech engine does not make hosted rewriting, connected cloud agents, or sharing settings local.
A few more details
Questions?
Does Heard upload my source code?
Heard does not copy your repository or full terminal history into its hosted account database. Hosted features can send selected content to providers. Help improve Heard, when enabled, separately shares masked records of agent activity and Parrot conversations.
Does Heard retain narration text or generated audio?
The hosted narration and rewrite paths do not persist their text or generated audio after the request. Separate rules apply to Help improve Heard uploads, connected cloud-agent reports, and messages to agents.
Can I run Heard locally?
Yes. Build the Apache 2.0 engine from source and use local Kokoro speech. Review other enabled features to keep processing local: your own provider keys still send requests to that provider, and hosted rewriting is separate from local voice synthesis.
Does Heard train models on my work?
When Help improve Heard is enabled, masked agent activity and Parrot conversation records can be used to train and evaluate Heard’s own models. You can disable sharing and delete past uploads in Settings. Heard does not sell the shared data or provide it to other companies to train their models.
Which third party services can receive data?
Depending on configuration, Heard can use ElevenLabs, Speechify, Anthropic, OpenAI, or Groq for selected voice, rewriting, or voice message transcription functions. Stripe, Supabase, Resend, PostHog, Cloudflare, and Vercel support accounts, billing, analytics, email, API, and site hosting as described in the privacy policy.
Can I delete my account data?
Yes. Contact Heard support to request access, correction, or deletion. The privacy policy describes the retained account, billing, and operational records.
The details, in full.
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