Privacy Policy

March 2026

The short version

Mudlark does not collect any data. I have no servers, no analytics, no accounts, and no way to see what you do with the app. Everything stays on your Mac.

The Developer

Mudlark is developed by Owen Kelly, based in Melbourne, Australia. For the purposes of applicable data protection laws, Owen Kelly is the responsible party. Mudlark does not process personal data as defined by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Australian Privacy Act 1988, or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA).

You can contact me at mudlark@ojkelly.dev.

Data Collection

Mudlark does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data, usage data, or any other information of any kind.

Mudlark does not require an internet connection to function, does not communicate with any external servers, and does not contain any third-party analytics, tracking, or advertising frameworks.

We do not sell, share, or disclose personal information to third parties, because we do not have any personal information to sell, share, or disclose.

Audio

Mudlark captures audio from your microphone for the sole purpose of local speech transcription. Audio is processed in real time on your device and is never saved to disk, never stored, and never transmitted from your Mac. Once audio has been processed by the local speech recognition model, it is discarded immediately.

Mudlark may keep the microphone open briefly after you finish recording so that it is ready faster the next time you start. No audio is recorded, processed, or stored during this time — the microphone is simply held open. This behaviour is configurable in Mudlark's settings.

Transcriptions

Transcribed text is held in memory for up to 5 minutes so you can retrieve it if needed — for example, if a paste didn't land in the right place. After this period, the transcription is discarded from memory. Transcriptions are not written to disk and are not sent to any external service.

Screen Capture for Context

Mudlark includes an optional feature that captures a screenshot of your screen and uses local OCR to read its contents. This screen context is used to improve transcription accuracy — for example, by helping the speech recognition model better understand technical terms, names, or other words visible on your screen.

This feature requires your explicit permission via the macOS screen recording permission prompt. You can grant or revoke access at any time through macOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, and Mudlark works perfectly well without it. When enabled:

• Screenshots are captured and processed entirely on your device.
• The extracted screen context is held in memory only for the duration of your transcription process.
• Neither the screenshot nor the extracted text is saved to disk or transmitted from your Mac.

When this feature is not enabled, Mudlark does not access your screen content in any way.

Apple Analytics, Crash Reports, and Diagnostics

Mudlark does not include any analytics, crash reporting, or telemetry frameworks of its own.

However, macOS has built-in diagnostics that may share information with Apple and, separately, with app developers. These are controlled by two system-wide settings found in macOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements:

• Share Mac Analytics sends crash reports, performance metrics, hardware information, and usage data to Apple. Apple states that personal data is either not logged, is subject to differential privacy, or is removed before reports are sent.
• Share with App Developers is an additional opt-in that allows Apple to share a subset of that data — such as crash reports, performance metrics, and general usage statistics — with the developers of the apps involved. This information is provided in a form that does not personally identify you.

If you have both of these settings enabled, we may receive anonymised crash reports and diagnostic information about Mudlark through App Store Connect. This can help us identify and fix bugs. We have no way to identify you from this data, and we have no way to request or collect this data ourselves — it is collected and managed entirely by Apple, and shared with us only if you have opted in.

If either setting is disabled, we receive nothing.

You can change these settings at any time. For more information on what Apple collects and how, see Apple's Privacy Policy.

Third Parties

Mudlark does not share data with any third parties, because Mudlark does not have any data to share. Mudlark does not integrate any third-party SDKs, advertising networks, or analytics services.

Do Not Track

Mudlark does not track you in any way, so there is no tracking behaviour to modify in response to a Do Not Track signal. Mudlark does not respond to Do Not Track signals because there is nothing to track.

Your Rights

Because Mudlark does not collect or process personal data, the data subject rights provided by privacy laws — including the right to access, correct, delete, or port your data — do not apply in practice, as there is no data to access, correct, delete, or port.

If you believe we hold any data about you, or if you wish to make a request under any applicable privacy law, please contact me at mudlark@ojkelly.dev and we will respond promptly.

Children's Privacy

Mudlark does not collect any information from anyone, including children.

International Users

Mudlark is developed in Australia and distributed globally via the Mac App Store. Because Mudlark does not collect or process personal data, the substantive obligations of international privacy laws such as the GDPR, the UK Data Protection Act, and the Australian Privacy Act 1988 regarding data processing do not apply. This policy is provided for transparency and to meet app store requirements.

If you are located in the European Economic Area and have a concern about privacy practices, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Changes to This Policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this URL with a revised date. Where changes are material, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this policy. Given that Mudlark collects no data, we do not anticipate material changes.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, you can contact me at mudlark@ojkelly.dev.