Briskpen Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how the Briskpen app (“Briskpen”, “the app”, “we”, “us”) handles information when you use it. Briskpen is an Android voice-dictation keyboard (an input method, package au.id.cody.voiceboard) published by Cody Ward, trading as Privacy Technologist (sole developer), based in New South Wales, Australia. Briskpen is a paid app; there are no in-app purchases and no advertising.

Please read this policy carefully. The most important thing to understand up front is this:

Briskpen has no server of its own, and the developer never automatically receives your recordings, your transcripts, or any of your content. Your data stays on your device, except when you send it to a third-party service that you have chosen and configured with your own account and API key. We can’t see that data, and it never passes through us. The one exception is the optional “Report a problem” feature, where you choose to email a diagnostics log to the developer — explained in section 6.

This policy is written to meet our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and to satisfy Google Play’s requirement to disclose how the app handles user data — including data that is sent to third parties even though the developer never receives it.

1. Plain-English summary

• Briskpen records your voice, turns it into text, and (optionally) cleans that text up using AI.
• Recordings, transcripts, and your settings are stored on your device.
• To turn speech into text, the app sends your audio to a transcription provider that you choose (for example Groq, OpenAI, NVIDIA NIM, or any compatible service you point it at) using your own API key — or it can run fully offline on your device, sending your audio nowhere.
• To clean up or reword the text, the app can send the transcript to a cleanup/AI provider that you choose (for example Groq, OpenAI, Anthropic, or a compatible service). Again, your own API key.
• If you turn it on, the app can back up your transcripts (and optionally your audio) to your own Google Drive or Dropbox, using a connection you authorise.
• Your API keys are stored encrypted on your device (AES-256-GCM, secured by the Android Keystore).
• No analytics. No advertising. No tracking. No first-party accounts. No developer backend.
• A local diagnostics/error log is kept on your device to help diagnose crashes. It stays on your device and is only ever sent anywhere if you tap “Report a problem”, which prepares an email to the developer (riskerr@gmail.com) with the log and basic app/device info included. Nothing is sent automatically, and you can clear the log yourself at any time.
• Before Briskpen first asks for microphone access, it shows you an in-app disclosure explaining what is recorded and where it goes, and asks you to agree.
• You control retention and deletion. Uninstalling the app removes all local data, including your encrypted API keys.

The rest of this policy is the detail.

2. Who is responsible for your information

For most personal information, you are. Briskpen is designed so that you connect it directly to services you control. When the app sends your audio to your chosen transcription provider, or your text to your chosen AI provider, or your files to your own cloud storage, you are the one directing that transfer, using your accounts and keys. The developer is not a party to those transfers and does not receive copies.

The developer (Cody Ward) is responsible for the app’s own behaviour — for example, how it stores data on your device, the prominent disclosure shown before microphone access, and how the optional “Report a problem” feature works. The only circumstance in which the developer receives any information from you is when you personally choose to send a problem report (section 6).

3. What information Briskpen handles, and where it goes

The table below lists every category of data the app touches, whether it is stored on your device, and whether (and to whom) it leaves your device.

All transfers to third-party services happen over encrypted HTTPS connections.

4. The developer does not collect your content

To be explicit, because it matters:

• There is no Briskpen server and no developer-operated backend.
• The developer never automatically receives your recordings, transcripts, cleaned text, or API keys.
• There is no analytics SDK, no advertising SDK, no tracking, and no first-party account system.
• Your content goes only to (a) services you chose and configured, and (b) your own cloud storage if you switch it on.

The single way the developer ever receives anything from you is the diagnostics log, and only if you choose to send it by tapping “Report a problem” (section 6).

5. About the AI cleanup feature

Briskpen can optionally send your transcript to an AI/LLM provider you choose to reword, tidy, or translate it. This is automated text processing, and it only happens when you have enabled cleanup and triggered a dictation. It does not make any decision about you and has no legal or similarly significant effect on you — it simply rewrites the text you dictated. The processing is performed by the provider you selected, under that provider’s terms and privacy policy, using your account. We disclose this here so you understand what the feature does and where your text goes.

6. The on-device diagnostics log and “Report a problem”

To make crashes and errors easier to fix, Briskpen keeps a small diagnostics log on your device. This is an on-device crash-and-error record (a ring buffer of recent log entries) together with a handler that captures information about any unexpected crash. This log lives only on your device.

• It is not transmitted automatically anywhere. It stays on the device.
• It is sent only if you tap “Report a problem”, which composes an email addressed to the developer at riskerr@gmail.com with the log included or attached, along with basic app and device information (such as app version, Android version, and device model) to help with troubleshooting.
• You can read the log before you send it, and you choose whether to send it at all. If you don’t tap “Report a problem”, nothing about the log ever leaves your device.
• You can clear the log at any time using the in-app “Clear” action, which wipes the on-device diagnostics log.
• The app does not deliberately log the content of your transcripts. However, a diagnostics log records technical details (error messages, app state, timestamps, file paths) and such technical error text could incidentally include fragments of text related to a failure. Only send a report if you’re comfortable sharing its contents. If you’d rather not, simply don’t tap “Report a problem”, and feel free to clear the log first.

If you do send a problem report, the developer uses it solely to diagnose and fix the issue, and does not use it for any other purpose. This is the only situation in which the developer receives any information from you.

7. Microphone prominent disclosure

Before Briskpen first requests permission to use your microphone, the app shows you an in-app disclosure dialog on first run. It explains, in plain language:

• what is accessed — your microphone audio;
• why — to record your dictation and turn it into text;
• where it goes — the audio is sent to the transcription provider you choose, off your device, over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, using your API key — or, if you select offline mode, it is processed on your device and sent nowhere; and the recording is kept on your device.

The dialog includes a link to this Privacy Policy and an “Agree & continue” action. You see this disclosure before the operating system’s microphone-permission prompt and before any recording occurs. This satisfies Google Play’s prominent-disclosure requirement for microphone access.

8. Permissions Briskpen requests, and why

Briskpen declares only the permissions it genuinely needs:

• Microphone (RECORD_AUDIO) — to capture your dictation. Audio is recorded only while you are dictating.
• Internet (INTERNET) — to send your audio/text to the third-party services you’ve configured, and to back up to your cloud if you enable it. (If you use offline transcription and no cloud backup, the app doesn’t need to send your content anywhere.)
• Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS) — to let you know when a transcript is ready or when something is queued.

A few additional low-level permissions are merged in automatically by the standard Android background-task library (WorkManager) the app uses to process recordings reliably. These are normal-level permissions that Android does not prompt you for, and they are not used to collect or transmit your personal information: WAKE_LOCK, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE, RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED, and FOREGROUND_SERVICE.

Briskpen does not run a microphone foreground service and does not declare the FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MICROPHONE permission — recording is not performed as a microphone-typed foreground service.

As an input method (keyboard), Briskpen runs as an Android Input Method Service. Android keyboards can technically see what you type into other apps; Briskpen does not log, store, or transmit the contents of other apps’ text fields. It only handles the audio you dictate and the text it produces from that audio.

9. Where your data is stored and how it’s protected

• On-device storage: Recordings are kept in the app’s private internal storage (one file per dictation), which other apps cannot read. Transcripts, metadata, and presets are kept in a local database; settings are kept in a local preferences file.
• Encryption of keys: Your API keys are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM, with the encryption key held in the Android Keystore (hardware-backed on supported devices).
• Encryption in transit: All transfers to third-party providers and to your cloud storage use HTTPS.
• Backups: The app’s Android backup rules are configured so that your encrypted API keys are not included in Google’s automatic cloud device-backup.

No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, but the design deliberately minimises what exists and who can reach it: there’s no central store of user content to breach, because the developer holds none.

10. Data retention and how to delete your data

You control retention.

• Audio retention is configurable in the app — 7 days, 30 days, or keep forever — and older recordings are automatically pruned according to your setting.
• Transcripts and other local data remain on your device until you delete them in the app or uninstall.
• Deleting individual items: You can delete recordings and transcripts within the app.
• The diagnostics log: You can wipe it at any time with the in-app “Clear” action.
• Deleting everything: Uninstalling Briskpen removes all of its local data from your device, including recordings, transcripts, presets, settings, the diagnostics log, and your encrypted API keys. Using Android’s “Clear storage” on the app has the same effect.

Data held by third parties is governed by those parties, not by us. If you sent audio or text to a transcription or AI provider, or backed up files to your Google Drive or Dropbox, that data lives with them under their retention practices. To delete it, use that provider’s controls or your cloud account (for example, removing the files from Drive/Dropbox, or asking the provider to delete data associated with your API key). We have no ability to delete data held in your accounts on your behalf.

11. Third-party services — please review their policies

When you choose to use a transcription provider, an AI/cleanup provider, or cloud backup, your data is handled by that third party under their terms and privacy policy. Because you choose and configure these services, you should review the privacy policy of whichever providers you connect. Depending on your choices, these may include:

• Transcription providers: Groq, OpenAI, NVIDIA (NIM), or any custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint you specify. (Or none, if you use on-device offline transcription.)
• Cleanup / AI providers: Groq, OpenAI, Anthropic, or any custom endpoint you specify.
• Cloud backup: Google (Google Drive) and/or Dropbox.

We are not responsible for the practices of these third parties, and their handling of your data is independent of Briskpen. Many of these providers store and process data overseas; by choosing a provider you are directing that your data be sent to them, wherever they operate. If you point the app at a custom endpoint, that endpoint is entirely your responsibility.

12. Children

Briskpen is a general-purpose productivity tool and is not directed at children. It does not knowingly collect personal information from children, and because the developer holds no user content or accounts, there is nothing for the developer to collect from any user. If a child uses the app, the same on-device-only design applies, and a parent or guardian should supervise any decision to connect third-party services or cloud accounts. Australia’s developing Children’s Online Privacy Code introduces additional expectations for services likely to be accessed by children; Briskpen’s no-collection, no-tracking design is intended to align with those expectations.

13. Your rights under Australian privacy law

Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, you have rights to access and correct personal information that an organisation holds about you. In Briskpen’s case, the developer holds no personal information about you — your content stays on your device or with services you control — so access and correction are things you carry out directly:

• Access: Your recordings and transcripts are available to you in the app.
• Correction: You can edit or delete transcripts in the app.
• Erasure: Delete items in the app, clear the diagnostics log, or uninstall to remove everything local; use your providers’/cloud controls for anything you sent off-device.

If you believe your privacy has been mishandled, you may contact the developer using the details below. You also have the right to complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

If the developer ever became aware of an eligible data breach involving personal information, it would comply with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme. In practice, because the developer holds no user content, the realistic surface for such a breach is limited to a problem report you chose to send.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time — for example, if the app gains new features or supports new providers. When we do, we’ll change the “Last updated” date at the top, and the current version will always be available at the public URL where this policy is hosted and linked from the Google Play listing. Significant changes will be reflected before the relevant feature is available to you.

15. Contact

If you have any questions about this policy or about how Briskpen handles your information, contact the developer:

• Developer: Cody Ward (Privacy Technologist)
• App: Briskpen (au.id.cody.voiceboard)
• Email: support@privacytechnologist.com.au

Briskpen is built on a simple principle: your voice and your words are yours. They live on your device, and they only go where you send them.