What leaves your Mac, and when

Rooster is built so your work never has to leave your Mac. Recording, transcription, editing, effects and export all run on it. There is no account, no cloud library and no upload step.

The privacy policy lists every case in which anything crosses the network, under "What does cross the network". In the app, they look like this.

Things Rooster does on its own

• Downloading the speech model, once. The first time you transcribe with the standard engine, Rooster downloads its speech model. Your video is not sent anywhere: the model comes to your Mac and runs there. See The speech model is a one-time download.
• Checking for updates. Rooster fetches a small file to see whether a new version exists. It asks before it starts checking on its own, and you can always choose Rooster > Check for Updates… yourself. See Update Rooster.

Things that happen only when you ask

• Sending feedback. Your message, your email if you give one, an image if you attach one, and which Rooster you are running - its version and build, how you got it, and your version of macOS. The feedback box says exactly what it sends before you press Send. See Send feedback or contact support.
• Cloud transcription, with your own key. Only if you choose Cloud API as the Transcription provider in Settings. Then the recording's sound is sent to the service you configured, and no other.
• AI-generated B-roll, with your own fal.ai key. Only when you generate a clip, or test your key in Settings. Your prompt goes to fal.ai, and the finished clip comes back.

Both keys are kept in macOS Keychain, not in Rooster's files.

Things that never leave

• Your recordings and imported media.
• Your transcripts, captions and edits.
• Rooster's diagnostic record of a failed transcription. It stays on your Mac and leaves only if you copy or save it yourself.

Rooster has no analytics or usage tracking.