Terms of Service

Effective date: April 6, 2026

The short version

Oaken Notes is a macOS application that runs entirely on your device. By downloading and using Oaken Notes, you agree to these terms. They are intentionally brief because a local-only app means fewer things to agree about.

License to use

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use Oaken Notes on any Mac you own or control, subject to these terms. If you obtained Oaken Notes through the Mac App Store, the Mac App Store Terms of Service also apply.

This license does not grant you the right to:

  • Copy, modify, or distribute the application or its source code
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the application
  • Sublicense, rent, lease, or lend the application to third parties
  • Remove or alter any proprietary notices, labels, or marks

Acceptable use

You agree to use Oaken Notes in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. You are responsible for:

  • Ensuring you have consent to record meetings where legally required
  • Complying with your jurisdiction's recording and consent laws (one-party or two-party consent)
  • How you use, share, or distribute notes and transcripts generated by the app
  • Any content you create, store, or export using the application

Oaken Notes does not monitor, moderate, or have access to your content. You bear sole responsibility for lawful use.

Intellectual property

Oaken Notes, including its design, code, and branding, is the intellectual property of Inspirify Limited and is protected by copyright and trademark laws.

Your content is yours. You retain full ownership of all recordings, transcripts, notes, and any other content you create using the app. We claim no rights to your content — it lives on your device and is under your control.

On-device AI and transcription

Oaken Notes uses two on-device transcription engines and Apple Intelligence for note enhancement:

  • Apple Intelligence (SpeechAnalyzer, SpeechTranscriber, Foundation Models) — the primary transcription and enhancement engine, running on your Mac's Neural Engine
  • WhisperKit — an open-source fallback transcription engine (MIT license, by Argmax, Inc.) that runs locally via CoreML when Apple Intelligence speech recognition is unavailable

These features:

  • Run entirely on your Mac using Apple Silicon (Neural Engine and CoreML)
  • Require macOS Tahoe 26+ and Apple Silicon
  • Are subject to Apple's terms of service for on-device AI capabilities (for Apple Intelligence features)
  • May produce results that vary in accuracy; you are responsible for reviewing AI-generated content

When WhisperKit is used for the first time, a speech model (~75 MB) is downloaded from Hugging Face. No user data is transmitted during this download. See our Privacy Policy for details.

We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated transcriptions or summaries. Always review important notes for accuracy.

iCloud sync

If you enable iCloud sync, your data is transmitted and stored using Apple's CloudKit infrastructure with end-to-end encryption. iCloud sync is governed by Apple's iCloud Terms of Service in addition to these terms. We are not responsible for iCloud service availability or data loss caused by iCloud infrastructure issues.

Disclaimers

Oaken Notes is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to:

  • Merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
  • Accuracy or reliability of AI-generated transcriptions and summaries
  • Uninterrupted or error-free operation
  • Compatibility with future macOS releases or hardware changes

We make reasonable efforts to ensure quality, but we cannot guarantee that the app will meet your specific requirements or that all recordings will be transcribed without errors.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Oaken Notes and its developers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to:

  • Loss of data, recordings, or notes
  • Loss of business opportunities based on AI-generated content
  • Damages arising from reliance on transcription accuracy
  • Damages related to unauthorized recording or privacy violations by the user

Our total liability for any claim arising from your use of Oaken Notes shall not exceed the amount you paid for the app.

Distribution and App Store terms

Oaken Notes is available as a direct download from oakennotes.com and through the Mac App Store.

  • Direct download: The application is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple. Updates may be delivered through the app or via the website.
  • Mac App Store: Your use is also subject to Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement. In the event of a conflict between these terms and Apple's EULA, Apple's terms shall prevail to the extent required by Apple's guidelines.

Open-source components

Oaken Notes incorporates the following open-source software:

Full license texts are included in the application bundle. Use of these components is subject to their respective licenses.

Termination

You may stop using Oaken Notes at any time by uninstalling the app. We reserve the right to terminate or suspend your license if you violate these terms. Upon termination, your locally stored data remains on your device — we have no mechanism to remotely delete your content.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. Revised terms will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Your continued use of Oaken Notes after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising from these terms shall be resolved in the courts of Hong Kong.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach out at [email protected].