This Privacy Policy explains what information BioClerk collects, why, and what control you have over it. It's a separate document from our Terms of Use because it covers different grounds in more detail: the specific categories of data involved, who we share them with, how long we keep them, and your rights.
What This Covers
This policy covers information collected through the BioClerk desktop application and the backend services it talks to (license activation, purchases, and the optional model-improvement upload). It does not cover the content of what your patients tell you — see Patient Information below for why that's handled differently.
What We Collect
Information you give us directly
Email address — collected when you buy a license, so we can send your purchase code and receipt, and reach you for support.
Information generated by the app
A device fingerprint — a one-way cryptographic hash of a few hardware identifiers, plus a random ID the app generates for itself, both hashed before they ever leave your device. This exists purely to bind a license to the device it was activated on and prevent sharing a single purchase across unlimited machines; it cannot be reversed back into any identifying hardware details, and isn't personal information about you.
License and activation records — which license is active on which device fingerprint, and status checks used to detect a revoked or deactivated license.
Your dictation content
By default: nothing leaves your device. Audio recordings and transcripts (the model's raw output, the formatted version, and anything you edit) are stored locally on your computer, encrypted at rest, and never transmitted anywhere.
Only if you turn on "Share data with BioClerk" in Settings (off by default): recordings and transcript text you produce afterward are uploaded, for the sole purpose described in How We Use It below. Turning this off again stops any further sharing going forward — it does not retroactively delete what was already shared; see Your Rights for how to request that.
Payment information
We never see your card details. Payment is processed entirely by Paystack; BioClerk's own systems only receive a transaction reference and amount, never your card number or similar payment credentials.
How We Use It
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Email address | Deliver your purchase code, send receipts, respond to support requests. |
| Device fingerprint | Bind and verify your license to your device; detect abuse of the trial/activation system. |
| Opted-in recordings & transcripts | Improve the accuracy of BioClerk's transcription model over time. Never used for any other purpose, and never sold. |
We do not use any of this to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell personal information to anyone, under any circumstances.
Who We Share It With
Paystack — processes your payment when you buy a license. Your email and transaction details pass through them; see Paystack's own privacy policy for how they handle payment data.
Google Cloud Storage — if (and only if) you've opted in to sharing data, your audio recordings are stored in a Google Cloud Storage bucket we control, purely as a storage vendor.
BioClerk's speech-to-text model (MedASR, made available by Google) runs entirely on your own device. Using it does not send any audio or transcript to Google. The only connection between your dictation and Google at all is the separate, opt-in storage step above, and even then Google Cloud Storage is being used purely as a storage vendor we chose, not as part of how the model itself works.
We do not share your information with any other third party, and we do not share it for any party's own independent marketing purposes.
Retention
Local data (recordings, transcripts, license state) stays on your device for as long as you keep BioClerk installed, until you delete it yourself or uninstall the app.
Locally recorded audio is deleted from your device automatically once it's been synced (if you opted in), and in any case no later than around six months after it was recorded — whichever comes first.
Opted-in data already uploaded is retained for as long as reasonably necessary to improve BioClerk's transcription model, after which it's deleted. If you'd like previously-shared data deleted sooner, contact us (see Contact Us) and we'll action the request.
Purchase and license records are kept for as long as your license could reasonably need support, and as required to meet our own tax/accounting obligations.
Security
Recordings and transcripts stored locally are encrypted at rest on your device.
Everything sent to our backend (activation, purchase, optional sync) travels over an encrypted HTTPS connection.
No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security — but we don't collect more than we need, specifically so there's less at risk if something ever did go wrong.
Your Rights
- Turn sharing off at any time, from Settings — takes effect immediately for anything recorded afterward.
- Ask what we have — request a copy of the personal information (email, purchase records, any data you've opted to share) we hold about you.
- Ask us to delete it — including data already uploaded under the opt-in sharing feature, subject to what we're legally required to keep (e.g. basic purchase records for tax purposes).
- Correct it — if anything we hold about you (like your email) is wrong.
To exercise any of these, contact us at the address below. We'll respond within a reasonable time.
Patient Information
This policy covers information about you — the person using BioClerk. It does not cover the patient information contained within what you dictate. By default, that content never leaves your device at all, and even if you opt into sharing, you remain the one responsible for complying with whatever health-data privacy laws apply to your own practice and your patients — including obtaining any consent you're required to obtain before dictating identifiable patient information, and before opting that content into the sharing feature specifically. BioClerk is a tool you use; it doesn't make that judgment for you.
Children
BioClerk is a professional tool for clinicians and is not directed at, marketed to, or knowingly used to collect information from children.
International Transfers
Paystack and Google Cloud Storage may process or store information outside the country you're in. We only work with providers who maintain appropriate safeguards for the information they process on our behalf.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time — for example, if we add a feature that changes what data is involved. We'll update the version shown at the top of this page when we do. Material changes affecting how previously-collected data is used will be communicated before they take effect.
Contact Us
Questions, or a request about your data? Reach us at support.bioclerk@gmail.com.
Also see our Terms of Use.