Privacy Policy
Bear Witness
Last updated: 21 April 2026
Bear Witness is a meeting recording app developed by Beardown. This policy explains what data the app collects, how it's used, and your choices.
What stays on your device
All of the following data is stored locally on your device and never leaves it:
- Audio recordings
- Meeting transcripts (generated entirely on-device using on-device AI)
- Meeting metadata (titles, dates, durations)
- Action items and key quotes
You can delete any meeting and its audio at any time from within the app.
What leaves your device
When Bear Witness generates a summary of your meeting, the transcript text is sent to our server at bearwitness.beardown.io. Our server does not store or log your transcript. It is passed directly to Anthropic's Claude API for processing and discarded immediately after the response is returned.
Anthropic processes the transcript solely to generate your summary, key quotes, and action items. Anthropic does not use API data to train its models. You can read Anthropic's privacy policy at anthropic.com/privacy.
The following data is also sent to our server:
- Device identifier (a per-app identifier, not your Apple ID) — used for rate limiting
- App Attest attestation data — sent to Apple to verify your device is genuine; our server uses this to prevent abuse
What we don't do
- We do not create user accounts or require sign-in
- We do not track you across apps or websites
- We do not collect analytics or usage data
- We do not use advertising SDKs
- We do not sell or share your data with third parties
- We do not store your transcripts, summaries, or audio on our servers
Crash and error reports
We use Sentry to collect anonymous crash and error reports from the app. These reports contain metadata about the failure (stack trace, OS version, app version, device model) and never include your audio, transcripts, or any content you record. We use this data solely to diagnose and fix bugs. Sentry acts as our data processor and does not sell or share this data.
Third-party services
| Service | Purpose | Data shared |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic Claude API | Generating meeting summaries | Transcript text (not stored) |
| Apple App Attest | Device verification | Attestation token |
Data retention
All data is stored on your device. We do not retain any data on our servers. When you delete a meeting or the app, the data is gone.
Children's privacy
This app is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
Your responsibilities when recording
Bear Witness is a tool; you decide what to record. Recording laws vary by jurisdiction - some require all parties to consent, others require only one. You are solely responsible for obtaining the consent required by the law that applies to you and for using recordings only for lawful purposes. Bear Witness does not monitor, gate, or limit what you record.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy; the latest version will always be at this URL. Significant changes will be noted, and the date at the top of this page will be updated. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance.
Contact
If you have questions about this policy, contact us at [email protected].