Who hears your meetings? Where AI notetakers send your audio
It depends on the design. A bot that joins the call (Otter, Fireflies) sends audio to the vendor's cloud. A bot-free desktop app (Granola) captures on your device but uses cloud providers for transcription and notes. A fully on-device recorder (Everpaper) keeps audio, transcript and summary on the Mac unless you choose a cloud AI.
Disclosure. Everpaper is our product, and it is in this article. We say where it falls short, and every competitor fact below carries the date we checked it.
Facts as of October 2026. Prices and features change. Each source is linked at the end.
Meeting tools fall into three designs: a bot joins the call, an app captures audio on your computer and sends it to a cloud, or an app does everything on your computer. Everpaper is our product and is the third, so read that part with that in mind. Everything else below comes from each vendor’s own policy page.
The three designs
A bot joins the call. Otter and Fireflies work this way. The notetaker appears as a participant, the audio goes to the vendor’s cloud, and everyone on the call is recorded by a vendor they did not choose.
A desktop app captures audio on your device. Granola does this. No bot joins and every plan lists audio deleted after transcription, but transcription and notes are produced by outside providers.
Everything stays on the machine. Capture, transcription and the transcript live on your Mac. Everpaper does this. Nothing joins the call and recordings are never uploaded.
What each vendor says
| Audio and transcript | Training on your data | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter | Cloud, hosted with AWS in the United States | Policy effective 16 June 2026 lists training its AI on de-identified audio and on transcriptions | Privacy policy |
| Fireflies | Cloud | Policy updated 28 September 2026 says it does not use personal information for AI model training | Privacy policy |
| Granola | Audio not stored; transcript and notes use cloud providers | Trains on anonymized data for non-Enterprise users, opt out in Settings; off by default on Enterprise | Security page |
| Limitless | Cloud; accounts and data permanently deleted after 19 December 2025 in regions where service ended | Not stated on the shutdown notice | FAQ |
| Everpaper | On your Mac | Recordings are not uploaded; text goes only to an AI provider you connect | Privacy docs |
Voice data
Speaker recognition can create voice data. Fireflies’ policy says its service providers may use voice recordings to extract data about participants’ voice characteristics to tell speakers apart, that this may count as a biometric identifier in some places, and that its providers do not use it to identify or authenticate people. A proposed class action over this was filed against Fireflies on 18 December 2025. Otter is a defendant in a consolidated class action over recording and voiceprints, and on 13 August 2026 a judge let the wiretap, California privacy and Illinois biometric claims proceed. Both are allegations at an early stage.
Everpaper labels speakers on the Mac. By default a voice is remembered between meetings only after you name it, you can forget one voice or all of them, and none of it is uploaded.
What stays on the Mac with Everpaper
Recordings, screenshots and your calendar are never uploaded. Only text, such as transcripts and meeting titles, can reach an AI provider, and only one you set up. A cloud provider receives text only after you turn on Allow cloud AI to analyze your journal, which is off by default. An on-device provider keeps summaries on the Mac. Secrets such as keys and card numbers are scrubbed before any call. Everpaper has no analytics or telemetry.
What you give up is platform reach: macOS 15 or later on Apple silicon, no mobile app, private beta with no public price, and no bot, so you have to tell people you are recording.
How to choose
If the call includes people who did not agree to a vendor’s cloud, use a bot-free tool, and tell them. If the audio must not leave the machine, use an on-device one. If you need a team workflow and accept the cloud, check the policy lines above for the vendor you pick.
Frequently asked questions
Does Otter use my recordings to train its AI?
Otter's privacy policy, effective 16 June 2026, lists as a purpose training its proprietary AI technology on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions, which may contain personal information.
Does Fireflies train AI on my meetings?
Fireflies' privacy policy, last updated 28 September 2026, says it does not use personal information for AI model training, and that meeting content under Zero Data Retention is not used for training internal or external AI models.
Does Granola store my audio?
Granola says it does not store the audio from meetings. It names transcription providers such as Deepgram and AI providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, and says it trains on anonymized data for non-Enterprise users unless they opt out in Settings.
Can a meeting tool work with no internet?
Everpaper records and transcribes on the Mac, so those parts do not need the network. Summaries need an AI provider, and an on-device provider keeps them on the Mac too.
Is it legal to record a meeting with an AI tool?
Consent rules differ by country and state. A bot in the participant list tells people they are recorded. A bot-free tool does not, so tell participants before you record.
Sources
Written by Marco Iannello Updated 21 October 2026 How we write comparisons