The short version
- Camera, capture-device and screen-sharing video is shown on your Mac and never uploaded or recorded by Farol.
- Microphone audio is sent to Amazon Transcribe in the AWS Europe (Ireland) Region only while captions are running, to turn speech into text.
- If you choose a translation, recognised caption text goes through Farol's service to Amazon Translate in the same Region.
- Transcripts of your sessions are saved on your Mac, not on a server. You can delete them at any time.
- There are no accounts, no advertising and no tracking. Farol does not sell data or build profiles of people.
- Privacy-safe diagnostics, without audio, video or caption text, go to Sentry so we can fix crashes.
Who is responsible
Farol is developed and operated by Tiago Rodrigues, who is the data controller for the processing described here. For any privacy question or request, email mail@tig.pt.
Data Farol handles and why
Video from your camera, capture device or screen
Farol shows the camera, capture device, or the one screen or window you pick in the macOS sharing picker, in its preview and on the audience display. The video is processed on your Mac only. Farol does not upload or record it, and screen sharing does not capture any system or app audio.
Microphone audio
After you allow microphone access in macOS and start captions, Farol streams the selected microphone's audio over an encrypted connection to Amazon Transcribe, which returns the recognised text. Audio leaves your Mac only while captions are running. Before you start, Farol may use the microphone locally to show its input level. Audio is not saved on your Mac or on Farol's servers.
Caption text and translations
Recognised text is shown in the app and on the audience display. If you choose a reading language different from the spoken one, Farol sends each completed phrase over HTTPS to its service at farol.live, which passes it to Amazon Translate and returns the translation. Farol's service holds a phrase only in memory while the translation request runs, and never writes caption text to logs or storage.
Farol saves each session on your Mac, with its start time, languages and the source and translated transcripts, so you can review it later. These files stay on your Mac and are not uploaded.
Installation and minute balance
Farol has no user accounts. On first launch, the app asks Farol's service for a random installation identifier and credential, and keeps them in your Mac's Keychain. They are not derived from your hardware or advertising identifiers and contain no name or contact details. Farol's service stores the identifier, a one-way hash of the credential, its status, and whether its free minutes were claimed.
When you start captions, the service records the session: its identifier, the installation, the languages, the minute rate, the start time, how many minutes were paid and used, and its status. This is how minutes are charged, renewed and refunded. It contains no audio, caption text or IP address.
When you claim the free minutes, Farol uses Apple's DeviceCheck service to check whether free minutes were already used on this Mac. Apple keeps that answer for Farol; Farol does not receive a hardware identifier.
Purchases
Minute packs are bought through the Mac App Store. Apple handles payment, and Farol never receives your payment details. Farol uses RevenueCat to record purchases and keep your minute balance, linked to the installation identifier.
Connection data
Like any internet service, Farol's servers and providers receive technical data such as your IP address when the app connects. It is used to deliver the service and protect it from abuse, for example by limiting how many requests one address can make.
Diagnostics
Farol sends crash reports, performance traces and privacy-safe operational events to Sentry, including app version, macOS version and hardware model, and events such as whether captions, the camera or screen capture started, stopped or failed, with durations, language codes, counts and error categories. Diagnostics never contain audio, video, caption or translated text, device names, credentials, or request and response bodies. Sentry's default collection of personal data is turned off. Sentry uses a random identifier per installation to count how many installations a problem affects; it is not your Mac's device or advertising identifier.
Legal bases
Where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation applies, Farol processes audio, caption text, installation, session and purchase data because it is needed to provide the service you ask for (performance of a contract). Connection data and diagnostics are processed for Farol's legitimate interests in keeping the service secure, reliable and free of abuse.
Farol does not use any of this data for advertising, marketing, tracking or profiling, and does not sell or share it for those purposes.
Service providers
Farol uses these providers to run the service. Each processes data on Farol's behalf under its own data-protection terms, and Farol requires them to protect it to the same or an equal standard as this policy.
| Provider | What it does | Data it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services, Europe (Ireland) Region | Farol's service, Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Translate | Microphone audio while captions run, phrases to translate, installation and session records, connection data |
| RevenueCat | Purchases and minute balance | Installation identifier, purchase and balance history, connection data |
| Apple | App Store purchases and DeviceCheck | Payment details (handled by Apple only), the DeviceCheck answer for this Mac |
| Sentry, EU data region | Crash and performance diagnostics | Diagnostics described above, no content |
Farol's AWS organisation applies the AWS AI-services opt-out policy, so content processed by Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Translate for Farol is not used by AWS to improve its services. An opt-out limits that use; it does not stop the processing or short retention AWS needs to run and secure its services. Some providers may process data outside the European Economic Area; where they do, they rely on safeguards recognised under GDPR, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
More detail: AWS Privacy Notice, Amazon Transcribe data protection, Amazon Translate data protection, RevenueCat Privacy Policy, Apple Privacy Policy and Sentry Privacy Policy.
Retention and deletion
- Video and audio: not recorded or stored by Farol. Audio is buffered in memory only as needed for the live stream.
- Caption text on Farol's service: held in memory only while a translation request runs.
- Saved sessions on your Mac: kept until you delete them in the app or remove Farol's app data. Anyone with access to your macOS user account may be able to read them.
- Session records on Farol's service: deleted automatically 30 days after the session.
- Installation record and minute balance: kept while the installation is in use, because they hold minutes you paid for. Ask us and we will delete them; unused minutes are lost when you do.
- Service logs: Farol's server logs never contain caption text, audio or credentials, and are deleted after 30 days.
- Diagnostics: kept for the retention period of Farol's Sentry project, then deleted by Sentry.
Your choices and rights
- Stop at any time: stopping captions ends microphone capture and transmission and cancels any translation in progress.
- Permissions: camera, screen recording and microphone are all optional. You can turn them off in System Settings › Privacy & Security and keep using the features that don't need them.
- Saved transcripts: delete any session in the app.
- Your rights: you can ask to access, correct or delete data about you, to restrict or object to processing, or for a copy of your data. Email mail@tig.pt and include your installation identifier if you can. Please don't send audio or transcripts by email.
- Complaints: you can also complain to your local data-protection authority.
Stopping or withdrawing does not undo processing that already happened.
For event organisers
Farol is made for events and shared spaces. If you run it, let speakers and attendees know that the talk is being captioned, and get any permission needed before you show someone's image, voice or screen. Don't share a screen or window that contains anything the audience shouldn't see, and avoid captioning highly sensitive conversations.
Security
Farol uses HTTPS and encrypted WebSocket connections, short-lived signed connection links, a per-installation credential kept in the macOS Keychain and stored only as a hash on the server, least-privilege access in AWS, and strict request validation. No system is perfectly secure, but we design Farol to collect as little as possible so there is little to lose.
This website
farol.live uses no cookies, analytics, advertising, fonts or scripts from third parties. It is hosted on AWS (Amazon S3 and CloudFront), which processes ordinary request data, such as your IP address, to deliver and secure the pages.
Children
Farol is a tool for event organisers and is not directed at children. It does not knowingly collect data from children.
Changes to this policy
We update this page when Farol's data practices change, and change the date at the top. For significant changes, we will also say so in the app's release notes.