Steno for Legal
Privileged conversations that stay privileged.
Client calls, case strategy, and internal deliberations are privileged — and privilege is easiest to defend when the material never left your control. Steno keeps every recording, transcript, and summary on the device, with no third-party processor able to touch or be compelled to produce it.
Why cloud tools don't fit
- Routing privileged audio through a cloud vendor introduces a third party into the chain of custody.
- Vendor-held recordings can become a discovery and retention liability.
- A notetaker bot joining a client call is hard to reconcile with confidentiality obligations.
Privilege by architecture
Because the audio never reaches a third party, there's no external processor to weaken a privilege claim — it's enforced by how the tool works, not a policy checkbox.
Chain of custody stays intact
Recordings and transcripts are local files under your control and your retention policy, not a vendor's terms.
No bot on the call
Steno captures audio directly, so nothing joins a client meeting as a participant.
Verifiable
Open source, so confidentiality can be confirmed by inspection rather than taken on trust.
On compliance
Steno runs entirely on your device. Your meeting recordings, transcripts, and summaries never reach our servers — there is no third-party processor handling your meeting data, which addresses a meaningful part of HIPAA, GDPR, and data-residency exposure. (Those frameworks also cover safeguards, agreements, and processes that remain your responsibility — no tool hands you compliance.) Steno itself isn't a certified cloud service, because there is no cloud service handling your meetings to certify — and that's the point: the vendor-breach risk that frameworks such as SOC 2 exist to assure against isn't in that path.
Questions
No. Everything is processed and stored on the device; no recording, transcript, or summary is sent to us or any other service. There is no third-party processor in the chain of custody.
In local app storage on your device, under your retention policy — not a vendor's cloud or terms of service.
Yes. Steno captures system and microphone audio simultaneously, so a Zoom, Teams, or Meet call is transcribed with nothing joining the meeting.
Also built for: Government · Defense · Healthcare · Finance · Executive
Start keeping private notes.
Free. Open source. No account needed.
macOS 14.4+ (Apple Silicon) · Windows 10/11 (x64, alpha — unsigned) · ~4 GB for the default model