HIPAA-Friendly Dictation
For a fully local workflow on an Apple Silicon Mac, choose the on-device engine and turn optional AI text formatting off. In this setup, dictated audio and transcripts stay on your device. AI text formatting sends finished text to the cloud when enabled with either engine.
Voibe also offers zero-retention Cloud Mode on Mac and Windows (required on Windows and Intel Macs): audio is transcribed by open-source models, deleted the moment transcription completes, never stored, and never used to train AI. It holds the same privacy standard, but it does place transient audio with a speech provider, so confirm the requirements for your workflow before using it for PHI. We offer BAAs on demand: email hi@getvoibe.com with your requirements.
This page explains what "HIPAA-friendly" means here, the boundary of what Voibe offers, and the use cases where on-device dictation is the right fit.
The 30-second version
- ✓ With on-device transcription and AI text formatting off, dictated audio and transcripts stay on your Apple Silicon Mac — the mode we recommend for PHI.
- ✓ In this fully local setup, Voibe does not send dictated PHI to a cloud provider.
- ✓ Voibe offers BAAs on demand. Email hi@getvoibe.com with your requirements.
- ⚠ HIPAA compliance for your overall workflow is your organization's responsibility — Voibe is one part of that picture.
On this page
What "HIPAA-friendly" means here
HIPAA's Privacy and Security Rules govern how covered entities and their business associates handle Protected Health Information (PHI). The core question for any tool a clinician introduces into their workflow is: does this tool receive, transmit, or store PHI?
With on-device transcription and AI text formatting off on an Apple Silicon Mac, Voibe processes dictated content locally. The following describes that setup.
- ✓ Audio is captured and transcribed on your Mac. Apple Silicon's Neural Engine runs the model locally. The audio buffer is dropped after transcription — never written to a file we can access, never sent to our servers.
- ✓ Transcripts go straight into the app you're typing in. Whether that's your EHR, a note-taking app, or a Word document, the text path is local. Voibe keeps a local-only history on your Mac.
- ✓ What we do collect contains no PHI. Email address (for licensing), usage analytics (counts and feature usage, never content), and crash reports (technical diagnostics, not your dictation).
On-device transcription with AI text formatting off keeps dictated content on your Apple Silicon Mac. If your organization requires a BAA, or you are evaluating Cloud Mode for clinical work, email hi@getvoibe.com with your requirements. We offer BAAs on demand. For the technical detail on the pipeline, see How On-Device Dictation Works.
BAAs and compliance requirements
We try to be precise about this so it doesn't surprise anyone in a procurement review.
- Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) are available on demand. Solo practitioners and teams can email hi@getvoibe.com with their requirements. Tell us about your intended workflow and whether you plan to use Cloud Mode so we can discuss the agreement.
- We do not hold HIPAA-specific certifications. Voibe also does not currently hold SOC 2 or ISO 27001. See the Security page for our current posture.
- We are not an EHR or a clinical documentation product. Voibe is the dictation layer. The systems you dictate into — EHR, note-taking apps, etc. — have their own compliance posture. Confirm those separately.
- We can't make compliance claims about your overall workflow. HIPAA looks at the whole environment — device, network, downstream systems, training. Voibe is one component.
Use cases for clinicians
What Voibe-using clinicians and healthcare workers tell us they use it for:
Chart notes between appointments
Dictate the note straight into the EHR field while it's fresh, instead of typing it after the patient has left. The audio stays on the Mac you're already using for the EHR.
Referral letters and reports
Long-form correspondence is faster to dictate than to type. With on-device transcription and AI text formatting off, dictated patient details stay local — there's no transcription vendor in the chain.
Internal documentation
Case discussions, internal memos, peer review notes. Dictation throughput, with the same local processing when you use the on-device engine with AI text formatting off.
Custom medical vocabulary
Use Memory to teach Voibe drug names, procedure codes, and abbreviations specific to your specialty. Stored locally, never uploaded.
What to confirm with your team
If you're introducing Voibe into a clinical workflow, here are the questions a compliance or security team will reasonably want answered. Most have factual answers we've put on this site already.
| Question | Where to find the answer |
|---|---|
| Does Voibe receive or transmit PHI? | How On-Device Dictation Works — full pipeline. |
| What does Voibe collect, and from whom? | Privacy Policy; Security page. |
| Who are the subprocessors? | Security page — full list. |
| How are macOS permissions scoped? | Permissions — what each grants and what Voibe cannot do with them. |
| What is your incident response process? | Security page — Incident response section. |
For specific questions a compliance review surfaces, email hi@getvoibe.com and we'll respond directly.
Note. This page is informational and does not constitute legal or compliance advice. HIPAA compliance is determined for the workflow as a whole and is the responsibility of the covered entity. Confirm with your organization's privacy officer before using any new tool with PHI.
Compliance question we haven't covered? Email hi@getvoibe.com.