Sotto Privacy Policy

Effective date: 19 October 2026

App: Sotto: Offline Voice Notes (Android, package com.sotto.voice)

Developer: Virender Singh

Contact: singhvirender411@gmail.com

The short version

Sotto turns your voice into text on your phone. Your recordings and notes are processed and stored on your device. We do not run servers for this app, and there are no user accounts. Sotto is free and shows ads. The ads are provided by Google AdMob, which collects some technical and advertising data as described in the "Ads" section below. Ads never receive your recordings or the text of your notes.

What Sotto does with your data

Microphone and recordings

Sotto asks for the microphone permission so you can dictate notes. Audio is turned into text on your phone by a speech-recognition model (OpenAI's Whisper, run locally with the open-source whisper.cpp library). The audio is not sent to us or to any other server. When you save a note, short audio clips of that recording are stored in the app's private storage on your phone, so that features that need them can work. Deleting a note deletes its audio clips.

Your notes

Notes (title, text, and the raw and cleaned versions) are stored in a database in the app's private storage. Only Sotto can read this storage. Nothing is uploaded by the app.

Settings

Your choices (theme, speech model) are stored on the device.

Ads

Sotto is free and is supported by advertising. Ads are provided by Google AdMob (Google LLC). To show ads, AdMob's code running in the app collects and uses information such as:

• your device's advertising ID (you can reset it or opt out of personalisation in Android Settings > Privacy > Ads),

• your IP address and an approximate location derived from it,

• device and app information (model, operating system, app version, language) and diagnostics,

• how you interact with ads (views and taps).

This data is used to show and measure ads, to limit fraud and abuse, and, unless you opt out, to personalise ads. AdMob processes it under Google's own privacy policy (policies.google.com/privacy), and may share it with its advertising partners. Ads never receive your voice recordings, the text of your notes, or your note titles. Sotto does not send that content to AdMob or to anyone else.

Where required by law (the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), Sotto asks for your consent before personalised ads are shown, and you can change your choice later from the app's settings.

Ads need an internet connection. With no connection, Sotto still records, transcribes and edits your notes; ads simply do not appear.

What Sotto downloads

The first time you open the app it needs the internet once to download the speech model (about 60 MB) from Hugging Face (huggingface.co). Like any website or download, the host can see standard technical information such as your IP address and the time of the request. Sotto sends no personal data or note content with this request. After the model is downloaded, Sotto works without an internet connection. If you later choose a different speech model in Settings, that model is downloaded the same way.

Permissions Sotto uses

Permission

Why

Microphone (RECORD_AUDIO)

To hear your voice and turn it into text

Internet and network state (INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE)

To download the speech model and to load ads

Advertising ID (AD_ID)

Used by the ad service to show and measure ads (you can reset or opt out in Android settings)

Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS)

To show progress while the speech model downloads

Foreground service, data sync

Lets the model download continue reliably in the background

Things you choose to do

• Copy, share or export: when you copy a note, share it, or export it as text, PDF or Word, the content goes where you send it (another app, a file, the clipboard). That is your choice and under your control; this policy does not cover the apps or services you share to.

• Read aloud: this uses your phone's built-in text-to-speech engine. Depending on the engine and voice installed on your phone, the engine's own provider may handle the text under its own privacy policy. Sotto does not control this.

Android device backup

Android can back up some app data to your Google account if you have device backup turned on. Sotto's note database is included in that system backup, so your notes can be restored when you set up a new phone. Backups are handled by Android and Google under your Google account settings; Sotto does not receive them. You can turn off device backup in your phone's settings. Audio clips are not included in the backup.

What we do not do

• We do not upload your recordings or notes, and the ad service never receives them.

• We do not run our own analytics or accounts, and we do not sell your notes or recordings.

• We do not use your recordings or notes to train any model.

• The ad service (Google AdMob) handles the advertising data described in the "Ads" section under its own privacy policy.

Keeping and deleting your data

Your data stays on your phone until you delete it. Delete a note inside Sotto to remove its text and audio. Uninstalling Sotto removes all of its data from your phone. Any copy in a device backup is managed through your Google account settings.

Children

Sotto is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Ads are configured as suitable for a general audience.

Security

Because your data stays on your device, it is protected by your phone's own security (screen lock and storage encryption). Keep your phone updated and locked.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above and publish the new version at the same address.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email singhvirender411@gmail.com.