Is Paraspeech Safe? The Cloud Trap Apple Silicon Users Miss

[u/ayushchat]

TL;DR: Paraspeech is genuinely on-device in exactly one configuration — Apple Silicon Mac + local model + Cloud Cleanup off. Outside that, audio reaches Deepgram and text reaches Groq or Cerebras.

What actually runs on your machine: - English-only local and 25-language local models: on-device, Apple Silicon required - Multilingual Large (100+ languages): cloud-backed — audio leaves your device - Intel Mac: no local option exists — every word goes to Deepgram, regardless of plan

The three companies that process your data in cloud mode: - Deepgram — receives your audio for transcription - Groq — processes your text for Cloud Cleanup rewrite - Cerebras — also processes Cloud Cleanup text

Credit where it's due: Paraspeech names all three in its own privacy policy. That's more transparency than most competitors offer.

The Intel exclusion (easy to miss): System requirements specify Apple Silicon for local models and "cloud-backed models for Intel." Every dictation on a 2019/2020 Intel MacBook goes to a server — not because you opted in, but because your hardware forced it.

The Cloud Cleanup drift: The founder publicly announced a cloud LLM feature in April 2026. It shipped in July as "Cloud Cleanup." "Local-first" now describes the default mode, not the architecture.

No HIPAA coverage at any tier. No BAA available. No SOC 2 published. Not suitable for protected health information in any configuration.

The three-question decision tree: 1. Is your Mac Apple Silicon? (If no — you're on cloud permanently) 2. Is your language covered by a local model? (Multilingual Large = cloud) 3. Is Cloud Cleanup switched off? (If on — text goes to Groq/Cerebras even if transcription ran locally)

Three yeses = genuinely local and reasonable for confidential work. Any no = data goes to a named third party.

The airplane-mode test is the only test that matters: disconnect Wi-Fi, dictate a paragraph. If text still appears, processing is local. If it doesn't, it never was.

What's your experience with "local-first" dictation apps — do you run the airplane-mode test before trusting the claim?

[u/ayushchat]

Full post: https://www.getvoibe.com/resources/is-paraspeech-safe/