Mac dictation permissions and uploads

You do not need the source code to know what an app does. The permission prompts macOS shows on first launch tell most of the story.

Microphone

Dictation needs the microphone. What matters is when it is open. Some apps listen only while you hold a key. Some listen all the time. Yubi opens the microphone while the right Option key is down and closes it the moment you let go, and the menu bar shows which state it is in.

Accessibility

This is the permission that lets an app type into the app in front of you. On macOS there is no other way to deliver text to another application. The flip side is that an app with Accessibility can also read the names of buttons and the text in fields on screen. It is a permission worth granting carefully.

Yubi uses it in three situations: typing the transcribed text, reading the window when you ask about the screen, and, if you turn the switch on, pressing the control it pointed at. Some password managers are refused by bundle identifier and never read. Password fields are recorded as present, without their contents.

Screen Recording

Screen Recording is separate from dictation. Turning speech into text has nothing to do with the screen. Yet some dictation apps ask for it, because they take screenshots, send them to an AI service, and use them as context. Your screen goes to a server.

Yubi has a feature for asking about the screen, and it never takes a screenshot. It reads the window's accessibility tree, the list of control names and field text the app already exposes. That is text, it is a few kilobytes, and it needs no Screen Recording permission. By default, you review the payload before it is sent.

Desktop and Documents

Files have nothing to do with dictation. An app that asks for folder access is reading your documents or writing something into them. The cloud app I examined asked for Desktop, Documents and Downloads. Its terms of service did not say why.

What the permission screen does not show

Some things never appear as a prompt: analytics, account creation, silent updates. They only use the network, so macOS does not ask. To spot them, look for a sign up screen on first launch, or a setting along the lines of send usage data.

Yubi has none of the three. There are no analytics. There is no account. Updates happen when you choose to install a new version, and not before.

What I check before installing

Yubi asks for two permissions: microphone and Accessibility. A dictation app that asks for more is doing something other than dictation. That is not automatically bad, but it deserves an explanation. Without one, I do not install it.