Why “Never Records” is an invariant, not a slogan.

Most AI note tools market deletion. Fazit was built so that deletion is unnecessary.

The problem with “we delete it later”

Every cloud-based meeting assistant necessarily writes audio (or a processed representation) to disk or object storage. This is required for transcription, diarization, model improvement, and compliance logging.

Once data is written, it can be subpoenaed, breached, or used for training. Even if the vendor promises deletion, the file existed.

How Fazit is different by construction

• Audio is captured into a fixed-size ring buffer in RAM only.
• Transcription and note generation consume a snapshot.
• AudioRingBuffer.reset() is called unconditionally on every exit path.
• The type has no serialization method. It is impossible for the current implementation to persist audio without a deliberate, reviewable change.

This is not a policy. It is source code you can read and compile yourself.

Legal significance (Germany §201 StGB)

German counsel has noted that a pipeline that transcribes in volatile memory and never writes an audio file to a sound carrier generally does not meet the elements of the statute. The distinction between “never created” and “created then deleted” matters in law.

Why competitors struggle to copy this

Cloud vendors built their economics on storing data and training models. Re-architecting to RAM-only destroys their current value proposition. Local competitors can add it, but most still buffer to disk for reliability and features.