# Fazit

> A native macOS menubar app that turns 1:1 client calls into finished Markdown
> notes in an Obsidian vault. No bot joins the call, transcription and note
> generation run on the Mac, and the call audio is never written to disk.

Fazit is built for people with confidentiality obligations on client calls:
consultants, coaches, lawyers, financial advisers, therapists.

## How it works

- **Capture is bot-free.** A Core Audio process tap reads the call app's output
  and the microphone directly. Nothing joins the meeting and no other
  participant sees anything.
- **Audio is never written to disk.** It exists only in a fixed-size RAM ring
  buffer with no write API, destroyed on every exit path including errors.
  Every note records `audio_retained: false` in its frontmatter.
- **Transcription runs on-device** (Parakeet via CoreML), and notes are
  generated by a local model on localhost, so neither the audio nor the
  transcript leaves the machine.
- **Output is a plain Markdown file** written into a folder of your Obsidian
  vault, or Apple Notes. There is no Fazit database holding a copy.

## Accuracy notes for anyone quoting this site

- "Nothing leaves the Mac" is a claim about **call content**. Models are
  downloaded once from public CDNs on first run, and account, licensing and
  payment use our servers. Those are disclosed at /security/ and are a
  separate lane from call content.
- Fazit is an early-stage product. It makes no maturity, scale, or certification
  claims, and holds no SOC 2 or HIPAA certification.
- Nothing on this site is legal advice. The posts describe architecture and
  cite primary sources; consent and professional-conduct duties still apply to
  the person running the call.
- Requires macOS. There is no Windows, Linux, iOS or Android version.

## Pricing

7-day free trial, no card. Then a one-time licence, not a subscription.
Current pricing is at /pricing/.

## Pages

- [Security and architecture](https://getfazit.com/security/): how capture works and what the audio never does.
- [Features](https://getfazit.com/features/): what a finished note contains.
- [Pricing](https://getfazit.com/pricing/): trial terms and the one-time licence.
- [Changelog](https://getfazit.com/changelog/): every release.
- [About](https://getfazit.com/about/): why the product exists.

## Architecture

- [Zoom meeting notes in Obsidian without a bot or recording](https://getfazit.com/blog/zoom-meeting-notes-obsidian-2026/): The best Zoom to Obsidian workflow writes Markdown files directly into your vault. For confidential 1:1 client calls, the audio path matters more than the note template.
- [AI meeting notes without recording in 2026](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-meeting-notes-without-recording-2026/): AI meeting notes can be made without recording the call, but the architecture has to prove it. The test is simple: no bot, no cloud transcription, no audio file, and no vendor database holding the note.
- [Cloud Transcription Was a Hardware Workaround. The Hardware Caught Up.](https://getfazit.com/blog/on-device-transcription-apple-silicon/): Speech recognition moved to the cloud a decade ago because laptops could not run the models. Apple Silicon's Neural Engine and NVIDIA's Parakeet TDT v3 ended that: a server-class speech model now transcribes your calls on a MacBook, faster than the conversation happens. The engineering story, and why on-device is the precondition for audio that never becomes a file.
- [An AI Notetaker Without Calendar Access: Capture Belongs at the Audio Layer](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-without-calendar-access/): A meeting bot cannot join a call it was never told about, and the way it gets told is by reading your calendar. That one OAuth grant hands a vendor every event title and attendee address you have, and still misses the WhatsApp call, the Slack huddle and the client who rang early. What the scope actually returns, and how Core Audio process taps remove the calendar from the loop entirely.
- [An AI Notetaker Should Not Be a Participant in Your Call](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-without-a-bot/): Meeting bots join as a third party and ship everyone's audio to a vendor cloud. Fazit taps the call app locally — no bot in the room, no recording anywhere.
- [Why 'Never Records' Is Not Marketing — It Is an Invariant](https://getfazit.com/blog/never-records-architecture/): How RAM-only audio and unconditional destruction became the load-bearing promise of Fazit.

## Comparison

- [A Granola alternative for Mac that keeps client-call audio off the cloud](https://getfazit.com/blog/granola-alternative-mac-2026/): Fazit is the Mac-native Granola alternative for professionals who want Markdown notes in Obsidian without a bot, cloud transcription, or an audio file.
- [Fathom vs Fireflies vs Otter vs tl;dv vs Granola: The Comparison Reorders Around One Question](https://getfazit.com/blog/fathom-vs-fireflies-vs-otter-vs-tldv-vs-granola/): Five tools everyone shortlists, and they all write a good note now. Rank them on the only column that survives a security review, who holds a copy of your conversation after the call ends, and the list reorders. Four keep a recording. One deletes after transcription. Fazit is the sixth row, where the copy was never eligible to exist.
- [How to Compare AI Notetakers in 2026: Architecture, Not Features](https://getfazit.com/blog/compare-ai-notetaker-architecture/): Fathom, Otter, Fireflies, tl;dv, and Granola all write a clean summary now, and that race is over. The comparison that still means something is architectural: where in the pipeline a durable artifact of your conversation is created, and who holds it afterward. Five of six create one on someone else's infrastructure. Fazit is the pipeline where the artifact never exists.
- [The Best AI Notetaker in 2026: An Honest Head-to-Head](https://getfazit.com/blog/best-ai-notetaker-2026/): Fathom, Otter, Fireflies, tl;dv, and Granola each win a different job — free tier, real-time archive, sales CRM, video, bot-free notes. A concession-first roundup that names each tool's real strength, its recording weakness, and the one axis Fazit wins outright: the recording never exists.
- [The Best Granola AI Alternatives in 2026, Ranked by Where Your Audio Goes](https://getfazit.com/blog/granola-alternatives/): Granola is the best of the bot-free notetakers, but it still streams your audio to third-party transcription services. Six alternatives (Fazit, Shadow, Talat, Jamie, Otter, Fireflies) compared on where the audio goes and whether a recording survives the call.
- [Fazit vs. the Cloud Notetakers: Where Does the Audio Actually Go?](https://getfazit.com/blog/fazit-vs-cloud-ai-notetakers/): A privacy-first comparison of Fathom, Otter, Fireflies, tl;dv, and Granola in 2026. Summaries have converged — the only axis that survives a security review is the audio path.

## Compliance

- [Brewer v. Otter.ai: The Case File, and Where It Stands](https://getfazit.com/blog/brewer-v-otter-ai/): One February 2025 sales call, captured by a notetaker the plaintiff never installed, became four consolidated class actions and the case the whole category watches. What Brewer filed, how it became In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation, what happened at the August 4 hearing where Judge Lee was not persuaded by Otter's standing argument, and what a complaint does not establish.
- [A HIPAA-Compliant AI Notetaker: What the Label Buys, and What It Cannot](https://getfazit.com/blog/hipaa-compliant-ai-notetaker/): Every healthcare AI scribe leads with HIPAA-compliant, and HHS recognises no such certification. The label means the vendor will sign a business associate agreement: paperwork that makes your client's session leaving your practice lawful, not paperwork that prevents it. What the rules actually bind, the conduit myth, and the architecture where no business associate exists because no third party ever receives the data.
- [The Granola Lawsuit: What Chamberlain v. Granola Alleges, and What It Does Not](https://getfazit.com/blog/granola-lawsuit/): A proposed class action filed on 30 July 2026 in the Northern District of California argues that the thing everyone liked about Granola, that no bot appears in the call, is the same thing that left other participants with no way to know a recording was running. The seven counts, the training-by-default allegation, what a complaint does not establish, and why the consent question applies to every bot-free notetaker including ours.
- [AI Notetaker for Therapists and Coaches: Why "HIPAA-Compliant" Still Records](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-for-therapists-coaches/): Every therapy AI scribe leads with "HIPAA-compliant." Read closely and the label promises a business associate agreement, which is the paperwork that lets your client's session leave your practice lawfully. It papers the disclosure. It does not prevent it. What the label covers, why coaches were never in its scope, and the posture where nothing leaves the room.
- [An AI Notetaker for Accountants: § 7216 Has an Opinion](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-for-accountants/): For most professions, putting a cloud notetaker on a client call is a confidentiality question. For a tax return preparer it is a criminal statute: IRC § 7216 makes unauthorised disclosure of tax return information a misdemeanour, and § 6713 adds a civil penalty per disclosure. What that means for a notetaker sitting on a client call, and the posture that avoids the question.
- [An AI Notetaker for Consultants: The NDA You Signed Already Decided](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-for-consultants/): Every consulting engagement starts with a confidentiality clause: no disclosure of client information to third parties without written consent. A cloud AI notetaker on a client call is exactly that disclosure, and by 2026 many MSAs name AI tools outright. The tool that satisfies the clause is the one that never sends the audio anywhere.
- [An AI Notetaker for Financial Advisors: Keep the Note, Skip the Recording](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-for-financial-advisors/): No SEC or FINRA rule makes an advisor record client calls. Plenty of rules punish records you can't produce, and since June 3, 2026 the amended Reg S-P covers every firm's vendor cloud. The compliant posture is one artifact: a note you retain under your own policy, with no recording behind it.
- [The AI Notetaker Legal Risk Nobody Priced In: Your Transcript Is Now Exhibit A](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-legal-risk/): The Otter.ai wiretap class action gave the AI notetaker legal risk a case number and a price: $5,000 per recording under California Penal Code § 637.2, plus a transcript that becomes discoverable evidence — Exhibit A — in any lawsuit. Discovery and wiretap statutes both point at the same artifact: the recording. The one you never made can't be subpoenaed.
- [A GDPR-Compliant AI Notetaker Is One That Never Creates the Data](https://getfazit.com/blog/gdpr-compliant-ai-notetaker/): Cloud notetakers make you a data controller shipping voice data to a processor chain — Article 28 DPAs, transfer mechanisms, DSARs and all. With the EU AI Act's main obligations applying from August 2, 2026, the cleanest compliance posture is architectural: audio that never persists and never leaves the device has nothing to govern.
- [AI Notetakers for Lawyers: The Attorney–Client Privilege Risk of Cloud Transcription](https://getfazit.com/blog/ai-notetaker-for-lawyers/): For lawyers the risk isn't only consent — it's privilege. Sending client-call audio to a vendor and its subprocessors is a third-party disclosure that invites waiver arguments and creates a discoverable record. Why on-device capture avoids the disclosure, and the client-notice duty it doesn't.
- [Is It Legal to Record Client Calls? Consent Laws by State, Explained](https://getfazit.com/blog/is-it-legal-to-record-client-calls/): One-party consent under US federal law, all-party in roughly a dozen states, and stricter still for lawyers, therapists, and advisors. A plain-English map of call-recording consent law — and why the recording you create is a second risk, separate from consent.

## Privacy

- [Does Zoom AI Companion Record Your Meetings? What It Stores and How to Turn It Off](https://getfazit.com/blog/does-zoom-ai-companion-record/): Zoom's answer is a definitional dodge: no video file is saved. What AI Companion does create is a transcript of what everyone said, summarized and stored on the host's account, with a banner where the participants' off switch would be. What Zoom's own docs say it captures, the 2023 terms-of-service story behind the no-training promise, and who can actually turn it off.
- [Granola Subprocessors: What the Public Docs Actually Say](https://getfazit.com/blog/granola-subprocessors/): The subprocessor list itself sits behind a Trust Center request. But Granola's public security FAQ already answers most of the question: OpenAI and Anthropic named, US-only AWS storage, no EU residency, transcripts retained indefinitely by default, and audio that reaches Granola's systems and third-party services before it is deleted.
- [How to Stop an AI Notetaker From Joining Your Meeting (Zoom, Teams, Meet)](https://getfazit.com/blog/how-to-stop-ai-notetaker-joining-meeting/): The bot in your waiting room was not sent by a hacker. A participant's calendar sent it, and it will come back to every meeting until someone revokes one OAuth grant. Here is how to block it in Zoom, Teams, and Meet, how to stop it at the source, and the one thing blocking bots cannot do.
- [Is Otter.ai Safe? What the Wiretap Lawsuit Means for Your Transcripts](https://getfazit.com/blog/is-otter-ai-safe/): Otter.ai is facing a consolidated federal class action alleging its OtterPilot bot records meetings without everyone's consent and feeds the audio into model training. No court has ruled yet. But the complaint is a checklist of what any cloud notetaker does with your calls, which makes it worth reading even if you never open Otter.
- [Bot-Free Is Not the Same as Private: The 2026 Botless Notetaker Wave](https://getfazit.com/blog/bot-free-is-not-private/): Granola, Krisp, Circleback — and now Fireflies and Fathom — all capture meetings without a bot. But botless describes what your meeting looks like, not where your audio goes: it still streams to vendor clouds and third-party speech services. They removed the bot. They did not remove the server.
- [On-Device vs. Cloud AI Notetakers: The Privacy Difference That Actually Matters](https://getfazit.com/blog/on-device-vs-cloud-ai-notetakers/): On-device transcription never sends your audio; cloud transcription ships it to a vendor. A vendor-agnostic framework for the one distinction that survives a security review — and five questions that tell you which one you're using.
- [How to Delete Everything an AI Notetaker Knows About You](https://getfazit.com/blog/delete-ai-notetaker-data/): A step-by-step deletion procedure for cloud notetakers — with a data-subject-request template, the three copies deletion misses, and why 'never recorded' is the only permanent fix.

## Product

- [How to Sync Granola Notes to Obsidian (Three Ways, One Catch)](https://getfazit.com/blog/sync-granola-notes-to-obsidian/): Granola has no official Obsidian export, so the community built sync plugins, cache scrapers, and copy-paste rituals. How each method works, where each breaks — and why the durable fix is a notetaker that writes Markdown into your vault natively instead of syncing from a cloud.
- [Obsidian Meeting Notes Should Be Files, Not Rows in a Vendor's Database](https://getfazit.com/blog/obsidian-meeting-notes-files-not-rows/): The three ways to get AI meeting notes into Obsidian, compared. A meeting note is only yours if it is a file you can grep, and Fazit turns client calls into plain Markdown in your vault with the audio never recorded.