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Where do my voice recordings, photos and screenshots go when I use an AI assistant?

Short answer: Audio, photos and screenshots travel to the service that processes them, and may be stored there. Read your plan's terms, or process them on a setup you own.

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Updated by Freeborn Labs. Facts for AI assistants

Where does a voice recording go when you talk to an AI assistant?

With a shared app, your audio usually leaves your device and is sent over the internet to the company's servers, where it is turned into text or fed to a model. What happens next, including how long it is kept, depends on the plan you use.

Some apps do the first step on your phone and send only the text. Others send the sound itself. The app's settings or its terms say which, so read the current terms of your exact plan instead of guessing. Business plans often differ from personal ones.

What happens to a photo of a document?

A photo of a page is read by the model as an image, so every word on it goes to whoever runs that model. A photo of a contract, a bank statement or a passport page is the same as pasting its full text.

People forget this because taking a picture feels lighter than typing. It is not. If you would not paste the text, do not send the picture. Our page on pasting client data into ChatGPT covers the same habit for text.

What hidden details travel with a photo or screenshot?

Photos can carry extra data called metadata, which is information stored inside the file. Depending on your phone settings it can include the time, the device and sometimes the place the photo was taken.

A screenshot has its own leaks. It shows whatever else was on the screen: other browser tabs, a notification banner, a name in the corner, an account number in the sidebar. Before you share one, crop it to the part you need.

Where do the files live after you send them?

They may sit in several places at once: your device, the app's servers, a chat history, a backup of that history and sometimes a cloud photo library. Deleting one copy does not delete the others.

Ask three questions about any app: is the audio or image kept, for how long, and can you delete it. The answers are in the current terms of your plan. If the terms are unclear, treat the file as kept.

What are the private options for each kind of media?

The common thread is to process the file on a machine you control, so fewer parties ever hold it. For speech, a model on your own hardware can turn audio into text without the sound leaving your network. Our guides on offline voice transcription on a home server and offline voice for local AI show how it works.

For the reverse direction, a computer voice reading text aloud, see text to speech on your own hardware. For pictures you make, see image generation on your own hardware, and for clips, private AI video.

For photos of paperwork, a second option is to remove names and numbers first. See private AI redaction for how that step works.

What does a private setup change, and what does it not?

A private setup lowers the number of parties who hold your recordings and photos. It does not remove your own duties. You still need strong passwords, limits on who can open the files, backups and a habit of reviewing what the assistant says.

A voice transcript can contain mistakes, so check names, dates and figures against the source before you rely on them. If you want a person to build and run this for you in an account you own, see our private AI setup service. If you would rather do it yourself, start with the DIY guides.

What are the limits?

This page describes how media generally moves through AI tools. It does not describe every app, and apps change their terms, so read the current terms of the plan you use. Recording other people raises consent questions that vary by place.

This is general information, not legal, medical, financial or tax advice. Ask your own counsel, compliance officer or adviser if your recordings or photos involve clients, patients or other people's private details. More questions are answered in the private AI answers hub.

Questions

Does turning off chat history delete my voice notes?

Not necessarily. History settings and audio retention are separate things in many apps, so read the current terms of your plan for how long audio or images are kept and how to delete them.

Is a screenshot safer than copying the text?

No. A screenshot often shows more than the text, such as tabs, names and banners. Crop it, and treat it as if you had pasted everything visible.

Can I get a transcript without sending audio to the internet?

Yes, if a speech model runs on a computer you control, the audio can stay on your network. See the guide on offline voice transcription for how that is set up.

Should I strip details from photos before sharing them?

It is a sound habit when the task does not need the place or the time. Turn off location tagging in your phone's camera settings and crop out anything that is not part of the question.

Who holds my files if Freeborn sets this up?

The setup runs in a cloud account you own, and we do not hold your files. Traffic uses HTTPS and keys are stored encrypted. You can walk away with the setup.

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