How Saybox protects patient information
On the Mac
- Speech is turned into text on the Mac, and audio is never saved. Today’s builds make no internet connections. From the subscription release, the only one will be a license check that carries no audio, text or patient information (see Privacy).
- Dictation stops the moment the Mac locks, sleeps, turns its display off or switches user, and nothing starts again on its own.
- If you switch apps or windows while dictating from the iPhone, the words go to the Saybox Text Box until you click into a text field, not into whatever came to the front.
- The Saybox Text Box is kept in memory only, erased 60 seconds after you close it and when Saybox quits, and left out of screenshots. Quitting asks first if it holds text you never copied.
- When Saybox pastes for you, it puts the clipboard back exactly as it was, and never erases something you copied in the meantime.
- Your dictionary and prepared phrases are encrypted with a key in your login Keychain.
- Logs never contain dictated words; an automated test checks every log line in the code. A security event log records pairings, refused connections, and when and where dictation went, without content, for 90 days.
- Test-only features exist only in test builds; every release build is checked for them. Every bundled component is pinned by fingerprint and listed in a bill of materials.
Between the iPhone and the Mac
- The iPhone talks only to the one Mac it’s paired with, over your local network, never over the internet.
- The pairing code works once, for 5 minutes, and is kept out of screenshots. Both screens then show a six-digit confirmation code, and the Mac accepts no dictation until you confirm they match.
- The link is encrypted with a key made at pairing, and both devices refuse weaker settings.
- The iPhone records only while Saybox Mic is on screen, and stops when the iPhone locks or you switch apps.
- Dictation from the iPhone is refused while the Mac is locked, and a dictation that arrives more than 20 seconds late is not typed.
- Unpair the iPhone on the Mac and it is cut off at once; the iPhone forgets its key and any unsent audio.
What it can’t protect
- An unlocked, unattended Mac. Anyone at your keyboard can see what’s on screen, including the Text Box, and a paired iPhone can still dictate into it. Lock your Mac when you step away.
- Tabs and remote desktops. Tabs in one browser window, and screens inside a remote-desktop app, are one window to macOS, so a switch between them isn’t noticed. Stop dictating before you change charts.
- The apps that receive your text. Your EHR, documents and email keep and sync the note under their own rules.
- Recognition errors. A wrong word can change a note’s meaning. Proofread every note before signing it.
Settings for your practice
- Turn on FileVault on every Mac that runs Saybox.
- On Macs with a paired iPhone, require your password immediately after the screen saver starts or the display turns off, and have the display turn off after a short time.
- Encrypt Time Machine backups.
- On the iPhone, use a passcode and set Auto-Lock to 2 minutes.
- Pair an iPhone only if you’ll use it. If one is lost, unpair it at once in Settings › Microphone › Devices. On a network you don’t trust, unpair or quit Saybox.
- Once a month, look at Settings › Privacy & Security › Security events for pairings or connections you don’t recognize.
Reporting a security problem
If you think you’ve found a security problem in Saybox or Saybox Mic, email security@saybox.app. Please include:
- what you found and the steps to see it;
- the Saybox version (Settings › About Saybox) and your macOS or iOS version.
Never include patient information. Use made-up details when you reproduce a problem, and test only on devices you own.
What happens next
- We confirm we received your report within 3 business days, and keep you informed while we work on it.
- We publish details of the problem when the fix ships, or 90 days after your report, whichever comes first.
- If you’d like credit, we credit you when we publish.
- There’s no bug bounty: we don’t pay for reports.
Security notices
When a security problem affects people using Saybox, we’ll publish a notice here explaining what happened, who is affected and what to do. For Critical or High problems, we also email every current subscriber, using the name and email address held by our payment service.
We recommend checking this page once a month.
No security notices have been published.
Checking your download
Each release of Saybox for Mac will be signed with our Developer ID and notarized by Apple, and we’ll list its SHA-256 fingerprint here. To check your copy, open Terminal and run shasum -a 256 followed by the downloaded file; the result should match the list exactly.
No releases yet.