Glossary
Zero data retention (ZDR)
Zero data retention (ZDR) is a setting or contract term under which a service keeps none of your data once it has handled your request. Each vendor sets its own scope, so check what the label excludes before you rely on it.
Updated October 17, 20264 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called ZDR, no data retention.
Zero data retention (ZDR) asks a service to keep none of your data after it handles a request. The phrase is a promise about storage, not about processing: the service still receives your input, but it should not keep a copy. Each vendor sets its own scope, so read what the label excludes before you rely on it.
Zero data retention limits what a vendor keeps, and the limit depends on the vendor
A cloud service that processes your request usually keeps some record of it: the input, the output, safety logs or copies kept for debugging. ZDR asks the vendor to skip some or all of that storage, and the vendor's own terms decide which records are skipped.
Take OpenAI's API as an example. By default, OpenAI generates abuse monitoring logs for all API feature usage and keeps them for up to 30 days 1. Its Zero Data Retention option removes customer content from those logs: "Zero Data Retention excludes customer content from abuse monitoring logs in the same way as Modified Abuse Monitoring" 2. That names one kind of record. A reader should ask the vendor about every other copy the service might hold.
At OpenAI, ZDR needs approval, so a vendor's mention of it is not a guarantee
ZDR is not always a switch you can turn on. OpenAI says its Zero Data Retention and Modified Abuse Monitoring controls are "subject to prior approval by OpenAI and acceptance of additional requirements" 3. A business that wants ZDR should ask for it in writing and confirm that it applies to its own account.
Why it matters for dictation
Dictation sends your voice, which is personal data, and often the words you say about clients, patients or colleagues. Whether that audio is kept depends on where recognition runs. Microsoft says that for real-time speech to text in Azure, "audio input is processed only on the Azure's server memory, and no data is stored at rest" 4. That is the outcome ZDR aims for, but it describes one Microsoft service and does not apply to every dictation product.
The most direct form of zero retention is not sending the audio at all. If recognition runs on your computer, the vendor has no copy to keep. Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows, so for that app the retention question starts with where the processing runs. Still, read any privacy policy for data that leaves the device.
Related terms and guides
- On-device speech recognition is recognition that runs on your own hardware, which leaves no vendor copy to retain.
- Cloud dictation sends audio to a server, so its retention terms matter.
- A ZDR setting does not replace a contract for health data. For that, see business associate agreement (BAA).
- Our guide to voice data retention compares what Apple, Google and Microsoft keep, and HIPAA-compliant dictation covers the health-data side.
- Do dictation apps train AI on your voice? explains a separate use of retained audio.
- Question: Is on-device dictation HIPAA compliant?
- Start with the overview of speech to text privacy.
Evidence
Every number on this page, with where it comes from. Open a fact to see the exact words in its source.
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Related terms
- Speech to Text Privacy: Where Your Voice GoesThe topic this term belongs to
- All-party consentAll-party consent is a recording rule under which every participant in a conversation must agree before it can be recorded or intercepted. California, Florida and Maryland use it in their statutes, and it is stricter than one-party consent.
- Attorney-client privilegeAttorney-client privilege protects confidential communications between a lawyer and their client about seeking legal advice or services. A third party who is present, or a tool that handles the conversation, can put that protection at risk.
- Biometric dataBiometric data is personal data produced by technical processing of a person's physical, physiological or behavioral characteristics that allows or confirms who that person is. A voice recording becomes biometric data when it is processed to identify the speaker.
- Business associate agreement (BAA)A business associate agreement (BAA) is the written contract that HIPAA requires before a covered entity lets a vendor create, receive, maintain or transmit protected health information on its behalf. Dictation tools used in clinics often need one, and a BAA alone does not make a product compliant.
- False accept (accidental activation)A false accept, also called a false wake or accidental activation, is when a voice assistant or dictation feature starts listening or recording although the wake word was not said. Smart speakers have been measured to wake by accident, and that can capture speech the user did not mean to share.
- Federated learningFederated learning is a way to train one machine learning model on data spread across many devices. Each device computes an update from its own data, and only those updates are sent to a server, so the raw data does not have to be collected in one place.
- On-device speech recognitionOn-device speech recognition converts speech to text with a model that runs on your own computer or phone, so the audio does not need to be sent to a server. It is also called local, offline or on-device dictation.
- One-party consentOne-party consent is a recording rule under which a conversation can be recorded lawfully when one of its participants agrees, which is usually the person doing the recording. The US federal wiretap law uses this rule, and individual states may set stricter ones.
- Protected health information (PHI)Protected health information (PHI) is individually identifiable health information that HIPAA protects when it is held or sent in electronic or other form by a covered entity or its business associate. Patient names with diagnoses, in dictated notes or voice recordings, are PHI. It is also called ePHI when held electronically.
- Speaker verificationSpeaker verification is a voice biometric check in which a system accepts or rejects a claimed identity by comparing a voice with stored models of the person claimed. It is also called voice authentication, voice ID or voice biometrics.
- Special category data (GDPR)Special category data is the group of personal data that Article 9 of the GDPR bans organizations from processing unless a listed exception applies. It includes health data and biometric data used to identify a person, and a voice recording can fall into it when it is processed that way.
- Voice cloningVoice cloning is the use of a model trained on recordings of one person to generate new speech in that person's voice. Some products need only minutes of clear audio, and cloned voices have been used in fraud, so recordings of your voice carry a real risk.
Pages that use this term
- Speech to Text Privacy: Where Your Voice GoesTopic
- Is Voice to Text Safe? How to Dictate PrivatelyGuide
- Voice Data Retention: What Apple, Google and Microsoft KeepGuide
- Does Azure speech to text store your data?Question
- Does OpenAI store audio sent to the Whisper API?Question
- Is transcription software HIPAA compliant, and how do you check?Question
- Attorney-client privilegeGlossary