Basil transcribes your client meetings entirely on your device. No cloud, no vendor server, no third party in the conversation. Built by a lawyer, for lawyers.
Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, and Granola all send your meeting audio or transcripts to servers you don't control. The moment a privileged conversation leaves your device, a third party holds a copy of it — subject to that vendor's subprocessors, retention policies, breaches, and subpoenas.
The profession has noticed:
The core problem is structural, not a settings toggle: with a cloud tool, your client's words sit on someone else's infrastructure.
This is risk reduction, not a guarantee. Basil reduces the exposure that comes from sending privileged audio off-device; it does not decide privilege questions for you. This is not legal advice.
Basil runs the entire pipeline on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad: recording, transcription (Apple Speech in real time, with a WhisperKit final pass for accuracy), and summarization (on-device Apple Intelligence). Nothing is uploaded. There are no subprocessors, because there is no server in the path. No server to subpoena.
Basil's Computer mode (macOS) captures both sides of a virtual meeting — your mic and the call's audio — entirely on your device. That means:
This is the capability cloud tools structurally can't match: a bot-based notetaker has to be in the meeting and in the cloud to work.
The Basil for Law edition ships this August with features designed around privilege workflows.
Generate an on-device provenance record for a session — captured on your device, never transmitted — so you can show where a transcript came from and that it stayed on your hardware.
An optional, timestamped record of your consent attestation, built to the strictest all-party-consent standard so one workflow travels across states. Never a forced gate. Confirm your jurisdiction's consent rules — not legal advice.
Organize sessions into folders by matter and client, so a deposition, an intake call, and a strategy session don't blur together.
Apply “Privileged & Confidential” labels to transcripts and exports, so the designation travels with the document.
Basil's on-device recording, transcription, and summaries are available today — the cards above are the legal-edition features arriving in the August release.
| Basil | Otter | Fireflies | Granola | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs fully on-device | Yes | No (cloud) | No (cloud) | No |
| Bot-free (no participant sees a recorder) | Yes | No | No (bot joins) | Yes |
| Privilege-safe by architecture | Yes | No | No | No |
| Sends your content to third-party AI services | No | Yes (its cloud) | Yes (its cloud) | Yes (Deepgram/AssemblyAI + OpenAI/Anthropic) |
| BAA needed to reduce exposure | No BAA needed | Enterprise-only | Enterprise-only | No HIPAA path |
| Works in person (mic) | Yes | Yes | Limited | Limited |
“No BAA needed” is an architecture fact — there is no data-processing relationship because nothing leaves your device. Competitor descriptions reflect their published architecture and pricing pages.
$19/month
7-day free trial · billed through the App Store
Until the August release, download Basil and use the free tier (60 min/month) — the on-device architecture above is fully live today.
Firms: centralized billing and seat management for your team. Request firm pricing →
The risk with most AI notetakers is that they send your audio or transcript to a third-party server, which can introduce a disclosure risk. Basil is designed to reduce that risk by keeping everything on your device — nothing is uploaded, so there's no off-device copy held by a vendor. Whether privilege attaches in a given situation is a legal question for you to assess. This is not legal advice.
Those tools are cloud-based — Otter and Fireflies process audio on their servers, and Fireflies joins your call as a visible bot; Granola sends transcripts to Deepgram/AssemblyAI and text to OpenAI/Anthropic. Basil runs entirely on your device with no bot and no subprocessors. Your client's words never leave your hardware.
We sign DPAs and NDAs on request. Because Basil's architecture keeps everything on your device, there's arguably no data-processing relationship to cover — but we're happy to put it in writing.
On your own Apple devices, encrypted at rest and protected by Face ID / Touch ID. Optional sync moves them only across your own devices via your private iCloud — never to a Basil server.
Yes. In-Person mode records through your device mic for face-to-face meetings, intakes, and deposition prep; Computer mode captures virtual calls on macOS. Both stay on-device. Confirm recording-consent rules for your jurisdiction — this is not legal advice.
No. Your recordings never leave your device — there's no server to send them to, and nothing to train on. All transcription and summarization runs locally with Apple's on-device models.
There's no business-associate relationship to cover, because Basil doesn't process your data on a server — it all stays on your device. If your workflow requires paperwork, we sign DPAs and NDAs on request.
Basil was built by a practicing lawyer who wouldn't put a client's words on someone else's server.
Built by a lawyer, for lawyers.
Basil reduces the risk that comes from sending privileged audio off-device. It does not guarantee any legal outcome, and nothing here is legal advice.