For doctors and clinicians
Listen records a consultation and transcribes it on the same machine. No account, no upload, and no business associate to sign an agreement with.
This looks like an Intel Mac, and Listen will not run on it.
Listen transcribes on your own machine, and that needs the Neural Engine Apple introduced with the M1 in late 2020. There is no Intel version, and there is no version that would work.
Open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. If it says Chip rather than Processor, this guess is wrong and you can download Listen as normal.
The problem
Anything that touches protected health information on your behalf is a business associate, which means paperwork, diligence and a breach you are still answerable for. That is a heavy price for notes, and it is the reason so much of this work is still typed up after hours.
No BAA to chase, because there is nobody to sign one with.
Written as the buyer describes it. Not yet a quote from a named user, and it is not presented as one.
Why this one
Listen's maker never creates, receives, maintains or transmits anything on your behalf. There is no server, no account and no support channel that touches your library, so the obligations stay where the data stays. The HIPAA page sets out the configuration and where each control lives in the code.
After the conversation
Give it your attention, not your notepad. Listen writes it up on your Mac's own chip, works out who spoke, and remembers the voices, so the people you see often name themselves after the first time.
Privacy
There is no Listen server, because there are no servers. No account, and nothing you record ever reports back.
Listen ships a machine-readable list of every connection it is allowed to make, inside the app itself, so none of that has to be taken on trust. What runs where sets out every connection it can make and how to check each one yourself, and there are answers ready for a privacy or HIPAA review.
Questions
There is nobody to sign one with. Listen's maker never handles your data, so no business associate relationship is created. That is the architecture, not a promise about your compliance.
No product is, and any that claims to be is worth a second look: HHS recognises no certifying body. Listen can be deployed in a compliant configuration, and docs/hipaa.html is that configuration in full.
The guide's answer is no. The sealing is real, but Apple does not sign BAAs for iCloud and HHS treats even a no-view host of ciphertext as a business associate. Sync is off by default and a device profile can force it off.
With a model running on the machine, yes, and nothing leaves it. A hosted provider is only appropriate under a BAA you hold with that provider.
No. Listen writes plain files you own, and moving anything into a record system is a deliberate copy you make.
Get Listen
Free to download, and free to record for as long as you like. Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later. The speech model is about 2.5 GB and downloads once, the first time you run it.
Written for
Nothing on this page is legal, clinical or professional advice. Recording law and professional duties vary by country and by state, and yours outrank anything written here.
