The meeting notes you don't want anyone else to read

Privacy isn't one feature; it's a stance

When we built Scribr, we started with on-device transcription. That means the audio stays on your phone. It never travels to a server. That's the foundation. But we knew something else mattered: the moment your phone is unlocked and in someone else's hands.

Biometric lock is available across all tiers - Free, Pro, Team, Enterprise. It's not a premium layer. We built it in because the conversation between you and your client, your patient, your source, your team member, is yours. The phone being in your pocket doesn't mean the meeting notes inside deserve to be readable by anyone who picks it up.

That therapist wasn't being paranoid. She was being professional. Her notes contain things people disclosed in confidence. Fingerprint or Face ID isn't overkill for that. It's baseline.

The password fallacy

Here's what we learned early: passwords are useful until they're not. A team member borrows your phone to check the time. A child swipes it open. You're distracted and unlock it in front of someone, your thumb muscle memory betraying your privacy.

Biometric lock sits between you and your app. Every time you want to read your notes, review action items, or search a recording, your phone asks: is this actually you? It's frictionless enough that you won't resent it, but real enough that a casual grab won't work.

We thought about making this a Pro feature. The business case was there. Instead, we made it universal. If you're using Scribr to capture anything sensitive - and most people are - the lock should never be a price decision.

When compliance and paranoia overlap

Our Team tier includes GDPR Compliance Modes and audit logging. That's for enterprises that need to prove who accessed what, when. But biometric lock predates that. It's not a compliance checkbox. It's friction against carelessness.

A sales consultant told us she uses Scribr to record calls with prospects. Her notes include their budgets, pain points, and competing solutions they're evaluating. If that phone lands on the Tube, or in a rideshare, or borrowed by a junior team member, those notes vanish behind a fingerprint. That's not overthinking security. That's respecting the people who talked to you.

The feature nobody brags about

Biometric lock doesn't feel innovative. It won't make your feature list look impressive. No one sees it and thinks 'wow, that's brilliant product design.' What they do is unlock their phone, open Scribr, tap their thumb against the home button, and feel a small, quiet sense of control.

That matters more than I expected when we were building. We'd ship it, someone would mention it in passing - 'oh, nice, you added biometric lock' - and we'd move on. But in customer messages, it came up differently. People mentioned it as a reason they'd recommend Scribr to colleagues. As a reason they felt comfortable recording sensitive conversations. As something that let them stop worrying.

The best features are the ones people don't think about until they're grateful they exist.

A choice, not a default

We didn't force biometric lock on everyone. You can turn it off. Some people don't want the extra tap. Some use Scribr only for personal voice notes and figure the phone lock is enough. That's fine. But it's there, available, across every tier, the moment you decide your notes deserve more protection.

That matters because security theatre is worse than no security. A feature that annoys you into disabling it is useless. What works is something you can leave on without resenting it, knowing it actually stops the casual breach - the borrowed phone, the shoulder surfer, the distracted moment.