what is an offline transcription or dictation app which respects privacy?

Question

Looking at software to transcribe or dictate mp3 files, what are the open source options which run on Linux?

Looking for something which at least purports to not upload either the audio file or the transcript of that audio to the cloud. Preferably, which also doesn't do so -- and if reasonable precautions are taken to prevent this generally, all the better.

Most any open source software should be fine. If it uses an online API service, that's acceptable. Preferably, an offline option offers better privacy.

Answer 1

I'm not using any such, so I cannot give a clear recommendation based on first-hand experience – but still: taking a look at my corresponding app list for Audio Recording, and knowing that apps from F-Droid are checked for such things, a good selection is possible. To be absolutely safe, you can concentrate on apps not having the INTERNET permission. Skipping the apps which had not been updated for more than two years leaves a single candidate:

Axet's Audio Recorder. The developer has multiple apps at F-Droid and a good standing; the app is also available at Play Store where it has a quite good ranking (4.3 stars at > 2.6k votes). As the name suggests, it's rather a "dictaphone", so it covers the recording part but to my knowledge does not support "transcribing" the recording (apps capable of that you can find in this list – but I'm afraid none will meet your requirements as they all use some network service).

^{Audio Recorder: Settings, recording, edit (source: Playstore; click images to enlarge)}