What is sovereign AI transcription?
Sovereign AI transcription refers to automatic speech-to-text processing where you know exactly where your recordings and transcripts are stored, who processes them, and under which legal framework. For European organizations, it usually means storage within the EU, a provider bound by GDPR, and clear limits on how the data may be used.
In practice, sovereignty is a question of transparency and control rather than a single label. A serious provider tells you where files are stored, lists every sub-processor that touches your data, never uses your recordings to train models, and lets you decide when your files are deleted.
Why data sovereignty matters for audio files
Audio recordings often contain more sensitive information than text documents: the voices of clients, patients, sources, or research participants. When a recording is stored by a US-based company, it may be subject to government access requests under the Cloud Act, regardless of where you or your organization are based.
- Legal exposure. Client calls, depositions, and compliance recordings can carry professional secrecy obligations that call for careful choice of provider.
- Research ethics. Academic institutions often require GDPR-compliant processing for recordings involving human subjects.
- Journalistic protection. Source confidentiality depends on knowing exactly where recordings are stored and who can access them.
- Corporate confidentiality. Board meetings, M&A discussions, and HR interviews contain information you want to keep under tight control.
EU hosting vs. US cloud services
Many major transcription tools are operated by US companies running on US cloud infrastructure. Even when they claim GDPR compliance, the Cloud Act allows US authorities to compel disclosure of data held by US companies anywhere in the world.
Vook.ai is a French company. Your audio files, transcripts, databases and application servers are hosted in France. We are also transparent about the rest of the stack: some vendors, including for the web interface and AI features, are US-incorporated, and every one of them is listed on our public sub-processors page. EU data residency for AI processing is available on request.
How Vook protects your transcription data
Vook applies several layers of protection to every file you upload:
- AES-256 encryption at rest. Your audio files and transcripts are encrypted on Vook's servers in France. An institutional self-hosted key option is available for organizations that need it.
- You decide when files disappear. Recordings stay in your account until you delete them; deleting a transcript removes its audio, and deleting your account removes everything.
- No model training. Your audio is never used to improve or train any AI model, never resold, and never analyzed for advertising.
- GDPR-native compliance. A Data Processing Agreement is available on request, and your right to erasure is always honored.
Accuracy, speed, and language support
Keeping control of your data does not mean slower or less accurate transcription. Vook delivers up to 99% accuracy on clear audio in supported languages, and processes files in under one minute per hour of audio. Files can be up to 5 GB and 5 hours, or 10 GB with no duration limit on the Unlimited plan; the free tier covers up to 30 minutes per file.
Vook supports 100+ languages, detected automatically, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. Speaker diarization labels each speaker, and timestamps are added throughout. The built-in editor lets you fix the text, rename or create a speaker, and reassign a passage to the right speaker before exporting to PDF, DOCX, Markdown, SRT or HTML.
How to get started with Vook for free
You can try Vook without creating an account and without a credit card. One free transcription per day is available to anyone. Simply upload your file, wait less than a minute, and download your transcript.
A subscription unlocks longer files, saved transcripts, and unlimited Vook Chat for summaries, quote extraction, and theme analysis. For organizations that need a DPA, EU data residency for AI processing, or the institutional self-hosted key option, contact the Vook team directly.
