What happens to the audio from a consult?

Audio is deleted by default. It is kept encrypted only while you review the draft, and by default the copy Akoua holds is deleted the moment you confirm the note; a practice can instead set immediate deletion after processing, or a short fixed retention window, and a hard 7-day ceiling applies in every mode. It exists for one purpose — so you can listen back to anything flagged before you confirm.

The audio’s whole life

1. Consent. Recording starts only after consent is confirmed in the product, and Akoua asks again when someone new can hear the conversation.
2. Recorded. Capture starts only in a consented session. Where the audio goes first depends on your profile: on AU Sovereign it streams straight into Akoua’s private Australian cloud in Sydney; on the UK Sovereign region, into Akoua’s private United Kingdom cloud in London; on Global, audio and transcripts are processed by vetted global providers under your organisation’s consent.
3. Encrypted. Audio is kept AES-256-encrypted only while you review the draft — so you can listen back to anything flagged.
4. Deleted. By default, the moment you confirm the note, the copy Akoua holds is deleted; on a fixed-window practice policy, at that deadline, within 7 days at most.
5. Receipt. A QR deletion receipt — login-free, PHI-free — flips to “Verified” when that deletion has actually happened, and the patient can re-scan it any time.

Where audio is processed depends on your organisation’s region. Your clinical record is stored in Australia (Sydney) on the AU Sovereign and Global profiles — the UK Sovereign region stores in the United Kingdom — and processing follows the profile your organisation chose at sign-up — see where data is stored and processed.

What the receipt does and doesn’t evidence

It evidences Akoua-held audio. The receipt is checked against the running system, so “Verified” means Akoua’s own copy is gone rather than that a policy says it should be.

It does not yet evidence a provider’s copy. That matters on the Global profile and on UK Sovereign, whose transcription and drafting providers are in the European Union — see where data is stored and processed. Akoua does not yet collect independent deletion or purge proof from those providers, so the receipt does not speak for them. We’d rather draw that line than let a green tick imply more than we can show. It is on the roadmap, and this page will say so plainly when it lands.

On AU Sovereign, audio is transcribed and the note drafted on vetted Australian services, over private links and under no-training terms. Akoua does not yet collect independent deletion proof from these providers — the same honest limitation noted for Global above — and audio held by Akoua itself follows the deletion timeline above.

If a draft is never confirmed

Abandoned drafts are wiped by an automatic sweep within 7 days — a hard ceiling enforced by the system, not a setting someone can forget. An interrupted afternoon doesn’t leave audio sitting anywhere indefinitely.

What is kept

The written record is what remains: the note, and any letters or tasks you confirmed. Your clinical record is stored in Akoua’s Australian cloud (Sydney) on the AU Sovereign and Global profiles — in the United Kingdom (London) on the UK Sovereign region — encrypted at rest with AES-256, and kept while your account is active. Nothing reaches that record without you — every draft requires your explicit review and confirmation before it is saved or exported, because Akoua is a documentation aid, not a diagnostic device.

You remain responsible for your own record-keeping obligations, so export anything you must keep before deleting an account. Akoua doesn’t yet hold formal certifications — they’re on the roadmap, and we’d rather say that plainly than imply otherwise.

The full lifecycle, including the live checks a patient can watch in the room, is on privacy by design. The retention rules are also set out in the privacy notice for your region.

Next: what the deletion receipt is.