Arcs is a private thinking and making tool; Fathom is a cloud meeting system. Fathom’s policy says it receives meeting audio, video, transcripts, notes, attendees and calendar information. Arcs’ core workflow runs on Apple hardware and needs no Arcs account or data server.
Choose Arcs if…
- Your source may be an in-person meeting, rambling voice note, text or file.
- You need a structured summary, deeper Threads, Next questions and a finished deck.
- Your material cannot become cloud meeting content.
Choose Fathom if…
- You spend your day in video meetings and want searchable recordings and clips.
- Your workflow depends on calendars, online meetings and team sharing.
- You value its mature cloud collaboration more than a fully local workflow.
What Fathom says about data
Fathom defines meeting content to include notes, audio and video recordings, transcripts, meeting content, attendees and calendar information. Its policy says de-identified meeting content may be used to improve in-house AI models depending on account settings; third-party AI providers are not authorized to train on that information.
Source: Fathom Privacy Policy, updated 16 August 2026.
What Arcs does differently
Arcs understands the material where it was captured. The complete transformation continues in Flight Mode, and Build can produce an editable presentation from the same private source.