Is AssemblyAI HIPAA Compliant? BAA and PHI Explained

HIPAA Compliance Overview

For a speech-to-text provider such as AssemblyAI, “HIPAA compliant” means the service can process Protected Health Information under a signed Business Associate Agreement and with appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. There is no official government “HIPAA certification”; compliance is demonstrated through controls, documentation, and ongoing risk management.

In practice, HIPAA alignment requires secure transmission and storage, role-based access control, audit logging, breach notification, and data lifecycle controls. You also need configuration options that enforce the minimum necessary standard, support Data Residency Compliance when required, and prevent unintended data use such as model training on PHI without authorization.

Because HIPAA is a shared-responsibility model, your organization must configure services correctly, train staff, and document policies. The vendor must implement strong safeguards, while you validate them and restrict how PHI flows through your workflows.

Business Associate Agreement Execution

If you are a covered entity or business associate and plan to send PHI to AssemblyAI, first execute a Business Associate Agreement (often called a Business Associate Addendum). Without a BAA, you should not transmit PHI to any vendor system.

How to approach the BAA

• Confirm the scope: list the specific APIs, features, and environments where PHI will be processed.
• Map data flows: identify what PHI is sent (audio, transcripts, metadata), who accesses it, and where it is stored.
• Define retention: specify deletion timelines and the Transcript Time-to-Live you require.
• Set residency: state whether EU or other regional processing is needed for Data Residency Compliance.
• Enable safeguards: determine if Personally Identifiable Information Redaction or de-identification will be applied by default.

Clauses to verify in the BAA

• Permitted uses/disclosures and prohibition on secondary use (e.g., model training) without permission.
• Encryption requirements in transit and at rest, including key management and rotation practices.
• Breach notification timelines and incident response commitments.
• Subprocessor oversight, flow-down obligations, and data residency assurances.
• Return or destruction of PHI at termination, including deletion from backups.
• Audit, logging, and evidence of ongoing risk assessments.

Do not upload production PHI until both parties execute the BAA and you’ve validated that your workloads run only on HIPAA-eligible features and regions covered by the agreement.

Data Encryption Standards

Encryption in transit should use the TLS 1.2 Protocol or higher, with modern ciphers and perfect forward secrecy. Strong transport security helps ensure audio streams, transcripts, and webhooks are protected against interception.

Encryption at rest should rely on AES-256 Encryption, with keys stored in a hardened KMS or HSM, role-limited access, and regular rotation. Ask about envelope encryption, separation of duties for key custodians, and how encryption applies to object storage, databases, search indexes, logs, and backups.

Complement encryption with API key hygiene, granular tokens, IP allowlisting, and service-to-service authentication. Verify that customer secrets are stored securely and that access policies enforce least privilege.

Protected Health Information Handling

Protected Health Information (PHI) is health data linked to identifiers such as names, dates, addresses, phone numbers, or medical record numbers. In transcription, PHI commonly appears in spoken names, appointment dates, prescription details, and contact information embedded in audio and resulting text.

Apply the minimum necessary principle: send only what is required for the task, and suppress PHI in logs and support channels. Ensure the vendor’s documentation and BAA clarify whether PHI is excluded from analytics or model training unless you expressly authorize it.

Operational safeguards to confirm

• Role-based access control, MFA, and just-in-time elevation for support operations.
• Comprehensive audit logging of data access and administrative actions.
• Data loss prevention for uploads, callbacks, and metadata fields.
• Process controls for secure ticketing and customer support involving PHI.

Transcript Retention Policies

Retention should be deliberate and configurable. You’ll typically set a Transcript Time-to-Live that automatically purges audio, transcripts, and derived artifacts after a defined interval. Shorter TTLs reduce risk while satisfying operational needs.

Confirm that deletion is comprehensive: data should be removed from hot storage, search indexes, caches, and backups within documented timeframes. Check whether you can trigger on-demand deletion, and how webhook payloads and processing queues are handled to minimize residual exposure.

PII Redaction Features

Personally Identifiable Information Redaction helps de-identify transcripts by masking sensitive entities like names, phone numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers, and email addresses. Use redaction by default for PHI-bearing workloads unless verbatim output is necessary and authorized.

Evaluate precision and recall on your audio to balance risk and readability. Consider custom redaction patterns, context-aware rules, and tokenization strategies. Decide whether you store only the redacted transcript, keep an encrypted original, or generate reversible pseudonyms under strict controls.

• Apply redaction in streaming and batch modes to prevent sensitive content from appearing in logs or intermediate stores.
• Ensure redaction runs before downstream analytics or sharing to minimize propagation of identifiers.

EU Data Residency Options

For EU data subjects, you may require EU-only processing for Data Residency Compliance. Confirm that regional endpoints, storage, logs, metrics, and backups all remain within the selected region and that subprocessors are bound to the same residency.

Validate cross-border transfer posture: if data ever leaves the region, ensure appropriate mechanisms (such as SCCs) are in place. Document how residency settings are applied in SDKs or API parameters and how they interact with retention and deletion workflows.

In summary, using AssemblyAI in a HIPAA context hinges on a signed Business Associate Addendum, strong encryption (TLS 1.2+ in transit and AES-256 at rest), disciplined PHI handling, configurable retention with clear Transcript Time-to-Live, robust redaction, and regional controls when needed. Confirm these requirements in your BAA and solution design before sending PHI.

FAQs.

What is AssemblyAI's HIPAA compliance status?

AssemblyAI can support HIPAA-aligned workflows when you have a signed BAA and use only HIPAA-eligible features configured according to your policies. Without an executed BAA, you should treat the service as not authorized for PHI and avoid uploading protected data.

How does AssemblyAI handle PHI?

Under a BAA, PHI should be encrypted in transit and at rest, access-controlled, and logged for auditability. You can typically apply redaction or de-identification, enforce retention via Transcript Time-to-Live, and restrict data use to your purposes. Always confirm the exact controls and covered endpoints in your agreement and documentation.

Can I get a BAA with AssemblyAI?

Yes—BAAs are generally available through a Business Associate Addendum process, often tied to enterprise plans. Contact the vendor to execute a BAA that specifies covered services, encryption, residency, subcontractors, breach notification timelines, and data deletion requirements.

What data encryption methods does AssemblyAI use?

Expect transport encryption using the TLS 1.2 Protocol or higher and storage encryption based on AES-256 Encryption, with strong key management and rotation. Verify details such as perfect forward secrecy, HSM/KMS usage, and how encryption applies to logs, backups, and search indexes as part of your BAA review.