Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Phonique is made by nthState Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 05571737, whose registered office is at Rycroft, School Road, Broughton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28 3AT. In this policy, “we” means nthState Ltd, which decides why and how the personal data described here is used.

This policy covers the website at phonique.com and the Phonique app for Mac, iPad and iPhone. It says what happens to your data when you use them, and what you can ask of us.

To ask about anything in this policy, or to use any of your rights, email contact@phonique.com.

2. The short version

• The website sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser, and has no adverts or visitor-tracking scripts.
• We keep private access logs to count page views. Raw logs automatically expire 90 days after creation.
• The app has no accounts and sends us nothing.
• Your projects, and anything you record in them, stay on your devices or in the storage you choose.
• Apple's App Store sells Phonique, and Apple handles your payment.
• If you email us, we use what you send only to answer you.

3. When you visit the website

The website serves its pages, scripts, styles, fonts and pictures from phonique.com. It sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser. There are no adverts, social media buttons or visitor-tracking scripts. We count visits on the server; your browser sends no additional analytics requests.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosts the website and delivers it through Amazon CloudFront. Private CloudFront access logs record your IP address, requested page, request time, browser information, referrer and response status. Raw logs are stored in a private, encrypted S3 bucket and automatically expire 90 days after creation. Cookie contents are not logged. A daily report counts successful page requests by page; it contains no IP addresses or browser identifiers.

AWS also shows aggregate console reports for the last 60 days: request counts, popular files, referrers, devices, browsers, operating systems and locations. Our daily email reports page counts and AWS costs. We do not use these counts to identify or follow individual visitors.

A link that leaves phonique.com, such as “Get Phonique” to Apple's App Store, tells the website you go to that you came from phonique.com, but not from which page.

4. When you email us

There is no form on the website. To reach us, you email contact@phonique.com from your own email account.

We then have your email address, your name if your email shows it, and whatever you write. We use them only to answer you. We do not add you to a mailing list: there is none.

Our email is hosted by Google Workspace, which stores and delivers it for us.

5. The Phonique app

Phonique has no accounts. You never sign up or sign in, and we hold nothing about you.

The app sends us nothing. There is no Phonique server for it to send anything to, and it contains no analytics, advertising or tracking code. Its privacy manifest, which Apple reads, declares that it collects no data and does no tracking.

Your projects

A Phonique project is a file that holds your graph, the audio it uses and anything you record in it. It is saved where you choose: on your device, or in a storage service you use, such as iCloud Drive, under that service's terms. It is never stored on a server of ours.

Sharing a project, by AirDrop, in Files or by email, sends everything in it, its audio and recordings included.

Exporting a project hands its Swift code, with its audio, to Files or the share sheet, and it goes where you send it.

The microphone

Phonique uses your microphone only when a graph you play has a Microphone node, and only after you allow it when your device asks. You can change your answer at any time in your device's privacy settings.

What the microphone hears plays through your graph, on your device. It is kept only if a Recorder in your graph records it, into your project, and it is never sent to us.

Buying Phonique

You buy Phonique, and anything it sells, from Apple's App Store. Apple takes your payment under its own terms and privacy policy, and we never see your payment details or your Apple Account.

The app checks what you have bought on your device, with Apple's StoreKit, and sends the result nowhere.

Crash reports and statistics from Apple

If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers, Apple gives us crash reports and statistics about how Phonique is used, in a form that does not identify you. To stop it, turn off Share With App Developers under Analytics & Improvements in your device's Privacy & Security settings.

6. Why we use your data

The personal data we hold includes the website access logs described above and what you send us by email. We rely on our legitimate interests in understanding which pages are used so we can operate and improve the website, and in answering people who contact us. We do not use these data to follow visitors or target advertising.

We do not use your data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we make no decisions about you by automated means.

7. Who else is involved

Amazon Web Services hosts and delivers the website for us, and Google Workspace hosts our email. Both handle your data only on our instructions. Apple runs the App Store, and handles your data there under its own privacy policy.

Everyone who handles your data for us must protect it at least as well as this policy does. We may also disclose data when the law requires it.

8. Where your data goes

The website's files are stored in AWS's US East (N. Virginia) region, and CloudFront answers each request from one of its locations, which may be outside the UK. Google Workspace may store our email outside the UK too.

When your data leaves the UK, we rely on the safeguards UK law provides for such transfers.

9. How long we keep it

• Raw website access logs: automatically expire 90 days after creation. Aggregate counts in daily emails may be kept longer.
• CloudFront's totals: AWS shows them for 60 days.
• Your emails: for as long as we need them to answer you and to keep a record of what we said.
• Your projects and recordings: we never have them. They stay where you keep them.

10. Your rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to take it elsewhere. Email contact@phonique.com, and we reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we use your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

11. Children

Phonique collects no personal data through the website or the app, from anyone of any age. If you are under 13, ask a parent or guardian before you email us.

12. Keeping it safe

The website is served only over HTTPS. A request over plain HTTP is redirected to HTTPS, and your browser is told to use HTTPS for phonique.com for a year.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts you at risk, we will tell you, and the regulator, as the law requires.

13. Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, we publish the new version on this page, with the date it takes effect at the top.