What is stored, and where

Recordings you make, audio you import, the analysis of each take — its key, tempo, chords and chart — and your settings are all held in the app's private storage area on your device. Nothing is copied to a server, because there is no server.

Deleting a take removes its audio and its analysis. Deleting the app removes everything at once. Neither action needs to be requested from us, and neither leaves a copy behind.

If you have iCloud Backup switched on, your iPhone's own backup may include the app's files, the same as any other app. That backup is between you and Apple, encrypted under your Apple Account, and is not visible to us.

The microphone

It asks for microphone access so it can record you playing or singing. That is the only permission it requests. Audio is captured while you are recording, analysed on the device, and saved to the device. It is not streamed, uploaded or transmitted, and the app cannot listen when you are not recording.

Files you import

When you import a melody, iOS shows you its own file picker and hands over only the single file you chose. There is no access to the rest of your files, your photo library, your contacts or your location.

What it does not do

• No accounts, email addresses, names or profiles.
• No analytics or telemetry — the app makes no network requests to us, because we run nothing for it to call.
• No advertising, no ad identifiers, no cross-app tracking.
• No third-party SDKs collecting data in the background.
• No machine-learning training on your recordings. Pitch is found with signal processing and the harmony is built from music theory; there is no model being fed your audio, here or anywhere else.
• No selling or sharing of data, because none is gathered to sell or share.

Buying Pro

Pro is a one-time purchase handled entirely by Apple's App Store. Apple processes the payment and tells the app one thing: whether this Apple Account owns the unlock. We never see your payment details, your Apple Account, your name or your address, and no purchase record is kept by us.

Restoring a purchase, on a new phone or after a reinstall, asks Apple the same single question again. That is the only moment a network connection is needed; everything else works in airplane mode.

What Apple collects on its own

Independently of the app, Apple may collect information about App Store downloads and, if you have chosen to share iPhone analytics and crash reports with developers, may show us crash and performance data. Apple aggregates and anonymises this before we see it — it identifies a build and a class of device, not a person, and it never contains your audio or your takes. That collection is governed by Apple's privacy policy and can be turned off in Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements.

Anything you export

Exporting a chart, a MIDI file, a MusicXML file or a mixdown writes a file and hands it to whatever you choose next — Files, Mail, another app. Once it leaves, it is covered by wherever you sent it rather than by this policy. The export itself involves no upload on our side.

Children

The app is safe for any age in the sense that matters here: it collects no data from anyone, of any age, and has no social features, no messaging, no user-generated content shared with others and no external links inside it.

Your rights over your data

Data-protection law gives you the right to access, correct, export or erase personal data a company holds about you. We hold none, so there is nothing to retrieve or delete on our side — the only copy is on your device, under your control, and deleting it is immediate and complete. If you would like that confirmed in writing, ask and we will confirm it.

Changes to this policy

If the app ever changes in a way that affects this page — it would take a genuinely new feature to do so — this page will be updated and the date at the top will change. The commitment not to collect your audio is not something we intend to revisit.

Who is responsible for this

Houseband is made and published by Muhammad Bilal, an independent developer in Pakistan, who is the data controller for it under UK and EU data-protection law. Since the app collects nothing, being the controller amounts to standing behind this page. If that changes — if the app is ever published by a company instead — this paragraph will name it and the date above will move.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or about anything else, go to hello@thehouseband.app.