Effective April 2026
What SoundSense does with audio
SoundSense listens to audio only while it is running and only to classify sounds for you. Your phone captures short audio buffers in memory, runs them through an on-device sound classifier, and then discards the audio.
We do not record audio to disk. We do not upload audio to any server. We do not include audio in crash reports. You can verify this by putting your phone in airplane mode. SoundSense keeps working.
The machine learning model ships with the app. It never needs the network to do its job.
What we collect
Very little, and only what you agree to.
- Crash reports: opt-in. If you turn this on, we receive anonymized technical information about crashes so we can fix bugs. No audio, no transcripts.
- Anonymous usage metrics: opt-in. Counts of how many times the app was opened, which screens were viewed. No individually identifying data, no content.
- Your email: only if you submit a form on this website or email us. We use it to reply to you and nothing else.
If you never turn on crash reports or metrics, and never email us, SoundSense collects nothing about you.
What we do not collect
- Audio, ever, for any reason
- Transcripts or text derived from audio
- Sound fingerprints you train. Those stay on your device
- Your location, unless you explicitly enable the optional context mode that uses it for home vs. city classification
- Your contacts, your calendar, your photos, your health data
- Tracking identifiers shared with advertisers. We have no advertisers
Third parties
There are very few.
- Apple: because the app lives on the App Store and because optional iCloud sync uses Apple's end-to-end encrypted containers for your sound names and settings. Apple's privacy policy applies to those interactions.
- Analytics and crash-reporting vendors: only if you opt in, and only to receive the non-identifying data described above. Current vendors are listed on our security page.
We do not sell, rent, or share your data with advertisers, data brokers, or marketing partners. We do not have any.
Your rights
You can ask us what we have about you, correct it, or ask us to delete it. Because we collect so little, the answer is usually "almost nothing" or "only your email, which we will delete." Either way, email privacy@soundsense.app and we will handle it within 30 days.
If you are in the EU, UK, California, or another jurisdiction with additional privacy rights, those rights apply to your interaction with SoundSense. Email us to exercise them.
Children
SoundSense is rated 4+. Because the app does not require an account and does not collect personal information by default, it does not collect data from users of any age. Parents deploying SoundSense on a child's device can turn off optional telemetry if they want, though it is opt-in to begin with.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that meaningfully affects your data, we will email you if we have your email, update the effective date above, and post a summary of what changed. Ongoing use after a material change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions, corrections, deletion requests, or a curious "wait, really?":
Your audio stays on your device. We collect almost nothing, only if you opt in. If you want anything we have, email us and we will send or delete it.