Legal

SoundBud App · Effective Date: 14/05/2025

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: April 27, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how SoundBud, developed by Alp Kurbetci of Alpacon Technologies, collects, uses, and protects your information when you use the app.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Personal Data

When you sign in with Firebase Authentication, we collect your:

  • Email address

We may also collect user-submitted feedback, including suggestions and support messages, which may be associated with your email address.

1.2 Usage Data

We use Firebase Analytics to collect anonymous data such as:

  • App screen views
  • Button taps
  • Session duration
  • Device type and OS version

1.3 Audio Data

If you record or upload audio, we temporarily process your recording to extract audio features like BPM, key, spectral information, and more. We do not use your audio for any other purpose or share it.

1.4 Ads

We use Google AdMob to serve ads. These may be personalized based on your device’s ad settings. In accordance with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, iOS users are asked for consent before allowing personalized ad tracking. If permission is denied, only non-personalized ads will be shown. You can opt out of personalized ads through your device or via the app’s Settings menu.

1.5 AI-Powered Analysis (OpenAI)

To generate the Theory / Solo Guide / Reharmonize / Explain insights, we send anonymized music metadata extracted from your audio (BPM, detected chords, genre, instruments, and, if identified, song title and artist) to OpenAI’s GPT-4.1 API. We never send raw audio to OpenAI. OpenAI processes the request according to its own privacy policy.

1.6 Song Recognition (AudD)

When you record or upload audio, a short base64-encoded portion may be sent to AudD’s music recognition API to identify the song. AudD processes the audio in real time; per its privacy policy it does not retain the audio.

2. How We Use Your Information

  • Authenticate and personalize your experience
  • Improve app performance through analytics
  • Serve relevant ads (AdMob)
  • Process your audio inputs for music/sound feature extraction
  • Review feedback and suggestions to improve app features and support

3. Third-Party Services

We use the following trusted third parties:

  • Firebase (Authentication & Analytics)
  • Google AdMob (Advertisements)
  • Amazon Web Services (Audio processing via Lambda and S3)
  • OpenAI (GPT-4.1 for analysis insights, anonymized metadata only)
  • AudD (song recognition)
  • Sentry (crash reporting and stability monitoring, EU region)
  • RevenueCat (in-app subscription management)

These services may store and process your data under their own privacy policies.

Sentry (sentry.io, EU region)

We use Sentry for crash reporting and stability monitoring. When the app encounters an error or crashes, Sentry collects: stack trace, device model, iOS version, app version, and an anonymized user identifier. No personally identifiable information, audio recordings, or AI prompt content is sent to Sentry. Data is stored in the European Union (Frankfurt) with a 90-day retention period.

Sentry’s privacy policy: https://sentry.io/privacy/

RevenueCat (revenuecat.com)

We use RevenueCat to manage in-app subscription purchases and entitlement validation. When you purchase or restore a subscription, RevenueCat receives an anonymous user identifier, the App Store transaction ID, and your subscription status. No personal information (name, email, payment method) is shared with RevenueCat — it acts as a data processor on our behalf and never receives the credit card data, which stays with Apple.

RevenueCat’s privacy policy: https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy

4. Data Security

We use encryption, secure storage, and access controls to protect your data. However, no system is 100% secure, and you use the app at your own risk.

5. User Rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights to:

  • Access or delete your data
  • Withdraw consent
  • Opt out of analytics and personalised ads

You can manage these in the Settings menu or contact us at: info@alpaconaudio.com

6. Children’s Privacy

SoundBud is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

7. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. We will notify you of any material changes in the app or through other means.

8. Contact

If you have questions about your privacy, contact us at: info@alpaconaudio.com

Terms & Conditions

Last Updated: April 27, 2026

Welcome to SoundBud, a mobile application developed by Alp Kurbetci of Alpacon Technologies. By accessing or using our app, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By downloading, accessing, or using SoundBud, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.

2. User Accounts

To use certain features, you may be required to create an account via Firebase Authentication. You agree to provide accurate information and are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials.

3. Data Collection

We use Firebase Analytics to collect anonymous usage data that helps us improve the app. We also collect and store your email address if you sign in, for authentication and app personalization purposes. Your data is handled according to our Privacy Policy, in compliance with relevant data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA, KVKK).

4. Advertisements

Our app displays advertisements using Google AdMob. These ads may be personalized based on your device activity. You may opt out of ad personalization in your device settings or via our Privacy Settings menu.

5. User Content

If you upload or record any audio in the app, you retain ownership of your content. By using the app, you grant us a limited license to process that content for feature extraction and analysis purposes only.

6. Prohibited Use

You agree not to use the app to:

  • Violate any local, national, or international law
  • Upload harmful, offensive, or copyrighted material
  • Interfere with app security or functionality

7. Intellectual Property

All intellectual property related to the app (excluding user content) belongs to SoundBud and its creator. You may not reproduce, distribute, or modify any part of the app without permission.

8. Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access if you violate these terms or misuse the app.

9. Disclaimer & Limitation of Liability

The app is provided “as is” without warranties. We are not liable for any damages arising from your use or inability to use the app.

10. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Continued use after changes means you accept the new terms.

11. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at: info@alpaconaudio.com

Subscription Terms

SoundBud Premium is an auto-renewing subscription, offered on two tiers:

  • Monthly: charged per month
  • Yearly: charged per year, with an optional 7-day free trial on first subscription

Subscriptions automatically renew at the same price for the same period unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase and at the start of each renewal period.

You can manage and cancel your subscription at any time in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on your iOS device, or at https://apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions.

Prices may vary by region and are shown in your local currency at the point of purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. No refunds are provided for the unused portion of any subscription period.

For any subscription-related questions, contact info@alpaconaudio.com.

Advertisement Policy

SoundBud uses Google AdMob to display advertisements within the app.

  • Ads may be personalized based on your device settings, general location, and in-app behavior.
  • We do not collect, use, or share sensitive personal data (such as your name, contact information, or precise location) for advertising purposes.
  • Ad personalization is handled by Google under their own privacy policies and ad-serving technologies.
  • On iOS devices, SoundBud complies with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) requirement by asking for your permission before enabling ad personalization. If you decline, only non-personalized ads will be served.

You can manage your ad personalization preferences through your device settings or by visiting: https://myadcenter.google.com/

For more information, refer to Google’s Ad Policies.

European Union and UK users

Before any ad is requested, we display Google’s Consent Management dialog (User Messaging Platform / UMP) in compliance with GDPR. You can choose to accept personalized ads, manage individual ad partners, or decline all tracking. Your choice is stored locally on your device and can be reset at any time by visiting iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking, or by reinstalling the app.

Users outside the EU/UK

Including Turkey, US, and other regions: the GDPR consent dialog does not appear. Ads default to your iOS App Tracking Transparency (ATT) setting — non-personalized unless you grant tracking permission. California residents see a separate CCPA opt-out dialog under the same flow.

Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA)

When you grant ATT permission, Google AdMob may use your IDFA to deliver targeted ads. The IDFA can be reset at any time via iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking → Reset Advertising Identifier.

Open Source Licenses

SoundBud uses several open-source libraries and models. Below is the required attribution and license notice for each. The full LGPL-3.0, LGPL-2.1, and GPL-3.0 texts are also bundled inside the iOS app under Settings → Open Source Licenses.

FFmpeg & FFmpegKit, LGPL notice

The SoundBud iOS app statically links unmodified FFmpeg libraries (libavcodec, libavformat, libavfilter, libavutil, libavdevice, libswresample, libswscale) built from FFmpeg’s LGPL-licensed configuration. No GPL-only components (libx264, libx265, libvidstab, libxvid) are linked.

Copyright © FFmpeg contributors, https://ffmpeg.org

Copyright © 2018–2023 Taner Sener, https://github.com/arthenica/ffmpeg-kit

Audio & Machine Learning

  • BeatNet (CC-BY-4.0), Heydari et al.
  • PANNs CNN14 (MIT), Kong et al.
  • ISMIR 2019 Large-Vocabulary Chord Recognition (MIT), music-x-lab
  • librosa (ISC), madmom (MIT), PyTorch (BSD-3), NumPy/SciPy (BSD)

App & Interface

  • React Native (MIT), Expo (MIT), Expo Router (MIT)
  • i18next + react-i18next (MIT), Zustand (MIT)
  • Ionicons via @expo/vector-icons (MIT)
  • Outfit font (SIL OFL 1.1), JetBrains Mono (Apache-2.0)
  • Firebase JS SDK (Apache-2.0)
  • OpenAI Node SDK (Apache-2.0)
  • react-native-google-mobile-ads (Apache-2.0)

Source Code (LGPL Section 4 compliance)

Per LGPL-3.0 Section 4, users may obtain, modify, and relink the LGPL-licensed libraries used in the SoundBud app from the following upstream sources:

Full License Texts

The full canonical texts of the licenses referenced on this page are published by the Free Software Foundation:

The same texts are bundled verbatim inside the SoundBud iOS app under Settings → Open Source Licenses, accessible offline.