Your music stays yours.

Overview

This policy explains how Refrain handles information when you use the Refrain app on iPhone or iPad, or visit refrain.marcoo.me.

Refrain plays music you already have. It has no sign-in and no server, and it never sends your music, your library or anything about your listening to the developer. The App Store lists it as Data Not Collected.

Who we are

Refrain is made by Marco, an independent developer in the United Kingdom, who is responsible for the information described in this policy. Questions and requests can be sent to refrain@marcoo.me.

Your music and library

Your music files, and what Refrain knows about them (songs' details read from their tags, playlists, loved songs, play counts and settings), are stored on your device.

• iCloud. If iCloud sync is on, your music is kept in Refrain's folder in your iCloud Drive, and your library in your private iCloud database, so your other devices have them too. The library's details are stored encrypted, and if you turn on Advanced Data Protection for your Apple Account, they are end-to-end encrypted, so only your devices can read them. You can turn sync off in Refrain's Settings. Apple's handling of iCloud is covered by Apple's Privacy Policy.
• Carrying on elsewhere. With iCloud sync on, the song you're playing, where you are in it and the queue around it are kept in your iCloud, so another of your devices can offer to carry on from there.
• Siri, Shortcuts and Spotlight. Your playlists, albums and artists are indexed on your device so Spotlight can find them and Siri can play them. Apple's handling of these is covered by its own policies.
• With iCloud sync off, everything stays on the device, in Refrain's folder in Files.

Importing music

When you import a folder, a zip or songs, or open them in Refrain from another app, Refrain copies them into its folder on your device or in your iCloud Drive. The originals stay where they were. Nothing is uploaded anywhere else, and Refrain looks up nothing online: songs' details come from their own tags and files.

Crash reports

If you choose to share analytics with app developers in your device's settings, Apple may send the developer crash reports and usage statistics for Refrain. These are collected and anonymised by Apple, and you can turn sharing off at any time in Settings, Privacy & Security, Analytics & Improvements.

Service providers

• Apple: iCloud sync, the App Store, and crash reports you choose to share.
• Cloudflare: serves this website, and handles request details such as IP addresses to deliver it. The site has no cookies, analytics or scripts from anyone else.
• Apple's iCloud Mail: messages sent to refrain@marcoo.me.

Some of these providers operate in the United States. Where information goes outside the UK, it is protected by the provider's contractual safeguards or another lawful transfer mechanism.

How long data is kept

• Your music and library: on your devices and in your iCloud until you delete them. Deleted songs stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Deleting the app removes the copy on that device, but not what's in your iCloud.
• Emails to refrain@marcoo.me: kept only as long as needed to answer them.

Security

Your library is stored encrypted in your iCloud, and end-to-end encrypted with Advanced Data Protection. Because Refrain has no server, there is no copy of your library anywhere but your devices and your own iCloud.

Children

Refrain has no account, doesn't ask for personal information, and has no advertising or profiling. It sends nothing to the developer. If you have a question about a child's use of Refrain, email refrain@marcoo.me.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, UK and EU data-protection law gives you rights to access, correct or delete personal information about you, to restrict or object to its use, and to receive it in a portable form.

Because Refrain keeps nothing about you, there is usually nothing held to ask for. Your music and library are in your own hands: delete them in the app or in Files, and manage iCloud in your device's settings. For anything else, email refrain@marcoo.me.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data-protection regulator, or your local authority.

Changes to this policy

If Refrain, its providers or the law change, this policy will be updated and its effective date changed. A feature that would send anything beyond your iCloud, such as looking up lyrics online, will be off until you turn it on, and explained in the app first.

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