Privacy Policy

Scope

This policy applies to the Cutty iOS app and Cutty-operated web pages, including sign-in callbacks, public share pages, and legal and support pages. It explains what information we collect, why we use it, when it is shared, and the choices available to you.

Information we collect

• Account and profile information: email address, sign-in provider, account and profile identifiers, display name, handle, bio, avatar, and profile links you choose to add.
• Terms acceptance: when you choose Agree and continue, we store your account identifier, the version and fingerprint of the Terms of Use you accepted, and the server-recorded acceptance time. We use this record to document your agreement and control access to participation. This record is separate from optional analytics and advertising choices. It is deleted when your account is deleted.
• User content and community activity: ratings, notes, reviews, comments, reactions, playlists, follows, blocks, reports, and the music identifiers connected to that activity. Reports may include the reason, the reported content or account, and information needed to investigate the report.
• Music and catalog activity: Apple Music song and album identifiers, music-video identifiers, catalog searches needed to return results, playback starts, and requests you make to save music to your Apple Music library or a playlist.
• On Air shows: if you make a show, its voice recordings, title, station details, songs and schedule; comments, reactions, and reminders on shows; and, while you are signed in with a show open, the last time you were there. See On Air shows and stations.
• Push notifications: if you enable notifications, an app installation identifier, Apple push-delivery token, notification preferences, and delivery records linked to your account. These deliver the social and On Air alerts you select and open what they are about.
• Community participation: account-linked contribution dates and activity records, such as ratings, replies, and conversation returns, used to produce aggregate reports about participation and whether people receive responses and return to the community.
• Anonymous product analytics: feature interactions, recommendation interactions, campaign labels, and a fresh random session identifier. Anonymous analytics excludes account IDs, email addresses, search terms, review or comment text, authentication URLs, tokens, and persistent device IDs.
• Optional account activity: if you choose Share, a separate session identifier, session and sign-in times, a first observed session flag, and the app version linked to your Cutty account when you sign in. This helps measure account creation, ratings, reviews, and return visits. Searches and writing are excluded.
• Optional Meta ad measurement: if you separately opt in and grant iOS tracking permission, app opens and confirmed account creation, together with your device's advertising identifier, device information, and network request metadata, as described below.
• Technical and diagnostic information: app and build version, plus bounded outcome, duration, and failure-reason events needed to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the service.

Cutty does not request access to your iPhone contacts or address book. Connections such as follows and blocks are created inside Cutty.

Cutty uses your microphone only when you choose Listen, Speak, or Record in the On Air studio. Cutty never stores or uploads Listen or Speak audio. Voice recordings are uploaded only when you publish a show.

How we use information

• Authenticate accounts and provide profiles and account settings.
• Provide ratings, reviews, comments, reactions, playlists, follows, and music discovery.
• Search the music catalog, start playback, and complete Apple Music actions you request.
• Host, play, and show On Air shows, find YouTube versions of their songs, show who's here, and send the On Air alerts you ask for.
• Apply blocks, investigate reports, moderate content, prevent abuse, and protect users and the service.
• Diagnose failures, measure product performance, and improve accessibility and reliability.
• Comply with law, enforce our Terms of Use, and respond to valid legal requests.

Apple Music and MusicKit

If you allow Media & Apple Music access, Cutty uses MusicKit to search Apple's catalog, match activity to the correct music, play available songs or previews, and complete library or playlist actions you request. Full-length Apple Music playback may require an active Apple Music subscription. Apple Music access is optional, and public browsing remains available if you decline it.

Apple provides the catalog, artwork, previews, playback, subscription status, and library services under Apple's own terms and privacy policy. Cutty does not redistribute full-length Apple Music audio.

Listen: identifying a song

When you use Listen to identify a song playing near you, Cutty uses your iPhone's microphone only while the Listen screen is open, and never in the background. Listening uses Apple's ShazamKit: your iPhone turns a few seconds of sound into a signature, a compact fingerprint of the sound rather than the recording itself, and sends only that signature to Apple's Shazam service to find the song. Cutty does not store or upload that audio or the signature, and does not add songs to your Shazam History. Apple processes signatures under its own privacy policy.

When a song is found, Cutty opens its Apple Music record so you can rate or review it, just as if you had searched for it. In the On Air studio's song search, Cutty adds the song to your show instead. Nothing is published unless you choose to. Listen is optional: you can turn microphone access off at any time in iOS Settings, and search, ratings and reviews keep working.

Speak your review

When you tap Speak while writing a review, Cutty turns what you say into text using Apple's speech recognition. Cutty requires that recognition to happen on your iPhone, so the audio is not sent over the network to be recognized, and Cutty does not store or upload it. iOS's own Speech Recognition permission prompt is worded the same for every app and may say that speech data is sent to Apple; because Speak requires on-device recognition, the audio of what you say stays on your iPhone.

Cutty uses the microphone only while Speak is listening, never in the background. It stops when you tap Stop, pause, reach one minute, or leave the review or the app. To help spell names, the record's title and artist are given to the recognizer on your iPhone. Only the resulting text appears in your review, where you can edit it like anything you type; nothing is published unless you choose to. Speak is optional: it needs microphone and Speech Recognition access, which you can turn off at any time in iOS Settings, and typing keeps working.

YouTube videos and show songs

Cutty uses YouTube API Services to show official embedded music videos. Opening a video page connects your device to Google/YouTube; playing a video sends additional playback information. Google may process your IP address, browser and device information, identifiers, and interactions with the video or ads for playback, security, analytics, and ad serving under Google's Privacy Policy. YouTube may display ads. Use of the player is also subject to the YouTube Terms of Service.

The embedded player uses temporary web storage. This limits storage persistence on your device; it does not prevent information from being sent to Google. Cutty does not send the player your Cutty account identity, password, or writing. Cutty's optional analytics, account activity, and Meta settings do not control YouTube's processing.

You can avoid connecting to the embedded player by not opening video pages or playing On Air shows, and use Google's own privacy and advertising controls for data Google holds. Closing the video stops its player. Deleting your Cutty account or data does not delete information held by Google.

Songs in On Air shows. Songs in public shows play in the same official YouTube player, shown on screen and only while Cutty is open. In circle shows, Apple Music subscribers may hear songs through Apple Music instead. After you tap Play, the next song in a show can load and start on its own while the show stays open, so your device may contact Google/YouTube without a tap on YouTube's own play button. This player also uses temporary web storage, where YouTube may place and read cookies or similar data. Leaving the show or the app pauses the player.

Finding YouTube versions. To find a song's YouTube version, Cutty's servers send the song's title and artist to YouTube API Services. These lookups include nothing about you. For each song, Cutty keeps the Apple Music song ID, the matching YouTube video's ID and length, whether it is on the artist's Topic or official channel (or a note that none was found), and when it was checked. This record is not linked to any person. Cutty may check it again with YouTube, sending only the video's ID, and deletes or refreshes it within 30 days. Cutty does not request access to your Google or YouTube account through YouTube API Services. You can review the apps connected to your Google account in Google's security settings.

On Air listening through Audius

On Air uses Audius to load record information and artwork and, after you choose to join or play, stream available full tracks directly to your device. Audius listening does not require an Apple Music subscription or an Audius account. These requests disclose your IP address, the requested record or track, and ordinary device and network request information to Audius and the infrastructure providers delivering the content. Audius's policy describes server logs and possible general location inferred from IP addresses, for service operation and analytics. See the Audius Privacy Policy.

Cutty does not send Audius your Cutty email address, account identity, password, reviews, or conversation writing. Cutty keeps fetched Audius metadata and artwork temporarily for the current request or listening session and offers no offline audio download. Temporary storage on your device does not prevent the provider from retaining request information. Cutty's optional analytics, account activity, and Meta measurement choices do not stop the provider processing necessary to load or play Audius content. Deleting a Cutty account does not delete information already held by Audius or its infrastructure providers; their privacy practices and controls apply.

You can use other Cutty features without joining an On Air listening session. Loading an On Air record or its artwork can contact the provider before audio plays. The Music credits sheet provides the record's source, attribution, Audius API Terms, and Open Music License.

On Air shows and stations

On Air lets you make a short radio-style show from songs you choose and your own voice breaks, and publish it on your station.

What you upload. Cutty uses the microphone for a voice break only after you tap Record, for up to three minutes per recording. Recordings stay on your iPhone until you publish a show. When you publish, Cutty uploads the show's voice recordings and saves its title, your station's name, host name and tagline, the songs you chose and their order, and the start time and time zone if you schedule it. All of this is linked to your account and shared with the people who can see the show, including a scheduled show's time zone.

Who can see and hear it. A public show, including its voice breaks, comments, and reactions, can be seen and heard by anyone using Cutty, including people who are not signed in. A circle show, a feature for a small group of testers, can be heard only by its host and the circle members it was shared with. Until a scheduled show's start time, others cannot play it or see its song list, voice breaks, or comments, but Cutty can list it in Coming up with its title, station, host, cover art, length, number of songs, start time, and time zone, so people can ask to be reminded. Anyone who can hear a show could record it with another device, so do not include anything you do not want to share. A listener's iPhone keeps a copy of a show's voice recordings so it can play them. Cutty deletes a copy when it finds the show is no longer available, and when it opens a public show it also deletes copies of other public shows more than a week old. A copy can still stay on a listener's iPhone after the show is deleted, for example if the listener stops opening shows or signs in or out, until Cutty or iOS clears it.

Follows, reminders, and alerts. You can follow a station's host and ask to be reminded about a show that is coming up. Cutty saves your reminders with your account. When a public show goes on air, Cutty can notify the host's followers; when a circle show does, the circle members it was shared with. People who asked to be reminded are notified too. You can turn a reminder off at any time, and turn off alerts for stations you follow in Cutty's notification settings.

Comments and reactions. Signed-in listeners can comment and react. On a public show, this needs a public profile, and if a profile is made private, its comments there are no longer shown to others and its reactions are no longer counted. Comments appear with the commenter's profile. Reactions appear as totals, without a list of who reacted.

Who's here. While you are signed in with a show open, Cutty records the last time you were there so the show can list who's here. On a public show, signed-in listeners see the host while the host is there. Besides the host, a listener sees only people they follow who also follow them. Blocking someone hides each of you from the other, and a private profile is never shown on a public show. On a circle show, members see the other members who are there. Cutty never shows a listener count and does not record people who are not signed in. Cutty keeps only your last-seen time for each show and deletes it when you leave or within about six hours.

Reports and moderation. Show titles, station details, and comments pass an automatic text filter before they are saved. No automatic filter checks voice breaks; they are moderated through reports. Signed-in listeners can report a show or a comment, and a single voice break in a public show. A report includes the reason, any details you add, and a copy of the reported show's details or comment text. Moderators can listen to a reported show's voice breaks. Shows go public without review. A show or comment that several people report can be hidden from others until a person reviews it.

Deleting and retention. Deleting a show removes it for everyone at once and deletes its voice recordings from Cutty's servers, unless another of your shows still plays them. Cutty deletes the rest of a deleted show, including its comments and reactions, after 30 days. A comment you delete disappears at once and is deleted after 30 days. Voice recordings uploaded for a show that is never published are deleted after 24 hours. Content removed after a report is handled the same way, and the report keeps its copy of what was reported as a safety record (see Retention). Records of when you upload voice recordings or ask Cutty to find a song's YouTube version are kept for two days to apply daily limits. Deleting your account deletes your shows, voice recordings, comments, reactions, and who's-here times, and clears the studio drafts and recordings Cutty stored on that iPhone.

Public content, reports, and blocks

Public profiles and content you choose to publish—such as ratings, reviews, comments, reactions, public playlists, and public On Air shows—can be seen and shared by other people. Review your content before publishing it and do not include information you do not want to make public.

Blocks and reports are not displayed publicly. Blocking is used to limit interactions and visibility between accounts. Reports are made available to authorized moderators so they can investigate possible violations, protect the community, and take appropriate action.

If you send a copyright notice or counter-notice, we may share it, including your contact details, with the other party, as described in Copyright complaints in the Terms of Use.

When information is shared

We share information only as needed for the following purposes:

• Service providers: Supabase provides authentication services; Railway hosts the application programming interface and supporting service infrastructure; Vercel hosts public callback, share, and legal pages; and an email provider sends one-time sign-in messages. Hosting providers may process IP addresses and request metadata as part of operating and securing their services. Our service providers may use the information we share with them only to provide their services to Cutty, and must protect it at least as well as this policy describes.
• Apple and Google: Apple supports Sign in with Apple, MusicKit, ShazamKit song recognition, TestFlight, and push-notification delivery; Google provides the YouTube player and YouTube API Services described above and may provide sign-in when you choose it. Apple and Google handle information under their own privacy policies, and so do Audius and Meta, as described in their sections.
• Public features: information you deliberately make public is shown according to the feature and visibility settings you select.
• Safety and legal obligations: we may preserve or disclose information when reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, protect rights and safety, enforce our terms, comply with law, or respond to valid legal process.
• Business changes: information may be transferred as part of a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, subject to this policy and applicable law.

We do not sell or rent personal information. The optional Meta measurement described below can associate app activity with activity across other apps and websites only after your separate choice and iOS tracking permission.

Analytics, diagnostics, and TestFlight

Account-linked community activity and contribution dates separately support aggregate participation reports. Turning off optional product analytics does not remove these records, which are also used for community features. The reports help us evaluate contribution, responses, and returns to conversations.

Cutty's anonymous product analytics uses a fresh random session identifier and is designed to exclude identity, private writing, search terms, authentication data, and persistent device identifiers. You can turn anonymous analytics off in Privacy choices on Home or in Settings; doing so clears events still queued on your device. Anonymous analytics events are retained for up to 90 days.

Account activity sharing is a separate optional choice and is off until you choose Share. It connects session information to your Cutty account when you sign in. Every feature remains available if you decline. Turning this choice off in Privacy choices on Home or in Settings stops new collection locally and clears queued sessions. When your choice reaches Cutty, we delete the linked session history. An offline revocation waits until you sign in to that account and reconnect; the app shows when it still needs to be saved. Your ratings and reviews remain.

With account activity sharing enabled, Cutty also supplies engagement milestones to Apple's privacy-preserving ad attribution system. Apple may send campaign and conversion statistics to the ad network and a copy to Cutty, without your Cutty identity, email address, or advertising identifier. Apple controls which fields are included and may delay, limit, or omit reports. We also receive aggregate App Store download and campaign reports from Apple. We do not join these reports to individual Cutty accounts. Turning sharing off cannot recall statistics Apple has already received or delivered.

During beta testing, Apple's TestFlight may provide installation, session, device, operating-system, crash, and voluntarily submitted feedback information. Apple's handling of that information is governed by Apple's TestFlight terms and privacy disclosures.

Optional Meta ad measurement

Meta ad measurement is a separate choice, off by default, available in Privacy choices on Home or in Settings. It requires your permission in both Cutty and the iOS tracking prompt. Enabling anonymous analytics or account activity does not enable Meta measurement. Every Cutty feature works with Meta measurement off.

If you opt in, Cutty uses Meta's SDK to share app opens and confirmed account creation, together with your device's advertising identifier, device information and network request metadata, to measure which ads bring people to Cutty. Meta may associate this information with activity across other apps and websites under its own privacy policy. Cutty does not send Meta your Cutty account ID, email address, searches, listening selections or writing as event parameters. Account creation can be measured only when Share account activity is also enabled; these choices remain separate. We do not replay account creation that occurred before your Meta choice and tracking permission were enabled.

Turning this choice off or withdrawing iOS tracking permission stops new event sharing. Pending local registration events are cleared when you turn it off or change accounts. Requests already sent and information Meta has received cannot be recalled by this setting; Meta's retention and privacy controls apply to that information. Learn more in Meta's Privacy Policy.

Retention

We keep account information and content while your account is active and as needed to provide the service. Safety and moderation records may be kept for as long as reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, prevent repeat violations, protect the service, resolve disputes, or meet legal obligations. Backups and operational logs may retain limited information for a short period after it is removed from the active service.

On Air shows, voice recordings, comments, who's-here times, and YouTube matches are kept for the periods described in On Air shows and stations and YouTube videos and show songs.

Account deletion removes account-linked contribution records and push installations. Push-delivery queue records are pruned after seven days. A registration-status record containing an installation identifier and revision, without an account link or delivery token, may remain to prevent delayed requests from restoring a revoked registration.

Optional linked session records and Apple campaign postback copies are retained for up to 90 days. Queued linked sessions expire from the device after 30 days. Your account's consent choice and revision remain until account deletion so delayed requests cannot undo revocation. Account deletion removes this choice and linked session history. Apple's aggregate reports and its retention are governed by Apple's policies.

For an eligible Meta registration event, Cutty retains a one-time claim with your account's consent record until account deletion to prevent duplicate registration claims across devices and retries. Revoking sharing does not reset this claim. The device stores a hashed account reference solely to avoid sending the registration event again; account deletion removes that reference and any pending registration event. This local reference is never sent to Meta.

Account deletion

You can delete your account in the app from Profile → Settings → Delete Account. This removes application-owned account data and starts deletion of the associated authentication identity. Limited records may remain temporarily in backups or when retention is required for security, abuse prevention, dispute resolution, or law.

If you cannot access the app, contact Cutty Support for deletion help. We may need to verify that you control the account before acting on a request.

Your choices and rights

• Edit your profile information and playlist visibility in the app.
• Decline or revoke Apple Music access in iOS Settings and continue using public browsing.
• Change anonymous analytics, optional account activity sharing and Meta ad measurement in Privacy choices on Home or in Settings.
• Control iOS tracking permission in iOS Settings.
• Choose whether to open YouTube video pages or play On Air shows, and manage Google's separate privacy and advertising controls.
• Choose whether to load or play On Air records and use the separate provider controls described in Audius's privacy policy.
• Choose whether to publish a show, and delete your shows and comments at any time.
• Decide who sees you in who's here. On a public show you host, signed-in listeners can see you. On other public shows, only people you follow who also follow you can see you. Unfollow or block someone, or make your profile private, to stay out of their view.
• Turn microphone and Speech Recognition access on or off in iOS Settings. Listen, Speak, and voice breaks are optional.
• Choose social and On Air notification categories, such as when stations you follow go on air, or turn notifications off in Cutty settings, and control notification permission in iOS Settings.
• Block accounts and report content or accounts through the relevant menu.
• Delete your account in the app.

Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of certain personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. Contact us to make a request. We will respond as required by applicable law.

Security

We use safeguards designed to protect information, including encrypted network connections, authenticated access, scoped authorization, and secure device storage for sign-in sessions. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Children

Cutty is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information without appropriate permission, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Cutty changes. The date above shows when it was last revised. If a change materially affects how we use personal information, we will provide notice in the app or by another appropriate method before the change takes effect when required.