Privacy Policy

This policy explains how the Tines Studio app for iPhone (“Tines Studio”, “the app”) and this website handle your information. Tines Studio is published by Ossium LLC (“we”, “us”).

Using Tines Studio without an account

Signing in is optional. Without an account, the songs you write, your kalimba setup (number of keys, tuning, note labels, note length), your microphone settings (sensitivity and reference pitch), your best play-along scores and your other preferences are stored only on your iPhone. We don’t receive any of it. If you delete the app, this data is deleted with it, though it may be included in your own iCloud or computer backups of your device, which Apple and you control.

If you create an account

You can sign in to back up your songs and sync them between devices. You can sign in two ways:

• Sign in with Apple. Apple shares a user identifier and an email address with us. If you choose “Hide My Email”, we only receive a private relay address from Apple. We never see your Apple ID password.
• Email link. You enter your email address and we send you a one-time sign-in link and code. There is no password.

When you’re signed in, we store:

That’s all the app sends. Your app settings, including your kalimba setup and microphone settings, and your play-along scores stay on your iPhone even when you’re signed in, and no audio is ever sent.

Your songs are private to your account. Other users can’t see them, and we don’t look at them except when you ask for help with a specific problem or when the law requires it.

Microphone

Four features use the microphone, and only so they can hear your kalimba:

• Tune My Kalimba, the tuner in the My Kalimba settings, which measures how in tune each tine is.
• Wait mode with listening, in the player, which pauses at each note until you play it.
• Play along, in the player, which checks the timing of each note you play and scores it.
• Record from Kalimba, in the song editor, which writes down the notes you play as a tab.

The microphone is on only while one of these is open and active. It is off everywhere else in the app, and it stops when you leave that screen or leave the app.

Sound from the microphone is analyzed in real time on your iPhone, only to work out which notes are sounding, when they’re played and how in tune they are. It is never recorded as audio: nothing is kept once a note has been worked out. Despite its name, Record from Kalimba records notes, not sound.

What these features produce is kept as ordinary app data:

• Record from Kalimba produces a song’s text notation. It is stored on your iPhone like any song you type, and syncs like any other song if you’re signed in.
• Play along keeps your best score for each song. Scores are stored only on your iPhone and never uploaded.
• The tuner and wait mode keep nothing.

The only data Tines Studio ever sends over the internet is your songs, and only if you’re signed in (see above). It never sends sound.

The first time you use one of these features, iOS asks for your permission with the message “Tines Studio listens to your kalimba so it can follow along as you play.” You can turn microphone access off at any time in iPhone Settings → Tines Studio. Everything except these four features keeps working without it.

Sharing songs

When you choose Share on a song, Tines Studio turns it into a text message (the title, kalimba, tempo, notes and lyrics) and hands it to the iOS share sheet. It goes only to the app and the people you choose, such as Messages or Mail, and their privacy practices apply from there. Tines Studio doesn’t upload shared songs anywhere or keep a copy on our servers. Sharing only happens when you choose it.

Who processes your data

We use a small number of service providers, only to run the features described above:

• Supabase hosts our database and handles sign-in, including sending sign-in emails. It stores account and song data on our behalf. See the Supabase privacy policy.
• Apple provides Sign in with Apple, and the App Store handles downloads and any purchases. Apple’s handling of that data is covered by Apple’s privacy policy.
• Cloudflare hosts this website and may process IP addresses to deliver pages and protect against attacks.

These providers may store data in the United States or other countries. We don’t sell your personal information, share it for advertising, or use it to track you across other apps and websites.

No ads, analytics or tracking

The app contains no advertising, no third-party analytics and no tracking SDKs. This website uses no cookies and no analytics.

Keeping and deleting your data

We keep your account data for as long as you have an account. A song you delete is removed from your library on all your devices; its record is kept briefly so your other devices learn it was deleted, and it is removed for good when you delete your account.

To delete your account, open Tines Studio, tap the account button at the top of your library, and choose Delete account. This permanently deletes your account and every song stored with it from our servers. If you use Sign in with Apple, you confirm once with Apple, and we use that one-time confirmation to revoke Tines Studio’s access to your Apple ID. We never store Apple sign-in tokens. Songs already on your iPhone are removed when you sign out or delete the app. Deleted data may remain in our provider’s encrypted backups for a short time until those backups expire.

You can also ask us to delete your account by emailing [email protected] from the address on your account.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal information, or to object to how we use it. Your songs can be viewed and edited in the app at any time. For anything else, email [email protected] and we’ll respond within 30 days. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights. If you are in the EU or UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Security

Data travels between the app and our servers over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Database access is restricted so that each account can only read and change its own songs. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and keep only what the app needs.

Children

Tines Studio is suitable for all ages, and children can use it without an account. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country) without a parent’s consent. If you believe a child has created an account without consent, contact us and we’ll delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top of this page. If a change significantly affects how we use your data, we’ll also let you know in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email [email protected].

Ossium LLC
Florida, United States