Privacy policy

Pianuance is a piano practice app for iPhone, iPad, Android, the web, Windows, macOS and Linux. We collect as little as we can to make it work. We don't show ads, we don't use analytics or tracking tools, and we don't sell or share your data for advertising.

Who is responsible

Ruben Dewitte, the Netherlands, is the controller of the personal data described here (“we”). Questions and requests: rubendewitte1998@gmail.com.

Without an account, everything stays on your device

You can use Pianuance without an account. Your library, imported pieces, practice history, recordings of your runs, progress and settings are then stored only on your device (in the web app: in your browser's storage), and we receive none of it. The exceptions are the features that need our servers, described below (PDF, photo and audio import), and anonymous error reports.

What we collect, and why

Your account

• Your email address and password (stored only as a secure hash), or, if you sign in with Apple or Google, the identifier and email address they give us (with Apple you can hide your real address).
• Sign-in records kept by our authentication service for security: times of sign-in, IP address and browser or device type.
• The display name you choose. It is shown on the leaderboards, if you join them, and to teachers whose studio you join.

Why: to give you an account that works on all your devices (performance of our contract with you), and to keep accounts safe (our legitimate interest in security).

Synced practice data (when you are signed in)

• Your practice history: for each session, the piece, when and for how long you practised, the mode, hand and tempo, and how it went (counts of right, wrong, missed, early and late notes, and mistakes per bar). This is a summary: the individual notes you play are not uploaded.
• Your skills: reading level, results of reading assessments and exam-style tests, drill results and badges.
• Your settings, and the list of pieces in your library.
• The files of pieces you imported or wrote (MusicXML) and their saved versions.

Why: so your library and progress are the same on every device you sign in on (contract).

Leaderboards

Leaderboards are off until you join them on the leaderboard screen, and you can leave at any time. A teacher can also turn them off for their students. When you have joined and take a ranked reading assessment or exam-style test, the app sends the notes you played in that test (which key and when) to our server, which grades it and stores the result with your display name. Other users see your display name and score on the leaderboards. We keep a record of each submission, accepted or not, for 90 days to prevent cheating, and the one-time test tickets for 2 days. Why: to run fair leaderboards (contract, and our legitimate interest in preventing abuse). Tests taken offline or signed out stay on your device.

Teacher studios

If you join a teacher's studio with their code, that teacher sees your display name, when you joined, your synced practice history and skills (as above), and your progress on their assignments. You can leave a studio at any time, and the teacher then no longer sees your data. If you are a teacher, we store your studios, your assignments and the pieces you share with your students, which your students can open. Why: that is what the feature is for (contract).

Students without an account (student codes). A teacher can add a student to their studio without the student making an account. The teacher chooses a name for the student, only as a label they see themselves: a first name with an initial or a nickname, not a full name. Pianuance makes a student code, and the student types it in the app on their own device. Nothing is asked from the student: no email, password or birth year. We then store the teacher's label, the code, a random anonymous sign-in for that device, the student's practice history and skills, and their progress on assignments; the teacher sees these as for any student. A code works on one device at a time: entering it on another device moves the student there. The student's device keeps its own pieces and settings; they are not sent to us. To stop people guessing codes, we count wrong codes for a day, with a scrambled (hashed) form of the internet address. The teacher, or their music school, is responsible for permission from the student's parents. Why: to let teachers teach students who are too young for an account (the teacher's contract with us, and the legitimate interest of the teacher and student).

Reports

When you are signed in, you can report a display name on a leaderboard, or a note a teacher wrote on an assignment. We store the report with your account, the name as it was shown, and, for a note, the assignment and a copy of the note at that moment; our server adds which account the name or note belongs to. Only we can read reports: neither you nor the person reported can see them. Why: to keep names and notes free of abuse (our legitimate interest, and the app stores' rules for content that users write). Display names are also checked against a list of offensive words when you choose or change one.

Purchases (Pianuance Pro)

Subscriptions and purchases are made through the App Store or Google Play, which handle payment: we never see your card details. Our purchase service, RevenueCat, receives the store's receipt with your account's random identifier (not your email address), plus the technical details its software needs to check a purchase (such as the app version, the operating system and your store's country), and tells us whether you have Pro. We store your Pro status: product, store, expiry date, whether it is a trial, and whether it renews. Why: to unlock Pro on all your devices (contract).

PDF and photo import, and sheet music from a recording

When you import a PDF or photos of sheet music, or turn a recording or audio file into sheet music, the file is sent to our recognition server together with your account's sign-in token (to check that you have Pro and to limit use). The server turns it into a score, which is saved in your library. The uploaded file and the result are deleted from the server automatically within 6 hours. Why: to provide the feature you asked for (contract).

Photos are made into one PDF on your device first. Each photo is re-encoded there, which removes its metadata, such as the location and the camera details, before anything is sent.

Microphone

Pianuance uses your microphone in two places only, and never while you practise:

• when you record yourself playing to turn it into sheet music (the recording is sent as described above);
• in the sound check, where the app plays a few clicks and listens to them to measure the delay of your speakers or headphones. This is analysed on your device; nothing is stored or sent.

Camera and photos

Pianuance uses your camera or your photo library only when you add photos of sheet music to import, and reads only the photos you take or pick. They are sent as described above.

Notifications

If you start a free trial, the app asks once whether it may remind you before the trial ends. The reminder is scheduled on your device: no notification token or other data is sent to us. You can turn it off in your device's settings.

Error reports

If something goes wrong in the app (a programming error), it sends us a short report: what went wrong and where in our code, the screen it happened on, the app version, the platform and its version, whether it is a phone, tablet or computer, and a random number made for this installation. It is not linked to your account, and the app removes email addresses, file names, web addresses and titles from the report before sending it. We keep reports for 90 days. Why: to find and fix errors and keep the app working (our legitimate interest).

Your piano (MIDI and Bluetooth)

Pianuance receives the notes you play from your piano over USB or Bluetooth MIDI and processes them on your device. Bluetooth is used only to connect to your piano, not to find your location. What you play leaves your device only as the practice summaries and ranked test results described above. Recordings of your runs stay on your device.

This website

The website uses no tracking cookies and no analytics. It remembers your light or dark mode choice in your browser. Like every website, our host receives technical data with each visit (IP address, browser, pages requested) and keeps it briefly in server logs for security and to keep the site running (legitimate interest).

Who processes your data for us

We use these service providers. They process data only on our instructions, under a data processing agreement.

• Supabase (database, accounts, file storage and server functions), hosted in the European Union [region, e.g. Frankfurt, Germany].
• RevenueCat, Inc. (purchase status), United States.
• Railway Corporation (USA), on servers in the Netherlands (EU West) (hosting of this website).
• Railway Corporation (USA), on servers in the Netherlands (EU West) (the recognition server for PDF, photo and audio import).
• Resend, Inc. (USA), sending from its EU region (Ireland) (sign-in and password reset emails).

Apple and Google process your payment and, if you use it, Sign in with Apple or Google, as independent controllers under their own privacy policies.

Some of these providers are companies in the United States (RevenueCat, Railway, Resend), even where their servers are in the EU. Where data is transferred outside the European Economic Area, or can be accessed from there, the transfer is covered by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, and otherwise by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

How long we keep it

• Account, synced data, files, studios and Pro status: until you delete your account.
• Students with a student code: until the teacher removes them, deletes the studio or deletes their account; their practice data on our servers is then deleted at once, and the anonymous sign-in within 30 days. A sign-in made on a device that never used a code is deleted within two days.
• Leaderboard results: until you delete your account. Submission records: 90 days. Test tickets: 2 days.
• Reports: one year after we have dealt with them. Reports you made are deleted with your account; reports about your name or note lose the link to your account when you delete it.
• Files sent for PDF, photo or audio import: at most 6 hours.
• Error reports: 90 days.
• Sign-in records and server logs: up to 90 days.
• Backups: we don't keep separate database backups at the moment, so deleted data is gone straight away. If we start keeping backups, deleted data can remain in them for at most 7 days.

Deleting your account

In the app, tap the round profile button at the top right, then your name, then Delete account. This deletes, at once and for good, your account, your synced data, your imported files, your leaderboard results, your studios and the pieces shared in them, your studio memberships and progress, your Pro status and your record at RevenueCat. Sign-in records stay in our authentication service's security log for up to 90 days. Data on your devices stays until you remove the app. Deleting the account does not cancel a subscription: cancel it in your App Store or Google Play settings. You can also ask us by email. More about deleting your account.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to its use, and to receive it in a portable format. Email rubendewitte1998@gmail.com from the address of your account; we answer within one month. You can also complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl) or the data protection authority where you live.

Children

Anyone can use Pianuance without an account. The minimum age for an account depends on where you live: it is the age at which you can agree to an online service yourself, 16 in the Netherlands (for example also 16 in Germany and Ireland, 15 in France, 14 in Spain and Italy, 13 in Belgium and the UK, and 13 in the US and most other countries). The app reads the country from your device's region.

Before an account is made, the app asks the year you were born, and sometimes the month. The answer is only used for that check and is not kept or sent to us; the device only remembers that the check was passed, or, for one day, that it wasn't. If you are younger, no account is made and you can keep using Pianuance on your device without one. Accounts made before this check existed were not asked again.

A student who is too young for an account can still join their teacher: the teacher adds them and gives them a student code (see Teacher studios). The child then gives us nothing themselves, and the teacher only enters a label, not a full name. Teachers, and music schools, who add children are responsible for having the permission they need from parents. If you believe a child below the age for their country gave us data, email us and we will delete it.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest at our database provider. Every table is protected so that accounts can only read their own data, or, for studios, what a teacher and their students share.

Changes

If we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change matters for how we use your data, we tell you in the app first.

Contact

Ruben Dewitte, the Netherlands. Email: rubendewitte1998@gmail.com.