Privacy Policy

What we collect

• Account details. Your name and email address. If you use a password, your device scrambles it before sending it, and we store only a salted hash of the scrambled version, never the password itself. If you choose Continue with Google, Google gives us your Google account ID, name and email address. We don’t get your Google password or contacts.
• What you add. Diary entries, ratings and reviews; lists; your profile (bio, favorite records and artists); posts, uploaded images and replies; requests for new communities; likes and follows; friend groups and their shared playlists; saved albums, reminders and release-radar dates; and songs or releases you add by hand or from search.
• Streaming history you import. For Spotify and supported Apple Music exports, your browser reads the files and sends us daily listening totals and top artists and songs. The files themselves never leave your device.
• Listening connections. If you connect a public ListenBrainz profile, we save its username and periodically retrieve recent listens. We privately store song titles, artists, listening timestamps and available track runtimes to avoid duplicate imports and keep your stats current. These records don’t create public diary entries, ratings or likes. Disconnecting removes this synced data; deleting your account also removes it.
• Safety records. Who you block, and reports you send: what you reported, the reason, and any note you add.
• Technical data. A sign-in cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days, and a short-lived cookie while you sign in with Google. Your network (IP) address and email address are briefly used as counters to stop repeated sign-in, sign-up and password-reset attempts; the counters expire within an hour and are then deleted. Your light or dark theme choice is saved only in your browser. Our hosting provider processes request details such as IP address and browser type to deliver and protect the service.

We don’t use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies.

The daily song game streams eligible recordings directly from Audius. Audius receives the usual network information needed to deliver audio, such as your IP address. Your Playback email, account ID and history files aren’t sent with audio playback. See Audius’s privacy policy and Open Music License.

Personal song matching is off until you opt in. If you enable it in the daily game, we send individual song titles and artist names from your history to Audius to find eligible recordings. We don’t send listening timestamps, your email, Playback account ID or history files. You can turn matching off in the game; this removes your saved personal picks.

How we use it

• To run Playback: keep your diary, show your public activity, connect you with friends, and calculate community scores.
• To keep your account secure and stop abuse such as password guessing and spam.
• To send account emails, such as password-reset links.
• To review reports and enforce our Terms and Community guidelines.

We don’t sell your information, share it for advertising, or use it to train AI models.

What other people can see

• Signed-in Playback members can see your name, bio, favorite records and artists, public diary entries and reviews, public lists, posts, images and replies, how many likes they have, who you follow, and how many people follow you.
• Diary entries and lists you mark Private are visible only to you. Your email address is never shown to other members.
• Your requests for new communities are visible to you and Playback moderators, who review suggestions for future rooms.
• A friend group and its playlist are visible to the people in that group.
• People you block can’t see your posts, reviews or replies, and you won’t see theirs.
• Moderators can see reported content and the reports about it. The person you report isn’t told who reported them.

Who else handles your data

We use a few service providers, and only for these purposes:

• Cloudflare hosts Playback and stores its database and uploaded images.
• Google handles sign-in, only if you choose Continue with Google.
• Resend delivers password-reset emails, and report alerts to our moderators.
• Apple provides album and song details, cover art and 30-second previews from its public music catalog. When you search, our server sends Apple your search words, not who you are. Cover art and previews load from Apple’s servers in your browser, so Apple can see your IP address when they load.

We may also share information if the law requires it, or when it’s needed to protect someone’s safety.

How long we keep it

• Your content stays until you delete it or delete your account. Deleted posts stop showing their images immediately. Cancelled or unattached uploads are cleaned up after 24 hours when you next upload.
• When you delete your account, we immediately remove your profile, diary, ratings, lists, posts, uploaded images, replies, community requests, likes, follows, blocks, groups and sign-in records from our database. Our host’s database backups can keep a copy for up to 30 days before it expires.
• Reports you sent about other people stay after you delete your account, without your name, so moderators can finish reviewing them.
• Password-reset links and sign-in attempt counters expire within an hour, and are then deleted.

Deleting your account

In Playback: open your profile, go to Your account, and choose Delete account. Type DELETE to confirm (and your password, if you have one). Your account and everything you made are deleted right away.

Without the app: email privacy@yourdomain.com from the address on your account, with the subject “Delete my account.” We’ll delete the account and its data within 30 days and confirm by email.

Your choices and rights

• You can see and edit almost everything about your account in Playback, make entries and lists private, delete anything you posted, unfollow people, and block people.
• To get a copy of your data, or for anything you can’t do in the app, email privacy@yourdomain.com.
• Depending on where you live (for example, the EU, the UK, or a US state such as California or Texas), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or take a copy of your data, or to object to how we use it. Email us to use these rights. We’ll answer within 30 days, and we won’t treat you differently for asking.

Children

Playback isn’t for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you think a child under 13 has an account, email privacy@yourdomain.com and we’ll delete it.

Security

Playback uses HTTPS everywhere. Passwords are scrambled on your device and stored only as hashes, sign-in tokens are stored only as hashes, and repeated sign-in attempts are limited. No system is perfect, so use a password you don’t use anywhere else.

Where your data is processed

Playback is run from the United States. Our providers may process data in the United States and other countries where they operate.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we’ll tell you in Playback or by email before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions, requests, appeals and safety concerns go to privacy@yourdomain.com. Playback is run by the Playback team from Texas, United States.