SOUND ORBIT — PRIVACY POLICY
Effective Date: April 22, 2026
Last Updated: October 15, 2026
Sound Orbit, LLC ("Sound Orbit," "we," "us") is a single-member limited liability company based in Jefferson County, Missouri, United States. We operate the Sound Orbit app for iOS and Android (the "App") and the website soundorbitapp.com (together, the "Service").
This policy explains what information we collect, why, who receives it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. Where iOS and Android behave differently, we say so. If you live in Canada, Section 11 adds protections that apply to you. If you live in California, see Section 10. By using the Service you accept this policy; if you do not agree, please do not use it.
Plain-language summary: we collect what the App needs to work and nothing more. We do not sell your information, we do not show ads inside the App, and we do not build advertising profiles. Your health data never leaves your phone. Documents you submit for the Service & Education Discount are analyzed in the moment and are not stored.
1. WHO WE ARE AND HOW TO REACH US
Sound Orbit, LLC, Jefferson County, Missouri, USA.
Email for every request in this policy: support@soundorbitapp.com
Person in charge of personal information (privacy officer): Aaron Harwood, Founder. He answers privacy requests personally, within 30 days.
2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT
2.1 Account information. Your name (if you give one), email address, and a user identifier created by Firebase Authentication. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive the identifier and email those services provide.
2.2 Content you create. Saved mixes and their titles and descriptions, artwork you generate, community posts and your public username and profile, Dream Journal entries, Inner Orbit progress, and reports you file about other users' content.
2.3 Usage, diagnostics and crash data. Which features you use, listening sessions (preset or mix, band, frequency, delivery mode, duration, output route such as headphones or speaker, and whether a session counted toward your streak), screens viewed, app version, device model, operating system, language, approximate region derived from IP address, and crash and performance reports. A random installation identifier ties these together. We do not collect precise location.
2.4 Device identifiers for anti-abuse. A per-vendor identifier (Identifier for Vendor on iOS; App Set ID on Android) is kept only to prevent repeat use of the Service & Education Discount and the free trial. On Android, the advertising identifier is collected solely to measure installs from our own Google Ads campaigns (Section 2.8). On iOS we do not collect the advertising identifier (IDFA).
2.5 Purchase information. Apple or Google processes every purchase. We receive the product purchased, the transaction and subscription status, dates, and the store's receipt or purchase token. We never see or store card numbers.
2.6 Professional and eligibility status (Service & Education Discount). Whether you have been verified, the role category you selected, approval and expiry timestamps, and the hashed records described in Section 5. We do not keep the documents themselves.
2.7 Notification tokens. If you allow notifications, a push token for your device (Apple Push Notification service or Firebase Cloud Messaging) and your notification preferences, including whether you opted into announcements.
2.8 Advertising measurement. We run install campaigns on Google Ads and Apple Search Ads to find new users. We receive aggregate, campaign-level attribution (which campaign an install came from, and whether a trial started). This measures our own advertising and is never used to show you ads anywhere.
2.9 Shared Family Plan counter (iOS). Family subscriptions share one monthly Orbit AI question counter keyed to the Apple transaction identifier.
2.10 What we do NOT collect: precise location; health records other than the on-device data in Section 6; your contacts; photos other than those you explicitly upload; audio recordings; browsing history; financial account numbers; government ID numbers as structured data (documents are handled under Section 5 and discarded); the iOS advertising identifier.
3. HOW WE USE INFORMATION
- To create and secure your account and sync your content across devices.
- To run the App's features: playback, the mixer, saved mixes, the community, Inner Orbit, the Dream Journal, progress and rewards.
- To answer your Orbit AI questions and to generate artwork, titles and descriptions when you ask for them.
- To verify eligibility for the Service & Education Discount and prevent fraud.
- To process purchases through Apple or Google, honour your subscription and token balance, and apply one-time grants we choose to make.
- To send notifications you have allowed: transactional messages about your account, and announcements only if you opted in.
- To diagnose crashes, fix bugs, understand which features are used, and measure our own advertising.
- To respond to support requests, enforce our Terms, and comply with law.
We do not sell personal information, do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, do not show advertising in the App, and do not build advertising profiles.
4. WHO RECEIVES YOUR INFORMATION
We use a small number of service providers. Each is bound by its contract with us to use your information only to provide its service, not to disclose it onward except as we instruct, to notify us of security incidents, and to delete it when the service ends.
- Google / Firebase (United States): hosting, authentication, database and file storage, analytics, crash reporting, push notification delivery, and on Android install attribution and Play Billing.
- Apple (United States): App Store billing, Sign in with Apple, push notification delivery, aggregate Apple Search Ads attribution.
- Cloudflare (United States): the gateway through which the App reaches our AI providers; it sees the request content in transit and enforces rate limits.
- Anthropic (United States): the Claude models that power Orbit AI and Service & Education document analysis. Anthropic receives your question or your document images and the context needed to answer, does not train on them, and retains inputs only briefly for abuse monitoring.
- xAI (United States): the Grok models that generate artwork, titles and descriptions. xAI receives the prompt describing your mix and your creative choices.
- Google Ads (United States): campaign-level attribution for Android installs.
We disclose information when the law requires it, to protect our rights or the safety of users, or to a successor if Sound Orbit is sold or merged, in which case this policy continues to apply to the information transferred.
5. SERVICE & EDUCATION DISCOUNT VERIFICATION
5.1 The programme. Verified first responders, clinical healthcare workers, military members and veterans, and K-12 and licensed preschool teachers and teacher aides can subscribe to Premium at a discounted price. Verification is optional; if you skip it or are not approved, you simply continue as a regular user.
5.2 Where verification is available. Verification currently accepts United States documents only. If you live outside the United States, including Canada, the App tells you this before you upload anything. We will update this policy when verification opens to other countries.
5.3 What you submit. A government photo ID and an institutional credential (employer ID, professional licence, Common Access Card, DD-214 or veteran-designated state ID, or a teaching licence or school ID). Photos are resized on your device before upload.
5.4 What happens to the documents. They are sent through our gateway to Anthropic's Claude for analysis and a decision is returned within seconds. The documents are not stored by us at any point: not in our database, not in file storage, not in backups. We keep only (a) one-way SHA-256 hashes of the credential and of identity details, which cannot be reversed, (b) your per-vendor device identifier, (c) the role category, (d) the result and its timestamps, and (e) your agreement to the programme terms. If the automated analysis cannot decide, a record containing only hashes and the reason is held for manual review for up to 30 days and then deleted.
5.5 Why we keep the hashes. To recognise a document that has already been used by another account, to detect identity reuse, and to support annual re-verification. Access is limited to administrator accounts. The hashes are never used for marketing or analytics.
5.6 Duration. Verified status lasts 365 days plus a 30-day grace period and must be renewed. Hashes are deleted one year after status ends.
5.7 Anti-abuse trial records. When you start a free trial we store a one-way SHA-256 hash of your signup email, a hash of your platform account identifier (Apple or Google), and the start timestamp, solely to check whether that email or account has already used a trial. These hashes cannot be reversed and survive account deletion by design, so that deleting and recreating an account does not yield a second trial. Starting a trial is your consent to this record.
6. HEALTH DATA
6.1 Apple Health (iOS). With your permission the App reads heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep and Mindful Minutes to show wellness insights and pair sessions with your recovery state, and writes Mindful Minutes when you complete a session. Apple Health data never leaves your device: it is not stored on our servers, not shared, not used for advertising, and not sent to any AI service. Revoke access any time in the Health app under Sharing → Apps.
6.2 Health Connect (Android). The App holds only a write permission for Mindful Minutes and reads nothing. Session duration and timing are written on-device; nothing goes to our servers. Manage access in Health Connect under App permissions or in the App's Settings. If we ever add read access we will update this policy and ask permission first.
7. NOTIFICATIONS
The App asks permission to send notifications after your first completed session. Two kinds exist. Transactional notifications relate to your account and the Service, such as a verification decision, a subscription change, or a message in your in-app inbox. Announcements are optional marketing messages about new features and are sent only if you turned on the announcements switch in Settings. Turn either off at any time in Settings or in your device's notification settings. Your push token is deleted when you sign out or delete your account.
8. HOW LONG WE KEEP INFORMATION
- Account, content and listening history: while your account exists, then deleted.
- Purchase records: while your subscription is active plus the period tax and accounting law requires.
- Analytics and diagnostics: as configured in our analytics provider, in identifiable form for no more than 14 months; aggregate statistics may be kept longer.
- Service & Education hashes and status: duration of verified status plus one year.
- Manual-review records: 30 days.
- Anti-abuse trial hashes: indefinitely, in non-reversible form (Section 5.7).
- Push tokens: until sign-out, account deletion, or the device stops responding.
- Support correspondence: up to 24 months.
- Health data: never retained by us on any platform.
- Backups: deleted data rolls off backups within 30 days.
9. YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES
Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what personal information we hold about you, give you a copy in a usable electronic format, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to certain processing, or withdraw consent where processing relies on it. Email support@soundorbitapp.com; we confirm receipt within 7 days and answer within 30. We may ask you to confirm your identity first. We never treat you differently for exercising a right.
Deleting your account. In the App: Profile → Settings → Delete Account. Or use soundorbitapp.com/delete-account, or email us. Deletion removes your profile, mixes, artwork, Dream Journal, community posts, session history, progress, token balance, verified status, push tokens and associated data from active systems within 30 days. Where our automatic process cannot reach a record (for example a report filed about your content by another user, or a like on a mix that has since been deleted), we remove it by hand on request and confirm when it is done. Anti-abuse hashes (Section 5.7) are retained in non-reversible form. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription; cancel it through Apple or Google first.
Analytics. Limit analytics through your device's tracking and advertising settings. On Android you can reset or delete the advertising identifier in system settings.
10. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS (CCPA/CPRA)
You have the right to know the categories of personal information we collect and why (Sections 2–4), to access and delete it, to correct it, to opt out of sale or sharing (we do neither), to limit use of sensitive personal information (your professional or veteran status is used only for the discount), and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Email support@soundorbitapp.com with the subject line "California Privacy Request." We may verify your identity. We have not sold or shared personal information in the preceding twelve months.
11. USERS IN CANADA
This section applies if you live in Canada. It adds to the rest of this policy and governs where it is more protective.
11.1 Responsibility. Sound Orbit, LLC is accountable for the personal information it collects through the Service. Aaron Harwood, Founder, is the person in charge of the protection of personal information. Reach him at support@soundorbitapp.com with the subject line "Privacy — Canada." Requests are answered within 30 days.
11.2 What we collect and why. Only what the App needs to work, as set out in Sections 2 and 3, with your consent given when you create an account, start a trial, allow notifications, or submit a verification. We collect nothing for advertising to you and we do not sell personal information.
11.3 Your information leaves Canada. Sound Orbit is a U.S. company. Your information is stored and processed in the United States by us and by the providers listed in Section 4. While it is outside Canada and outside Quebec it is subject to U.S. law, which differs from Canadian law, and may be accessible to U.S. authorities under that law. Before relying on these providers we assessed the sensitivity of the information, the purposes, the contractual and technical protections, and the destination's legal regime, and concluded the information receives adequate protection for these purposes. There is no Canada-only version of the Service; if you do not want your information to leave Canada, please do not use the App.
11.4 Retention and destruction. The periods in Section 8 apply. When a period ends the information is deleted or irreversibly anonymised.
11.5 Technology that identifies, locates or profiles. The App uses analytics that assigns a random identifier to your installation to count usage and detect crashes. It does not use your precise location, does not profile you for decisions about you, and does not track you across other companies' apps or sites. You can limit analytics as described in Section 9.
11.6 Automated decisions. Service & Education verification is currently available for U.S. documents only, so no Canadian resident is subject to a decision based solely on automated processing. When verification opens to Canadian documents, the first decision on a submission will be made by automated analysis; we will tell you so at the time, and you will be able to ask that a person review the decision and to give us any information that should be considered. Write to the privacy officer.
11.7 Your rights. Access, a copy in a usable electronic format, correction, withdrawal of consent, and deletion, as in Section 9. If you believe we have not handled your information properly, write to the privacy officer first. You may also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (priv.gc.ca) and, if you live in Quebec, to the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (cai.gouv.qc.ca).
11.8 Security incidents. If an incident involving your information presents a risk of serious injury, we will notify you and the relevant regulator without undue delay and keep a record of the incident.
11.9 Minors. In Canada the Service is not directed at anyone under 14, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. Users aged 14 to the age of majority in their province should use the Service with a parent's or guardian's consent. A parent who believes a child has created an account can write to the privacy officer and we will delete it.
11.10 Language. This policy is provided in English. We will answer privacy requests from Quebec residents in English or French. A French version of this policy will be published; until then the English version governs.
12. OTHER INTERNATIONAL USERS
We operate from the United States; your information is transferred to, stored and processed there. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, our legal bases are: performance of our contract with you (running the App), your consent where we ask for it (notifications, verification, health data, trial records), our legitimate interests in operating and improving the App and measuring our own advertising, and compliance with legal obligations. You have the rights listed in Section 9 and may complain to your local supervisory authority.
13. CHILDREN
The Service is not directed at children under 13 (under 14 in Canada; see 11.9) and we do not knowingly collect their information. If we learn that we have, we delete it promptly. Users between the minimum age and the age of majority should use the Service with a parent's or guardian's consent.
14. SECURITY
All transmission uses TLS/HTTPS. Sensitive local values are held in Apple Keychain or Android Keystore. Database rules permit owner-only writes and admin-only reads of restricted records. Credentials are handled by Firebase Authentication. API keys for our AI providers are held server-side, never in the App, behind a gateway with rate limits and daily spend caps. Verification documents are never written to storage. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you we will notify you as applicable law requires.
15. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
When we change this policy we update the "Last Updated" date; material changes are announced in the App or by email. Continued use after a change takes effect is acceptance.
October 15, 2026: added Section 11 (Canada), Section 7 (notifications and push tokens), the escalation-review record in Section 5.4, retention periods in Section 8, the deletion gap-closure in Section 9, and Cloudflare in Section 4; corrected "educators" to "teachers"; noted that verification accepts U.S. documents only.
August 28, 2026: corrected Section 6.2 to reflect Android Health Connect write-only access.
August 19, 2026: extended coverage to Android; added advertising measurement and diagnostics.
16. CONTACT
Sound Orbit, LLC, Jefferson County, Missouri, USA
Privacy officer: Aaron Harwood, Founder