Piano EffectPiano Effect privacy policy
Last updated: September 16, 2026
Piano Effect listens to music through the phone's microphone to recognise which keyboards are playing and which effects they use (tremolo, chorus, reverb, delay…). This policy explains what the app does with your data. The short version: your audio never leaves your device. The only thing that communicates with third parties is the advertising in the free version, and you can remove it entirely with a one-time purchase.
Most important: the microphone and your audio
The app only uses the microphone when you tap “Scan”, for the 10, 20 or 30 seconds you choose. The audio is analysed in memory, on the phone itself, and discarded when it finishes. It is not recorded, not stored and not sent anywhere: not to a server of ours —we don't have one—, not to Google, not to anyone. If you leave the screen or send the app to the background, the microphone turns off.
This does not change with advertising. Ads do not receive the audio, the analysis result or the sounds you save: the audio travels from the microphone to the analysis engine, which returns a verdict, and is discarded. And a full-screen ad never opens while you are scanning.
No accounts and no server of ours
Piano Effect has no sign-up or log-in, so we do not collect your email, your name or any identifier of yours. The app does not call any Piano Effect server. The only internet connections are those of the third-party services described below: Google's advertising and Apple's store.
What is stored on your device
- The sounds you decide to save with a name (the measured effect chain).
- Your preferences, such as the scan length.
All of that lives only on your phone or iPad and is deleted when you delete the app. If you have iCloud backups turned on, it may be included in them, under Apple's policy. We do not see it.
Advertising
Since version 1.1, the free version shows ads from Google AdMob. With “Piano Effect Pro” none are shown. (Version 1.0 did not include advertising.)
To serve and measure those ads, Google's SDK may collect and process data from your device: the advertising identifier (if you allow it), ad interaction data, diagnostic data from the SDK itself and an approximate location inferred from the IP address. Google acts as the controller of that processing; how it works is described in how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and in the Google privacy policy.
The formats the app may show are a banner, a full-screen ad at natural breaks in use and an ad when opening the app or returning to it. None of them appears during a scan.
Your consent
Apple's tracking permission. The app will ask for permission to track your activity (Apple's “App Tracking Transparency” dialog). You can say no: ads will still appear, but not personalised, and your device's advertising identifier is not shared. You can change your answer at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
Google's consent form. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and wherever the law requires it (such as some US states), the app shows Google's consent form (“User Messaging Platform”) before requesting any ad. You can refuse, and you can reopen that form at any time from the app's “Ad privacy options” button, which appears wherever the law requires offering it.
Purchases
“Piano Effect Pro” is a one-time purchase that removes advertising. It is not a subscription and does not renew. Everything else in the app is identical with or without Pro.
Payment is handled by Apple from start to finish: we never see or store your card details. The app only asks the App Store whether your account has the purchase, to know whether it should hide the ads. With Pro active, the app stops requesting ads, Google's consent form and the tracking permission.
If you switch devices or reinstall the app, the “Restore purchase” button asks the App Store again with the Apple account you bought it with.
Data summary
| Data | Who processes it | What for |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone audio | Only your device | Analysing the effects during the scan. It is not recorded or sent. |
| Saved sounds and preferences | Only your device (and your iCloud backup, if you have one) | Remembering them between uses. |
| Advertising identifier, ad interaction, SDK diagnostics and approximate location | Google AdMob | Showing and measuring ads in the free version. The identifier, only if you allow it. |
| Purchase status | Apple | Knowing whether to hide the ads. |
We do not use any analytics tool of our own: there is no Firebase Analytics, no Crashlytics and no equivalent SDK.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them. On the App Store it is rated 4+.
Your rights
Since we do not keep any data of yours on any server, there is nothing of ours to export or delete on request: what the app knows about you is on your device and under your control.
- Delete your sounds and preferences: by deleting the app.
- Withdraw or change your advertising consent: from “Ad privacy options” in the app.
- Control tracking: in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
- Remove advertising entirely: by buying Piano Effect Pro.
- About the data Google processes: in Google's My Ad Center.
Changes
If what the app does with data changes, this page is updated before it happens, with the date above changed.
Contact
Alejandro Gabriel Guerrero · gbrayhan@gmail.com