Privacy policy

Who we are

BidRL.Com Inc. publishes Sounds Useful, short daily audio shows and lesson series organized by category and topic. This policy explains what the apps and this website do with personal information.

Contact support@soundsuseful.com for privacy requests.

Information we collect

Account information is the email address you use to sign in, and the profile preferences stored with that account.

The apps store listening progress, saved episodes, and the topics you follow so the next session can resume.

If a subscription is offered, the store (Apple, or Google Play when an Android app is available) processes the payment. We keep a server-side override flag of none or active. We do not receive your full card number.

The website stores a session cookie when you sign in to the admin area. Public marketing pages do not require an account.

If you open a referral link or enter a referral code, we store that code and the referral relationship. We do not show the other person's name or email.

How we use it

We use account and listening data to run the service: sign-in, playback position, and the catalog you chose.

We use the email address to send the one-time sign-in code and to answer support requests.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use it for tracking or for cross-app advertising.

Service providers and diagnostics

PostHog receives product analytics. When you are signed in, those events are linked to your user ID. The events are the screen you are on, app lifecycle events (install, update, open, and background), listening (start, progress, pause, seek, skip, and completion), paywall views, restore attempts, trial and subscription starts, finishing setup, and adding or removing a topic.

The website also sends PostHog product analytics: the pages you open and leave, clicks on App Store links, and when you open a shared episode link. An App Store click includes the place on the page where the link sat. The first ad parameters on the link you opened (utm source, medium, campaign, content, and term, plus fbclid, gclid, and the referring site) stay on later events from that browser. The website does not record a replay of the visit and does not record what you type. Website events are not tied to an account. A cookie in this browser ties the first visit to a later click. It is not an account cookie.

PostHog infers an approximate location from the IP address of the request. The app does not ask for location access and does not send a precise location.

Sentry receives crash and error reports. A report includes device and operating system context and your user ID. We do not send Sentry your name, email, or other default personal information.

Expo Observe receives performance timings for app startup and for screens. A screen timing can include the route, including a topic or episode id. These timings are tied to an anonymous install ID, not to your account. Unhandled JavaScript errors are included with that same id. Observe does not receive your name or email.

Daily show alerts and new topic announcements are optional. If you turn one on, we store an Expo push token for this phone so those notes can be sent. The token is removed when you turn both off, sign out, or delete the account.

RevenueCat receives your user ID and subscription status so the app can tell whether a subscription is active. Apple bills the subscription. We do not receive your full card number.

Supabase stores your sign-in and the data that runs the app: your account, the topics you follow, listening progress, saved episodes, and notification preferences.

Sign in with Apple asks for your name and your email address. We store the email address Apple returns with your account. It may be a private relay address. The app does not send the name from that sign-in to our servers.

We do not use this information for tracking or for cross-app advertising. We do not sell it.

Sharing

The database and file storage are hosted by our infrastructure providers, who process data for us to run Sounds Useful.

Apple and Google receive the information their stores require to distribute the app and, when you subscribe, to bill you.

We share information if the law requires it, or to protect the service and its listeners from abuse.

Retention and deletion

Account data stays until you delete the account in the app, or until we delete it after a verified request to support.

Deleting the account removes it from the live database. Backups follow the database provider's schedule and are not a separate archive we keep for a stated number of days.

Children

Sounds Useful is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly create accounts for them. Contact support if you believe a child has signed up.