Privacy Policy | Ryft Audio — No Accounts, No Tracking, No Ads

The short version

No accounts. There is nothing to sign up for and no profile to create.
No analytics, no ads, no trackers. The App contains no advertising or analytics SDKs.
No in-app purchases. The App does not process payments and collects no billing data.
Your music never leaves your device. Files are decoded and played locally.
One network feature: internet radio. When you play a station, your device connects directly to that broadcaster, which necessarily sees your IP address.

The sections below explain this in detail. Section 3 is the one that matters most for privacy.

1) Scope and Definitions

"Personal information" means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked (directly or indirectly) with a particular person or device.

This Policy covers the Ryft Audio Android application and any support correspondence you send us. It does not cover third-party services you reach through the App — most importantly the radio broadcasters whose streams you choose to play (see Section 3) — or the Google Play store itself.

2) Information Stored On Your Device

The App stores its state locally on your device using standard Android preference storage. This data is not transmitted to us and we have no ability to read it. It includes:

Playback preferences: selected theme, whether to restore the last screen on launch, the last screen index, autoplay-on-launch preference, volume level, sleep-timer settings, and shuffle state.
Recently played references: the file path and display name of the last track played in the Standard and Hi-Res players, and the name and stream URL of the last radio station played, so playback can resume where you left off.
Library browsing state: play counts per track, expanded/collapsed folders, scroll positions, and any custom ordering you set in the file explorer.
Audio processing settings: your parametric EQ presets and drafts, selected headphone correction profile, DSP preset selections, crossfeed settings, and spectrum analyzer preferences.
Interface toggles: such as whether cover art is displayed for local files and radio.

You control all of it. Clearing the App's storage in Android settings, or uninstalling the App, removes this data from your device (subject to operating system behavior).

2.1 Your audio files

The App does not request broad access to your device's media library. Instead, you explicitly grant access to a folder you choose using the Android system folder picker (Storage Access Framework). The App reads audio files from the folders you select in order to decode and play them, and reads embedded tags and cover art for display.

Audio content is processed entirely on your device by a native audio engine. Your files are never uploaded, copied to a server, scanned by us, or matched against any online database. The App has no feature that transmits your library, filenames, or listening history anywhere.

2.2 Files opened from other apps

If you use "Open with" from a file manager or another app, Android passes that single file reference to the App so it can be played. The App does not retain access to unrelated files.

3) Internet Radio — The Only Network Feature

Internet radio is the only part of the App that uses a network connection. It is important that you understand exactly how it works.

3.1 The station list ships with the App

The curated list of radio stations, including station names, genres, languages, artwork and stream URLs, is bundled inside the App package itself. Browsing or searching stations happens entirely offline. The App does not query any station-directory service and does not send us — or anyone else — a record of which stations you look at.

3.2 Playing a station connects you directly to the broadcaster

When you press play on a station, your device opens a direct connection to that broadcaster's streaming server. We do not operate, proxy, relay, or intermediate these connections. As with visiting any website, the broadcaster's server necessarily receives:

your device's IP address (which can indicate your approximate location and your internet service provider);
standard connection metadata such as request headers, user-agent information, and the time and duration of your connection;
which of that broadcaster's streams you selected.

This information is processed by the broadcaster (and any content delivery network or hosting provider it uses) under its own privacy policy, not ours. We have no control over, and no access to, what broadcasters log or how long they retain it. If this concerns you, do not use the radio feature, or use a VPN.

3.3 Track metadata and artwork

"Now playing" text shown during radio playback is metadata embedded in the stream itself by the broadcaster (commonly as ICY metadata). Station artwork is bundled with the App or supplied by the stream. The App does not look up track information from third-party music databases.

3.4 No other network activity

Outside of radio streaming, the App makes no network requests. There is no update check, no license check, no telemetry ping, no remote configuration, and no crash reporting service. The headphone correction database (see Section 4) is stored inside the App and is queried offline.

4) Bundled Data and Hardware Access

4.1 Headphone correction database

The App includes a headphone correction database derived from the open-source AutoEq project. Selecting your headphone model performs a local lookup inside the App. Your headphone selection is stored on your device and is not transmitted.

4.2 USB DAC access

The Hi-Res USB player communicates directly with a USB audio device you connect. Android asks for your permission before the App may access an attached USB device. The App reads the device's audio capability descriptors (supported sample rates, bit depths and interfaces) in order to configure a bit-perfect output path. This information is used on-device to make playback work and is not collected or transmitted.

4.3 Android permissions the App requests, and why

Internet: required solely for internet radio streaming (Section 3).
Foreground service / media playback: allows audio to keep playing when the App is in the background or the screen is off, and to show playback controls in your notification shade.
Notifications: required on Android 13+ to display that playback notification. Denying it does not disable playback.
Wake lock: keeps the device awake during USB device authorization and playback so the audio stream is not interrupted.
USB host: declared so the App can address external USB audio hardware.

The App does not request location, contacts, camera, microphone, phone state, or broad media-library permissions.

5) Information We Do Not Collect

To be explicit, the App does not collect, and we do not receive:

names, email addresses, account credentials, or any account identifiers;
advertising identifiers, device fingerprints, or persistent tracking identifiers;
precise or coarse geolocation;
your music library contents, filenames, tags, playlists, or listening history;
usage analytics, feature telemetry, session data, or crash reports;
payment or billing information of any kind.

Because the App has no account system and no server-side component, there is no user profile in our possession — for you to access, correct, or delete — unless you have contacted us directly (Section 6).

6) Support Communications

If you contact us by email, we process what you send us — typically your email address, the contents of your message, and any technical details you choose to include, such as your device model, Android version, or DAC model — in order to respond and provide support. We may retain support correspondence for up to 3 years for recordkeeping and to improve support quality. Please do not include sensitive personal information in support requests.

7) Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on the following legal grounds under the General Data Protection Regulation:

Contractual necessity (Art. 6(1)(b)): providing the App's functionality, including establishing the radio stream connection you request.
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): responding to your support enquiries and maintaining records of that correspondence.
Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): where we must process information to comply with applicable law or valid legal requests.

Because on-device data is neither transmitted to us nor accessible by us, we do not act as a data controller in respect of it.

We do not sell, rent, trade, or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not engage in "selling" or "sharing" as those terms are defined by the CCPA/CPRA. We do not use third-party advertising or analytics providers.

Information may reach third parties only in these situations:

Radio broadcasters: when you choose to play a station, as described in Section 3.2. These are independent controllers, not our processors.
Google Play: distribution, installation and updates of the App are handled by Google LLC under the Google Privacy Policy. Google may collect installation and device data independently of us. Aggregate, anonymized statistics that Google Play makes available to developers (such as install counts and crash clusters) are not linked to individual users by us.
Your email provider and ours: if you contact us for support.
External links: if you open a link to a website, that site is governed by its own policy.

8.1 Legal and safety disclosures

We may disclose information we hold if we reasonably believe it necessary to comply with law, regulation, legal process, or a government request; to protect the rights, property, or safety of Ryft, our users, or the public; or to investigate fraud or security issues. In practice, the only information we hold is support correspondence.

9) Data Retention

On-device data: remains on your device until you clear the App's storage or uninstall it. We hold no copy and set no retention period, because we never receive it.
Support communications: retained for up to 3 years, then deleted or anonymized.

10) Security

The strongest security property of the App is architectural: data that is never collected cannot be breached. In addition:

Radio streams are requested over the transport the broadcaster provides; where a station offers HTTPS, the connection is encrypted in transit.
On-device settings are stored in the App's private storage area, which Android isolates from other applications.
Access to our support mailbox is restricted to authorized personnel.

No method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please report security concerns to our security contact (click to reveal).

11) Children's Privacy

The App is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age defined by your local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Since the App collects no personal information from any user, no such information about a child is collected either.

12) Your Privacy Rights

12.1 Rights that apply to everyone

Inspect and delete your data directly: all App data lives on your device. Use in-app controls, Android's "Clear storage" option, or uninstall the App.
Revoke access: withdraw folder access or USB permissions at any time through Android settings, or by revoking the folder grant.
Avoid all network activity: simply do not use the radio feature. The rest of the App works fully offline, including in airplane mode.

12.2 Rights for EEA / UK / Swiss users (GDPR)

You have the rights to:

Access (Art. 15) — confirmation of whether we process your personal information, and a copy of it.
Rectification (Art. 16) — correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
Erasure (Art. 17) — deletion in certain circumstances.
Restriction (Art. 18) — restriction of processing in certain circumstances.
Portability (Art. 20) — receipt of information you provided in a structured, machine-readable format.
Objection (Art. 21) — objection to processing based on legitimate interests.
Withdraw consent (Art. 7(3)) — where processing is based on consent.
Lodge a complaint with your local Data Protection Authority. A list of EU authorities is available at edpb.europa.eu.

In practice, these rights can only be exercised against the support correspondence we hold, since that is the only personal information in our possession.

12.3 Rights for California users (CCPA/CPRA)

Right to Know the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties it is shared with.
Right to Delete personal information collected from you, subject to legal exceptions.
Right to Correct inaccurate personal information.
Right to Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing — not applicable, as we neither sell nor share personal information. If that ever changes, we will publish a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link.
Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information — not applicable; we do not collect sensitive personal information.
Right to Non-Discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

You may designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf; we may require verification of the agent's authority and your identity.

12.4 How to exercise your rights

Email: Privacy rights email (click to reveal) (subject line: "Privacy Rights Request")
Mail: Ryft LLC, 30 N Gould St Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA (Attn: Privacy Rights)

Please include enough information for us to verify your identity and to understand your request. We respond within the timeframes required by applicable law (typically 30–45 days, with permitted extensions).

13) Regional Disclosures

13.1 International data transfers

We operate from the United States, so support correspondence you send us is processed there. Radio streams connect to servers in whatever country the broadcaster operates from — this connection is made by your device at your direction, not routed through us. Where we transfer personal information out of the EEA, UK or Switzerland, we rely on European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses or an applicable adequacy decision.

13.2 Do Not Track

The App is not a web browser and does not respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals. It performs no tracking of any kind, which achieves the same result.

14) Data Breach Notification

In the unlikely event of a breach affecting personal information we hold, we will notify the relevant Data Protection Authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of it where required by GDPR Art. 33, and will notify affected individuals without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms (GDPR Art. 34) or where otherwise required by law. Given the App's architecture, any such breach could only involve support correspondence — never your music, your settings, or your listening activity.

15) Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time; the effective date above shows when it was last revised. If a future version of the App introduces a feature that changes what data is processed, we will update this Policy before or alongside that release and, where the change is material, provide additional notice in the App or on this website.

16) Contact

Data Controller:
Ryft LLC
30 N Gould St Ste R
Sheridan, WY 82801, USA
Email: Contact email (click to reveal)

For EEA/UK/Swiss users: if you are not satisfied with our response to a privacy enquiry, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local Data Protection Authority.