Privacy policy

What the app collects

Nothing. The app's privacy manifest declares no collected data types at all, and declares that it does not track you. The app has one third-party SDK, Ableton’s LinkKit, which only talks to other Link apps on your own Wi-Fi when Link is on. It collects nothing.

Where your work is kept

Everything you make with Tonaut stays in the app's own folders on your device:

• Projects — with their tape tracks, sounds, patterns, mix and any samples you recorded or loaded — are stored in the Application Support folder of Tonaut’s app group, along with your quick slots and your USER bank of sounds. An app group is a private folder on your device that iOS lets only one developer’s own apps and their add-ons open; Tonaut is the only one that uses it.
• Exports — the stereo mixdowns, stems and samples you choose to render, as WAV files, and the MIDI files of your patterns — are written into the Exports folder in the app's Documents folder, so you can reach them yourself from the Files app on your iPhone or iPad.

With iCloud sync off, which is how the app arrives, none of this is uploaded or synced by Tonaut. With it on, your projects are copied to your own iCloud so your other iPhone or iPad can open them — to Apple's private database for this app, which only you can reach. If your iPhone or iPad backs itself up to iCloud or to a computer, your Tonaut files are included in that backup the same way every other app's files are — that is iOS doing it, under your settings, not Tonaut.

Deleting the app deletes everything in it. With sync on, the copy in your iCloud outlives the app and is removed through iOS Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Storage › Tonaut. Export anything you want to keep first.

iCloud sync

Tonaut can copy your work to your own iCloud so your other iPhone or iPad can open it. It is off when you install the app and it stays off until you turn it on in Tonaut's settings.

With it on, what crosses is your projects — their sounds, kits, patterns, mixes, tempo, keyboard octaves and any samples in them — and the tape audio of the project you open, which comes down when you open it and not before. Quick slots, settings, favorites, your USER bank of sounds and rendered exports stay on each device. Your undo history does not cross.

It goes to your iCloud, into the private database iOS keeps for this app, and it counts against your iCloud storage rather than against anything of ours. Coast Creative has no server in this and no account for you: we cannot see your projects, cannot read them and cannot restore them. If they are gone from your iCloud they are gone.

Tape audio is large. An eight-track project with a few minutes on it is several hundred megabytes, so sync waits for Wi-Fi unless you turn on Over cellular in Tonaut's settings, and the app tells you the size before it sends anything. Only the minutes with sound on them are sent.

Turning sync off stops anything further crossing and leaves what is already in your iCloud where it is. Remove it through iOS Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Storage › Tonaut, which is Apple's own control for exactly this.

Deleting a project on one device deletes it on your other devices too, the next time they sync — unless the project is open there, or that device has changes it hasn't sent yet, in which case it keeps the project rather than lose work. A delete made while this device is offline only removes the project here.

The four permissions it asks for

iOS will ask you for each of these the first time the app needs it, and you can say no. Saying no turns off that one feature and nothing else.

iCloud sync is not one of them. It uses the Apple Account already signed in on the phone, so there is no permission to grant and no prompt to answer — only the switch in Tonaut's own settings, which is off until you move it.

Microphone

So you can sample and record onto the tape. Audio from the microphone is recorded into the current project when you record it, and it feeds the input level meter while the recorder is armed. It is never sent anywhere, never transcribed, and never listened to in the background — the app only opens the input while the recorder is open.

Bluetooth

So you can connect a wireless MIDI keyboard or controller. Tonaut uses Bluetooth only to find and pair MIDI devices through the standard iOS pairing screen. It does not scan for beacons, does not use Bluetooth for location, and does not record what it sees.

Photos (add only)

So you can save a video of your music to your photo library. iOS asks only if you choose Save Video after sharing your tape with SHARE. Tonaut can add that one video and nothing else: it never reads, browses or uploads your library.

Local network

So Ableton Link can find other Link apps on your Wi-Fi and share the tempo and the start with them. iOS asks the first time you turn Link on in Tonaut’s settings. Tonaut uses the local network for Link only: it talks to other Link apps on your own network, never to the internet, and sends nothing about you.

Tilting needs no permission: Lean, which bends the sound as you tilt the phone, uses the motion sensor, and iOS doesn’t ask about that. While you hold a key, Tonaut reads the angle you are holding the phone at and uses it in that moment. The angle is never stored or logged, and never used to work out where you are or what you are doing.

The four system things it reads

Apple requires apps to declare certain system APIs and give a reason for each. Tonaut declares four, and these are the real reasons:

• User defaults — to remember Tonaut's own settings on this device, such as the housing, the MIDI clock and transport choices, the sync switches and your favorite sounds, and to read launch options. Reason codes CA92.1 and 1C8F.1.
• File timestamps — to sort your own projects by which one you worked on most recently, and to tell whether a project’s tape files have changed since they were last saved. Reason code C617.1.
• System boot time — the monotonic clock the audio engine uses to schedule notes accurately and to stamp its own internal log lines. Reason code 35F9.1.
• Disk space — to check there is room before writing tape, save points and exports, and to show you how much tape time is left. Reason codes E174.1 and 85F4.1.

All four are used inside the app, for the app. None of them produces anything that is sent, shared or kept beyond what it is for.

Children

Tonaut is a musical instrument and is safe for any age to use. It has no chat, no social features, no user-generated content shared with anyone, and no advertising. Since it collects nothing from anybody, it collects nothing from children either. It has one link out to the web: the last of the first-launch tips links to our Quick Start guide on tonaut.app, which opens only if you tap it.

Purchases

Tonaut is sold as a one-time purchase through the App Store. Apple handles the transaction, the payment details and the receipt. Coast Creative never sees your payment information and never receives your name, address or email from Apple in connection with a purchase.

If you write to us

If you email hello@coastcreative.studio, we will have your email address and whatever you put in the message, for as long as it takes to answer you and keep a record of the exchange. It is not added to a mailing list, not sold, and not passed to anyone else. Ask us to delete the thread and we will.

This website

This website counts visits with Vercel Web Analytics, which sets no cookies and doesn’t identify you: it sees which page was viewed, the site that sent you, and your country and type of device, only as totals. The website sets no cookies. It is hosted by Vercel, which handles every request to it, including your IP address, in order to serve the pages. Two forms on it ask you for something: the contact form, and a private report form, linked only from our emails. Both are handled by small programs of ours that run on Vercel and pass what you send on by email; the report form’s access code is only checked, not passed on. Apart from screenshots and recordings sent with the report form (below), nothing you send is stored on the website. The launch alert form that used to be here is gone (below).

The contact form

The contact form takes what you type and pick: what kind of message it is, the message itself and, only if you fill them in, your email address, your iPhone or iPad model, its iOS or iPadOS version, your Tonaut version and up to three screenshots. Screenshots are made smaller on your device and travel inside the message, and they show whatever was on your screen.

It all comes to hello@coastcreative.studio as one email, through Resend, the email service we use. We use it only to answer you and to fix and improve Tonaut. It is not added to a mailing list, not sold, and not passed to anyone else. Without an email address we can read your message but can’t reply. Ask us to delete what you sent and we will.

To keep out spam, the form checks how long the page was open before you pressed Send, and how many messages arrive from one internet address within a few minutes. That address is held in memory for those minutes only, and is not stored or sent anywhere.

Until you send it, the page keeps what you’ve typed in your browser’s storage on your device, so a reload doesn’t lose it. Once it’s sent, the message is cleared there; your email and device details stay to fill in the form next time, until you clear this website’s data in your browser.

The launch alert, now closed

Before Tonaut came out, this website had a form where you could leave your email address to hear when it reached the App Store. That form is gone. The addresses people gave went to our inbox through Resend, the email service we use, for that one message. If you signed up, write to hello@coastcreative.studio and we’ll delete yours. Resend keeps its own record of those emails for a limited time.

The private report form

Some of our emails link to a private report page on this website, for sending us detailed reports about the app. No page on this website links to it, and it needs the access code from the email.

It asks for your name, your email address and the build of the app you’re on, and if you fill them in, your iPhone model and iOS version. For each issue it takes what you type and pick: the kind of issue, a title, what happened and where in the app, what you were doing just before and what you expected, how often and how bad, what you were listening on and whether a MIDI keyboard was connected, or for an idea or a confusing workflow, what you were trying to do, what would make it better and how much it matters. You can attach screenshots and screen recordings, and they show whatever was on your screen.

Each issue is emailed to hello@coastcreative.studio through Resend, and a copy of the issues you sent, with any files listed by name, goes to the email address you gave. We use reports only to fix and improve Tonaut, and we keep the emails as the record of what was reported. They are not added to a mailing list, not sold, and not passed to anyone else. Ask us to delete yours and we will.

Screenshots and screen recordings go from your phone straight to our file storage at Vercel (Vercel Blob) as soon as you add them, before you press Send. To upload them, the page loads Vercel’s upload code from jsDelivr, a public service that hosts code for websites, so jsDelivr sees that request. Each file is kept exactly as you picked it, so a photo from your camera can carry details such as where it was taken. It sits at a long random web address that is kept in your browser until you send, and after that appears only in the email to us. Anyone who had that exact address could open the file, so we never share it. Taking a file off your report, or never sending the report, doesn’t delete a file that has already gone up. Nothing deletes these files automatically; we delete them by hand when we close the report form, or sooner if you ask.

If our file storage is switched off, screenshots are shrunk on your phone and travel inside the report email instead, and screen recordings can’t be sent.

The page saves your details and your unsent report in your browser’s storage on your phone, so you can add issues through the day and send once. A report is cleared from the phone once the page hears it arrived. Your details and your access code stay on the phone until this website’s data is cleared: by you in your browser’s settings, by removing the page from your Home Screen, or by Safari itself if you don’t open the page for a while.

Changes to this policy

If the app or this website ever changes in a way that makes something on this page untrue, this page changes first, with the date at the top updated. Earlier versions added the website, the report form, the iPad and the contact form: everything on this page applies to Tonaut on iPad exactly as it does on iPhone. This version replaces Motion with Photos among the permissions (tilting needs no permission), adds disk space to the system things the app reads, adds the app’s one link to our Quick Start guide, and records that the launch alert form is gone.

Contact

Coast Creative
hello@coastcreative.studio