Privacy policy
Effective 17 October 2026
Earluma is an iPhone app that corrects the sound of your headphones. It is made by Rafael Lopes, an individual developer based in Portugal ("I", "me"). This policy explains what the app and the earluma.com website collect, why, and what your rights are. The short version: no account, no ads, no tracking, no third-party analytics, and your audio never leaves your iPhone.
Who is responsible
The data controller is Rafael Lopes, Portugal. Contact: support@earluma.com.
Your audio stays on your iPhone
When you choose Earluma as the audio output in Control Center, the sound of other apps is passed to Earluma's audio extension, corrected by the Earluma app and played on your headphones. All of this happens on your iPhone. The extension and the app talk to each other over a local connection inside the device (127.0.0.1). Earluma never records, stores or uploads audio, and never sees what you are listening to beyond the sound itself while it is being processed.
iOS asks for a few permissions:
- Microphone. iOS requires this permission for the audio mode that lets Earluma play the corrected sound back to your headphones. Earluma does not record you or store any audio.
- Local network. Used only for the connection between the Earluma extension and the Earluma app on the same iPhone. Nothing goes to other devices.
- Bluetooth. Only for an experimental control option for some Edifier headphones (noise cancelling mode and battery level), which is switched off in the current version. If it is offered, the data stays on your iPhone.
- Notifications. Optional. Used to tell you when your headphones connect. These notifications are created on your iPhone.
What is sent to our server, and why
Earluma's server runs on Cloudflare. It is used for four things only.
| What | Data | Why and legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Headphone catalogue and profiles | The request for the catalogue or for a profile file. No identifier is attached. | To deliver the corrections you use (performance of the service). |
| Purchase checks | The signed transaction that Apple gives the app when you buy something: Apple's transaction id, product id, purchase date and environment. No name, email or Apple ID. | To unlock the profiles you bought or your All Access or Lifetime access, and to handle refunds and revocations Apple tells us about (performance of the contract). |
| Taste sharing (off by default) | Only if you turn it on: headphone model and mode, your taste numbers (bass, vocals and treble in dB), left/right balance if you did that step, estimated listening level, app version and platform, and the day (date only). | To tune profiles for everyone (your consent). Turn it off any time in the app's privacy settings. |
| Headphone requests | The model name you type, and the day. | To know which headphones to add next (legitimate interest). |
None of this includes your name, email address, Apple ID, advertising identifier or device identifier, and it is not linked to you.
Abuse protection. To stop abuse, the server counts requests per day using a salted hash of your IP address. The IP address itself is never stored, and the counters are tied to a single day. Like any web service, Cloudflare processes your IP address to deliver the request.
Purchases
Payments are handled entirely by Apple. I never see your payment details. Apple's own privacy policy applies to the App Store.
What Earluma does not do
- No account or sign-up.
- No advertising and no advertising identifiers.
- No tracking across apps or websites, and no data brokers.
- No third-party analytics or crash reporting SDKs.
- No location, contacts or photos.
- No sale or sharing of personal data.
Data kept on your iPhone
Your settings, your taste result, your ear balance, which profile previews you have used and downloaded profiles are stored on your iPhone. Performance and crash reports that iOS gives the app (MetricKit) are also kept only on your iPhone and are never uploaded. Deleting the app deletes them. Purchases can be restored from Apple at any time.
Processors and transfers
Cloudflare, Inc. hosts the server, the database and the files. Cloudflare may process data outside the European Economic Area, under the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Apple processes App Store purchases as described in Apple's privacy policy.
How long data is kept
- Purchase records: while the purchase is valid, and as long as needed for tax and accounting rules.
- Shared taste results and headphone requests: kept as anonymous statistics. They cannot be linked back to you.
- Rate-limit counters: one day.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask for access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or object to processing, and withdraw consent at any time. Because Earluma does not know who you are, most data cannot be matched to you, but write to support@earluma.com and I will help. You can also complain to the Portuguese data protection authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (cnpd.pt), or to the authority where you live.
Children
Earluma is suitable for all ages and does not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, including children.
This website
earluma.com has no cookies, no analytics and no tracking. All fonts are served from earluma.com itself. Cloudflare serves the site and processes your IP address to deliver it.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date. Significant changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.