Privacy Policy

Effective 31 October 2026

Cassette lets two people send each other one short voice note a day. This policy explains what we collect, why, who can see it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.

We wrote it to be read. If something isn't clear, write to us at varun@thaloslabs.xyz.

The short version

What we keep	Your display name, your time zone, the notes you send, their words if you turn transcription on, your settings, and your subscription status
Who hears your notes	The one person you're connected to. We don't listen to notes unless one is reported to us
Where words come from	Our own servers. Your audio isn't sent to an outside transcription or AI company
How long notes last	Audio and words are deleted one year after sending. You can withdraw a note sooner
What we never do	Sell your data, show ads, track you across other apps, or use your voice to train AI or identify you
Encryption	Notes are encrypted in transit but not end-to-end encrypted. Our servers can technically access them
Your controls	Export your notes, withdraw a note, end a connection, turn off transcription, choose what your lock screen shows, delete your account

1. Who we are

Cassette (“we”, “us”) is operated by Douglas Lambert, 10 Whitson Lane, Monroe Township, NJ 08831, United States. The app is distributed on the App Store as “Cassette: Voice Notes”. For privacy questions or requests, contact varun@thaloslabs.xyz.

2. What we collect, and why

Your account

Sign in with Apple identifier. A stable, anonymous ID Apple gives us for your account, used to sign you in. We don't ask Apple for your email. Apple may share your first name once, when you first sign in, and only if you allow it; we use it as your display name only if you leave that field empty. We don't keep Apple sign-in tokens.
Display name. The name you type in. It's what your person sees, so they know who a note is from.
Time zone. So your daily note follows your day, and alerts respect your quiet hours.
Sign-in sessions. Stored only as a scrambled (hashed) value; they expire after 90 days.

Your connection

Who you're connected with, and when the connection started, paused, or ended; invitations you create (links expire after 48 hours and are stored only in scrambled form); and people you've blocked. We use this so only the two of you can reach each other, and so ending or blocking takes effect immediately.

Your voice notes

Audio of notes you send (up to 10 seconds), stored on our servers so your person can listen.
Technical details of the audio: length, format (codec, sample rate, channels), size, a checksum to check uploads arrived intact, and when it was recorded.
A caption, if you add one.
When it was sent, and the “day” it counts for, for your one-note-a-day allowance and your shared history.
Drafts: practice notes and drafts stay on your phone and aren't uploaded until you tap Send. The exception: if you have transcription on, a draft is uploaded when you review it, so you can see its words first. If you don't send it, we delete it within about a day.

Words (transcription), only if you turn it on

Transcription is off unless you choose it. You can turn it off at any time, and you choose for each note whether its words are included.
When it's on, our own servers turn your audio into text, using open-source software (whisper.cpp) that we run ourselves. Your audio isn't sent to a third-party transcription or AI provider.
We store the machine-made words, any corrections you make (you have 15 minutes after sending to correct them), your language setting, and when you agreed to transcription.

Reactions, favorites and listening

Reactions you send (heart, smile, “thinking of you”). Your person sees them.
Favorites and hidden notes. Private to you; your person never sees them.
When a note was first shown to you, used only so we don't alert you about a note you've already seen. We don't record when or how often you play notes. Your person is never shown whether or when you listened.

Your settings

Lock-screen preview level, quiet hours, catch-up and reaction alerts, your transcription language, and whether your person may save the notes you send. Display preferences stay on your phone (section 3).

Notifications

Your device's push notification token, its environment, and when it was last seen. On iPhone, the alert we send through Apple's push service says only “A voice note is waiting.” (or “Your voice note got a reaction.”), with internal IDs so your phone knows what to fetch. Your phone then fetches the name or words you've allowed directly from us, so names and words don't pass through Apple's push service. We keep a record of each alert (when it was sent and whether it was delivered) until your account is deleted.

Cassette Plus purchases

Apple handles payment. We never see your card or Apple account details. From Apple we receive transaction details: transaction IDs, the product, purchase and expiry dates, status (active, expired, refunded), whether it was a test or real purchase, and your Cassette account ID, which the app attaches when you buy so the purchase goes to the right account. We keep the original transaction ID, the product, its expiry date, its status and whether it was a test purchase. We use this to turn Plus on for you and your connected person, and to keep it correct when it renews, ends or is refunded.

Reports and support

If you report a note, we store the reason, an optional note from you (up to 500 characters), and a link to the reported note. A reported note's audio is kept for review for up to 30 days, even if it's withdrawn.
Our support staff can listen to a note's audio only when it has been reported. Every time they listen to a reported note or look up an account, it's logged with their name and a reason. When helping with an account, support sees dates, statuses and counts (for example, how many notes were sent), not the content of notes.

Product measurement

We record a small set of events: account created, connection started, note sent, transcription failed, export requested, report submitted, connection ended, account deletion requested. Each carries only a few allowed details (for example, a length range, or whether words were included), never audio, words, captions or names. Most are linked to your account ID while your account exists, and they're unlinked when you delete it. We don't use any third-party analytics, advertising or crash-reporting tools.

Technical information

Before you sign in, our servers use your IP address to limit abuse (rate limiting); after you sign in, limits use your account instead. These counters are kept in memory for at most an hour. Our application logs record the type of request and whether it succeeded, not your IP address or any content. Internal records of which note, reaction or connection changed are deleted 30 days after they're processed. Our hosting provider, Railway, keeps its own logs of requests to our servers, including IP addresses, for up to 30 days.

What we don't collect

Your contacts, location, photos, or advertising identifier; your email address or real name from Apple; anything about other apps you use. We don't create voiceprints or use your voice to identify you.

3. What stays on your phone

Your current draft: until you send or delete it, or for up to 7 days.
Practice notes: never uploaded.
Downloaded audio for your most recent notes (up to seven), so playback is quick. It's cleared when you sign out or a connection ends.
A copy of your Today screen, so the app still shows your person when you're offline (up to 7 days).
Notes waiting to send, until they're delivered.
A small summary for widgets (your person's name only if your lock-screen setting allows it, and whether a note arrived today), which stops being shown after a day.
Your theme, display preferences (such as Larger controls and Haptics) and reminder time, and your sign-in session, in the app's private storage and the iOS Keychain (this device only).

Deleting the app removes this data. Notes on our servers aren't affected.

4. Who can see your information

Your connected person sees your display name, the notes you send them, their words if you included them, your captions and your reactions. They see your words on their lock screen only if you allow it and they choose to, and can save your notes in their export only if you allow it. They can't see whether you listened, your favorites, or your hidden notes.
People with your invite link see your display name when they open an invitation you created.
Us. Notes are stored on our servers and aren't end-to-end encrypted. We access content only to run the service (for example, transcribing it if you asked), to review a reported note, or where the law requires.
Service providers, listed in section 5.
Legal and safety. We may disclose information if we're legally required to, or to protect someone's safety. When the law allows, we'll tell you.

We never sell personal information, share it for advertising, or let anyone else use your notes to train AI.

5. Service providers

Railway hosts our servers, database and audio storage, on our behalf. Region: US East (Virginia, United States).
Apple provides Sign in with Apple, push notifications and App Store purchases. Apple's own privacy policy applies to your Apple account.

We'll update this list before adding any new provider that handles your personal information.

6. How long we keep things

Data	Kept
Audio, words and caption of a sent note	One year from sending, then deleted. A minimal record stays (when it was sent and recorded, between whom, its length, format and checksum, any reaction, and your own favorite and hidden marks), so your history and milestone counts stay accurate.
A withdrawn note	Audio and words deleted promptly (usually within minutes), unless it's under review after a report (up to 30 days).
Unsent draft uploads	About one day.
Export downloads	About one hour after they're ready, then deleted.
Invitations	Stop working after 48 hours or once used; the scrambled record is deleted with your account.
Sign-in sessions	Work for 90 days, or until you sign out; the scrambled record is deleted with your account.
Device tokens	Used until you sign out or the token stops working; the record is deleted with your account.
Reports	The report record is kept for 1 year from when it was made, and deleted if the reporter's or sender's account is deleted. The reported audio follows the note's normal deletion after the 30-day hold.
Purchase records	While your account exists. Apple keeps its own records.
Product events	395 days, then deleted; unlinked from you sooner if you delete your account.
Support access log	2 years, then deleted.
Backups	Our database is backed up continuously so it can be recovered after a failure. Those backups hold account details, words, captions and the other records above, but no audio, and deleted data can stay in them for up to 35 days before being overwritten. Audio is stored separately; any backup we keep of it is kept no longer than that either. If we ever restore a backup, we re-apply the account deletions and note withdrawals made since it was taken, so they aren't undone.

7. Ending a connection and deleting your account

Ending a connection (or blocking)

Notes from the other person stop being available to you in the app. The notes you sent stay yours. Copies someone already saved outside the app (for example, an export) can't be recalled.

Deleting your account

In Settings, under Delete account.

Immediately: you're signed out everywhere; your connection ends and pending invitations are revoked; your sent notes can no longer be played by anyone; pending alerts, uploads and exports are cancelled.

Within minutes, we permanently delete your notes' audio and words, your transcripts, reactions, favorites and listening history; your reports, devices, sessions, invitations, blocks and exports; your purchase records; and the link to your Apple ID. After that, you can start a fresh account with the same Apple ID.

If a note you sent is under review after someone reported it, the permanent deletion waits until that review ends (at most 30 days); nobody can play your notes in the meantime.

Sign in with Apple: when you delete your account, the app asks Apple to confirm it's you, so we can also remove Cassette from the apps using Sign in with Apple on your Apple Account. If you skip that step, you can remove it yourself in your iPhone's Settings (tap your name, then Sign in with Apple).

What stays: a minimal record that says “Deleted account”, so the other person's history stays consistent; the dates your connections started and ended; a record that the account was deleted and when; support's access log; and product events, without any link to you.

Subscriptions: deleting your account doesn't cancel a subscription with Apple. Cancel it in your iPhone's Settings app (tap your name, then Subscriptions).

8. Security

Connections to our servers use TLS encryption.
Sign-in sessions and invitation links are stored only as hashes, so a database leak wouldn't expose them.
Audio is served only to its sender and recipient, and every request is checked. Support's access to reported notes is logged.
Our database isn't reachable from the public internet.
Our database, audio storage and backups are encrypted at rest (AES-256) by our hosting provider.

Notes are not end-to-end encrypted: our systems can technically access them. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we'll notify you and the authorities as the law requires.

9. Your choices and rights

In the app, any time

Export your notes (free, always): Settings, Memories & storage, Export my notes.
Withdraw a note you sent: in the note's details.
End your connection, or block someone: Settings, Your person.
Turn transcription off: Settings, Transcription & language. Or leave words out of a note on the review screen.
Choose what your lock screen shows: Settings, Notifications & lock screen.
Let or stop your person saving the notes you send: Settings, Memories & storage.
Delete your account: Settings, Delete account.

Your legal rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal information we hold about you or get a copy, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to some uses, or move it to another service. You can also withdraw consent you've given (for example, for transcription).

Email varun@thaloslabs.xyz to use any of these rights. We'll respond within the time the law requires (usually one month), and may need to confirm the request comes from you.

EEA and UK: you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
California and other US states: we don't sell or “share” personal information (as those laws define it), and we don't use sensitive personal information to infer things about you. You won't be treated differently for using your rights.

10. Legal bases (EEA and UK)

Running your account, connection, notes, alerts and Plus: performing our contract with you.
Transcription: your consent, which you can withdraw in Settings.
Security, abuse prevention, report review, product measurement: our legitimate interests in a safe, working service, balanced against your rights.
Responding to legal requests; keeping purchase records: legal obligation.

11. Children

Cassette isn't intended for anyone under 13, or under the minimum age of digital consent where they live if that's higher. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

12. International transfers

Our servers are in the United States. If you use Cassette from elsewhere, your information is transferred there. Where the law requires, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as Standard Contractual Clauses, with our providers.

13. Changes to this policy

If we make a meaningful change, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect, and update the date above. We won't use your information in a materially new way without telling you first and, where the law requires, asking for your consent.

14. Contact

Douglas Lambert
10 Whitson Lane, Monroe Township, NJ 08831, United States
varun@thaloslabs.xyz
EU representative: under review with our legal counsel. Until it is confirmed, contact us at the address above
UK representative: under review with our legal counsel. Until it is confirmed, contact us at the address above

Also see our Terms of Use.