Privacy

The short version

Your music goes from your computer to the computers you share with. It is not stored on a Nearfield server. The beta has no backups, so the app makes no backup copy of your work.

Your projects and samples

• When you share a project, the Set, the samples it uses, your master and bounces, and the project's cover picture travel between the computers in that share. Nothing else in the project folder goes.
• They travel through sync software built into the app (Syncthing), and are encrypted on the way.
• To find the other computer, that software uses public discovery servers. When the two computers cannot connect directly, it may pass the encrypted data through a public relay server. Those servers see a computer's network address and its device ID. They do not see your music.
• If a file is deleted on another computer, the app does not delete your copy.

Backups

Backups are not part of the beta. They come in a later update. When they come, this is how they work:

• You choose which projects to back up, and to which computer.
• A backup is encrypted before it leaves your computer. The computer that holds it cannot open it, and neither can Nearfield.
• Only your own computers and your 12-word recovery code can open a backup. We never hold a key that can open it. If you lose the recovery code and every one of your computers, those backups cannot be recovered by anyone, including us.
• So that a restore can be checked, your account keeps a list of the files in each backed-up project: their names, sizes and fingerprints. Your computer locks the list with the same key as the backup before it sends it, so we cannot read it. We can see that a list exists, about how large it is, and when it changes.

Your account

During the beta, you need an approved account to use Nearfield. You sign in with the email we approved. The account service is run for us by Supabase. It keeps:

• Your email address, which you use to sign in with a link. There is no password.
• The computers you have approved for your account, identified by keys.
• Locked keys that only your computers or your recovery code can open, and the public half of your recovery code. The recovery code itself never leaves you.
• The locked backup file lists described above, when backups come. In the beta there are none.

Sign-in emails are sent for us by Resend, an email service.

Requesting access

The request form sends nothing until requests open. When you press Request access after that, it sends what you typed to our account service, which Supabase runs for us.

• What a request keeps. Your name, your email, your computer (Mac or Windows), your version of Live, the time you accepted the beta agreement, the time you sent it, and our answer.
• Who reads it. Only the owner of Nearfield. We email the request to hello@nearfieldapp.com, which only the owner reads. He approves or denies it.
• Who holds it. Supabase stores the request. Resend sends the emails: the one to the owner, and the one to you with our answer (the download link if you are approved, or a short note if we cannot take you in this round).
• Your internet address. To stop one sender from filling the form many times, we keep a scrambled form of your internet address, not the address itself, for one day.
• How long. A request that nobody answers is deleted after 30 days. A denied request is deleted 90 days after the answer. An approved request, and its approval, are kept while your approval stands.
• Removal from the beta. The owner can remove a person from the beta. Then the approval is removed, and that person's access to Nearfield's account service ends. Their files stay on their computers.
• Copies outside our records. The owner's mailbox keeps the email about your request. Resend keeps its own record of the emails it sends, for its own period. Supabase's own logs keep your internet address for their own period, and its sign-in service logs an email that is refused an account.

To ask about your access, or to have your request, your approval or your account deleted, write to hello@nearfieldapp.com.

What the app sends about itself

• Usage counts, with an off switch. Once a day, the app sends us a few counts, so we can learn what to make better:
  • which screens you open;
  • which buttons finish, and which stop with an error or a refusal, by type;
  • how long the long jobs take, and how big your library is, in wide ranges (for example, 50 to 199 projects);
  • presses on a plugin maker's page link, named only by the product's name from our own list. This tells us that a project on your computer needs that plugin. We use these totals to decide which plugin makers to work with, for example on links that earn us a commission. A plugin maker only ever sees totals for everyone together.
  • Never sent: your music, your samples, file names, folder names, project names or what is in them, plugin names from your computer, or your email.
  • A random ID, not your account. The counts carry a random ID for this computer. It is not made from anything about you, and it is not linked to your account. A new ID is made each time you turn the counts back on. In Settings, under Usage counts, you can see the ID and every count that is waiting to be sent. To ask us for the counts we hold, or to delete them, send us that ID.
  • Where they go: a separate service of our own, run for us by Supabase, that holds only these counts. It is not the service that holds your account, so the counts cannot be joined to your account. Like any server, it sees the network address of the computer that connects; the counts do not store it.
  • How long: 90 days. After that, only weekly totals for everyone together are kept, and a total that came from fewer than 5 computers is merged into one "other" line.
  • Your choice. The app asks everyone first, wherever you are. It sends nothing unless you say yes. You can change your answer at any time in Settings, under Usage counts.
  • Turning them off stops the counts at once and asks our server to delete this computer's counts. Our provider's own backups keep a copy until they expire. If you remove the app without turning the counts off, they expire after 90 days.
• Crash reports, on unless you turn them off. A crash report is always written on your own computer. During the beta, once you have answered the question about crash reports that the app asks when it first starts, the app also sends us a short version of it: where in the app it broke, which version you use, your system, and the memory and free disk space at the time. It never has your project names, sample names, file names, folders or any message text. A random ID groups the reports from one computer. It is not your account or your email, and the report is not linked to your account. The reports go to our account service, run for us by Supabase. The diagnostics report, which you send only when you press Send report, goes there too and carries the same ID. We keep them 90 days. You can turn this off in Settings, Diagnostics, and see there exactly what is sent.
• Diagnostics, only when you press send. You can look at the file before you send it.
• Update check. The app asks our server for the newest version number, so it can tell you when a new beta is out. It never downloads or installs an update by itself.

Your control

• From the app, you can download everything your account holds.
• From the app, you can delete your account.
• When you accept the beta agreement, Nearfield keeps a record of it on its server: which version of the words you accepted, when, and which boxes you ticked. The record has no name and no email, only your random account number. It stays when you delete your account.
• Your projects stay on your computer whatever happens to your account.

This website

This website sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads nothing from other companies. Its fonts are served from this site. The request form, when you press “Request access”, sends what you typed to our account service, run for us by Supabase (see Requesting access above). If you switch between light and dark mode, that choice is kept in your own browser. The website is hosted for us by Vercel, and the Nearfield download files are served by Cloudflare. Like any web host, their servers see the network address of a computer that opens a page or downloads a file, and keep their own logs for their own period.