Earmark Privacy Policy

Summary

• Earmark collects no personal data. There are no accounts, no analytics, no crash reporting, and no ads.
• Your audio files are never uploaded anywhere. Earmark reads them in place from the folders you choose.
• Nothing you do in Earmark leaves your device unless you connect it to a server you control (your NAS).
• We never see what you listen to, when you listen, or how long for. Listening time is counted on your device for your own Stats, and synced only through your own iCloud.

What stays only on your device

• The list of folders you added, stored as iOS security-scoped bookmarks.
• The library index Earmark builds from your files (titles, authors, chapter names, durations) and small cover-art thumbnails.
• Listening progress, playback speed, sleep-timer and skip preferences.
• How long you listen, counted on your device for the Stats tab, and only while audio is playing.
• Ratings, finished/backdated dates, bookmarks, and any past-read history you log or import.
• Books you download from a NAS, which are saved into Earmark's own folder (visible in the Files app as On My iPhone > Earmark).

If you back up your phone with iCloud or your computer, that copy of Earmark's data is governed by Apple's privacy practices, not ours.

Sync across your devices

• If you use iCloud, Earmark keeps your listening position, finished state, ratings, bookmarks, cover choices, reading log, and daily listening-time totals in sync across your own devices using Apple's iCloud key-value storage.
• This data goes only to your private iCloud account. It never touches a server of ours, and we never see it. Your audio files are not uploaded by this sync.
• To turn it off, disable iCloud Drive for Earmark in iOS Settings; the app then keeps everything on-device only.

Network access

Earmark makes network connections only to servers you add yourself under Folders > Add NAS. It speaks SMB directly to that server to list folders, read audio, and download books you ask for.

• The server address, share, and username you enter are stored on your device. The password is stored in the iOS Keychain and is sent only to that server.
• iOS will ask for Local Network permission the first time you connect. Earmark uses it solely to reach your server.
• Earmark does not contact any server operated by us. There is no telemetry endpoint.
• Find Cover (optional, only when you tap it) sends a book's title and author to Apple's iTunes Search API and to Open Library to look up cover art, and downloads the image you choose. Nothing else about you or your library is sent.
• Look Up Book (optional, only when you tap it, in Edit Details) sends the title and author shown there to the same two services to find the book's details, which you choose from and review before saving. Nothing else is sent.

Permissions

• Files: read access to folders you pick in the system file browser, so Earmark can play them without copying.
• Local Network: only if you add a NAS.
• Background audio: to keep playing when the screen is locked and to support lock screen and CarPlay controls.

Children

Earmark does not collect data from anyone, including children.

Open source

Earmark's source code is public at github.com/vanities/earmark, so you can verify everything on this page.

Changes

If Earmark ever starts collecting anything, this page will say so first, with a new "last updated" date.

Contact

Questions: mischke@proton.me or open an issue on GitHub. See also the support page.