Privacy Policy

Last updated: 12 November 2026 (Asia/Kuala_Lumpur, UTC+8)

This policy describes how Band Scored (“the app”) handles information. Band Scored is developed by David. The contact email is [email protected].

This policy is written for the App Store version of Band Scored on iPad. The same practices are intended to apply if the app is later released on Android. Some private test copies of the app may include extra tester-only features; this policy describes the App Store app.

We are not a law firm, and this page is a plain-language description of what the app does, not legal advice.

1. Who we are

David operates Band Scored. For questions about privacy, account deletion, or a report about band chat, email [email protected].

2. What the app does not do

• We do not show advertising in the app.
• We do not use advertising identifiers, or analytics software such as Firebase Analytics, or crash-reporting software such as Sentry. The App Store app does send crash reports through Google Firebase Crashlytics, as described in section 12, unless you turn that off in Settings.
• We do not sell your information.
• We do not use the microphone, and the app does not record you through the iPad microphone.
• We do not use your location. If iPadOS asks about location in connection with the photo picker, that is because a photo may contain location information. Band Scored does not ask for, store, or share your location.

3. Information that stays on your device

Most of what you do in Band Scored stays on your iPad unless you choose a feature that sends it somewhere else. This includes:

• Scores, PDFs, images, MusicXML and other files you import, including photos you take or choose, and files you copy from Files or from Google Drive.
• Annotations, set lists, tempos, keys, favourites, and other library data, stored in the app’s local database and files.
• Audio files you add so you can practise with a score.
• Handwriting corrections the app learns on this device, unless you turn on the optional handwriting-improvement setting described below.
• A local activity log (screens you open, drawing and timer activity, battery level, app version, and the device operating system), if activity recording is on. This stays on the device unless you send or share diagnostics.
• A random device identifier used for band chat, and the display name and room code you enter for chat, saved in the app’s local settings.

You can remove items from your library in the app. Uninstalling the app removes the local library from that device.

You should only import scores and recordings you have the right to use. Band Scored does not bundle commercial song charts.

4. Cloud sign-in (Firebase Anonymous Auth)

If you use cloud band chat, the VII room, optional diagnostics upload, optional handwriting improvement, or chord recognition that uses our cloud relay, the app signs this device in to Google Firebase with an anonymous account. That creates a random user ID (a UID). It is not a username or password you choose, and the app does not collect your email address for this sign-in.

The UID stays the same on that device until you delete your account, or until the app’s data is cleared or the app is reinstalled (a new UID is then created).

The Firebase project used by the app is called band-scored. The Firestore database is in the asia-southeast1 region (Singapore).

5. Band chat and set lists

Band chat can work in two ways:

• On the same Wi-Fi or personal hotspot, devices find each other on the local network and can exchange messages, set lists, and score files directly. Score file bytes in ordinary rooms stay on that local network. They are not uploaded to our servers for those rooms.
• Over the internet, if cloud chat is on, messages and related room data are stored in Google Cloud Firestore so members of the same room can stay in sync when they are not on the same Wi-Fi.

To join a room you enter a room code and a display name that you choose. Anyone who knows the room code and is signed in can read that room, so you should treat the code like a shared password and should not post private information in chat.

Cloud chat may include:

• The text of messages, your display name, and a device identifier.
• Shared set lists, including song names and, where a member attaches them, file names and size or checksum details.
• Short-lived band-fill requests (asking a bandmate for a missing score) and set-list edit records.

How long cloud chat is kept (as implemented in the app):

• Chat messages are marked to expire after 30 days. When someone joins the room, the app tries to delete expired documents. The current Firebase plan does not use an automatic server-side expiry policy, so a message may remain until a device performs that clean-up.
• Set-list edit records expire after 2 days.
• Band-fill requests expire after 1 day.
• The full shared room set list is marked to expire after 180 days, and that expiry is refreshed when the set list is written again.

The app also writes a short-lived time-sync document and deletes it after reading it.

6. The VII room

VII is a private room. Joining it requires approval.

If you ask to join, the app stores your anonymous UID, the display name you use, and a short device label such as “iPad”. After approval, members can use VII file transfer, song-name requests, chord recognition through the cloud relay, and (if you are approved) optional diagnostics upload.

Approved members may send score files through Firebase Storage (up to the size limit enforced by the storage rules, currently 20 MB). Those files are deleted after the recipient has downloaded them, as designed in the app.

A song-name request in VII stores the search text, your display name, device identifier, and UID, and the status of the request. Requests are marked to expire after one day. They may be answered by a computer we operate. A cloud function that searches our own score catalogue is in the project, but we have not independently confirmed in this policy whether that function is currently switched on. If it is, it uses our catalogue, not your Google Drive.

7. Chord recognition from an audio file

In the App Store app, you can choose an audio file on your iPad for chord recognition. The App Store app does not include a YouTube download feature.

If the analysis cannot be reused from a previous result, the app may:

• Upload the audio file you chose to Firebase Storage, under a path tied to your anonymous UID and a checksum of the file (the upload is limited to 20 MB);
• Create a job record in Firestore with your UID, a device identifier, the title, file type, duration, and status;
• Have the file processed on a private computer we operate (not a general public processing service). That computer may be in Malaysia.

The audio file is intended to be deleted from Storage after analysis. If the helper computer is offline, the file and job can remain until the job is processed. The chord and beat results (chords, timing, tempo, and related analysis, and a title) may be stored so the same file does not have to be analysed again. We have not implemented an automatic expiry for those results.

8. Google Drive

The current App Store version of Band Scored does not connect to your Google Drive account and does not request Google Drive permissions (including drive.readonly). You can still import scores that live in Google Drive by choosing them in the iPad Files app (Google Drive appears there if the Google Drive app is installed) or by opening a file in the Google Drive app and using Share / Open in to send it to Band Scored. Those routes use Apple’s and Google’s own pickers; Band Scored does not receive a Google Drive access token.

Files you import this way are copied into your on-device library. They stay searchable in the app even if you later sign out of the Google Drive app.

A future update may add optional in-app Drive browsing, search, folder import, and Re-sync, after Google has reviewed and approved that access. If and when that feature is offered, the app would request read-only access to Google Drive (the drive.readonly scope) so you can browse and import your own scores. We request this scope because the app needs to list and search scores you already keep in Drive, including in folders and in items shared with you, and to download the files you choose to import. A narrower permission that only covers files you pick one by one would not support library-wide search, whole-folder import, or Re-sync.

We would not use Google Sign-In as your Band Scored account, and the app would not read or store your Google email address in our Firebase project. Imported files would still be copied onto the device. The app would use the official Google Sign-In and Drive APIs on the device. Your Drive file contents and your Google Drive access token would not be uploaded to our Firebase project or to any server we operate. If you later share a score with a bandmate in the private VII room, that is a copy already on your device, and only if you choose to send it. You would be able to disconnect Drive in the app; that would not delete scores already imported.

Some private test copies of the app may include this in-app Drive browsing. Those copies, if you connect Drive, use the same read-only access and the Limited Use practices below.

Limited Use

Band Scored’s use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use Drive data only to provide or improve the Drive browse, search, import, and Re-sync features that are visible in the app. We do not transfer that Google user data to third parties except as needed to provide those features (the Drive API itself), to comply with law, or for security investigations. We do not use it for advertising, and we do not sell it. People on our side do not read your Drive files unless you have asked us to look at a specific file to help with a problem, or if the law or a security investigation requires it. We do not use your Drive content to train generalised AI models.

Google’s handling of your Google account is described in Google’s privacy policy.

9. Camera, photos, files, and local network

The app may ask for these iPad permissions, and only to provide the feature described:

• Camera: to photograph a printed score and add it as a page.
• Photo library: to choose photos of score pages, and to save an exported page if you ask the app to do that.
• Files and audio: to open scores and audio you choose. The app may trigger iPadOS’s media permission because you are picking an audio file. It does not read your Apple Music library.
• Local network: so band chat can find other devices on the same Wi-Fi or hotspot.

10. Handwriting recognition and optional improvement

Handwriting recognition can run on the device. The first time you use the pen, the app may download Google’s on-device “en” handwriting model. Recognition itself is on the device.

In Settings, “Help improve handwriting” is off unless you turn it on. If you turn it on, the app sends batches of corrected pen strokes and their labels, plus the app version, a random install identifier, and your anonymous Firebase UID. It does not send the score image or the score title. You can turn this off at any time; anything still waiting on the device is then cleared and is not uploaded. We have not implemented an automatic expiry for samples that have already been uploaded.

“Reset my handwriting” only clears what the app has learned on that device.

11. Diagnostics

The app can keep a local activity log to help diagnose problems (for example battery use). Recording can be turned off in Settings, under Diagnostics. The log may include the screens you open, performance and timer counts, battery level, app version, and operating system version. It is meant to record activity, not the contents of your scores.

The log stays on the device until you choose Share (which uses the iPad share sheet, and then goes only where you send it) or Send diagnostics. Send diagnostics is available only if this device is approved in the VII room. The file is then uploaded to Firebase Storage and may be downloaded to a private computer we operate so we can investigate the problem. We have not implemented an automatic expiry for uploaded diagnostics files.

12. Crash reports

If “Send crash reports” is on in Settings (it is on unless you turn it off), the app sends crash reports to Google Firebase Crashlytics when the app fails. A report can include a crash stack trace, the device model, the operating system version, and the app version, plus the build flavour (for example App Store or TestFlight). It does not include your scores, library names, chat messages, or email addresses.

Those reports are processed by Google Firebase Crashlytics so we can find and fix crashes and keep the app stable. You can turn this off at any time in Settings.

13. Account deletion

The App Store app includes a way to delete your account from inside the app (Settings, then Delete my account), with a confirmation step.

That deletion is intended to remove:

• The anonymous Firebase sign-in for this device;
• Your VII membership, pending join request, or related claim, if any;
• Other band-cloud data tied to that sign-in that the app can delete.

It does not automatically erase:

• Scores, audio, annotations, and settings that exist only on your iPad. Those stay until you delete them in the app or remove the app.
• Messages you already sent in a shared band room, which other members may still see until they expire (about 30 days).
• A Google Drive connection, if a later version of the app offers in-app Drive access and you have connected it. You can disconnect that separately. Disconnecting Drive does not delete imported scores.

If you want us to look for leftover uploads, such as a diagnostics file, a chord-recognition audio file, or handwriting samples, email [email protected] after you have deleted the account.

14. Reporting and blocking in band chat

Band chat is user-generated content. In chat, you can report a message and you can block a person so you no longer see their messages on your device.

Reports are reviewed by us. You can also email [email protected] to report abuse. We may remove a person’s access if they misuse chat. We keep a report only as long as we need it to review the issue and, if necessary, take action.

15. How we use information

We use the information described in this policy to:

• Provide the app’s features (your library, playback, chat, set lists, file import including from the Files picker or Share sheet, chord recognition, and VII tools);
• Operate and secure the Firebase project and the private helper computer used for some VII and analysis features;
• Review reports and respond to support or deletion requests;
• Investigate crashes and keep the app stable, using crash reports unless you have turned them off in Settings;
• Improve handwriting recognition, and only if you opt in.

We do not use this information to advertise to you.

16. Who else can see information

We use these service providers and platforms:

• Google Firebase and Google Cloud, for anonymous sign-in, Firestore, and Storage. See Google’s privacy policy.
• Google Firebase Crashlytics, for crash reports (stack traces, device model, OS and app version; not scores or your library), unless you turn “Send crash reports” off in Settings.
• Google Sign-In and Google Drive, only if a later version of the app offers in-app Drive access and you choose to connect Drive. The current App Store app does not request this. Some private test copies may include in-app Drive access.
• Google ML Kit, to download the on-device handwriting model if you use handwriting recognition.
• Apple, for the App Store and standard iPadOS services.

Other people in a band room you join can see the messages, names, set lists, and files shared in that room.

Our private helper computer may receive chord-recognition audio, VII song requests, and diagnostics you send, in order to provide those features or to investigate a problem you reported.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or if we must protect someone’s safety.

17. Where information is processed

Firestore is configured in Singapore (asia-southeast1). Crash reports are processed by Google Firebase Crashlytics. Google may process data in other countries as described in Google’s privacy policy. Some features also send data to a private computer we operate, which may be in Malaysia.

18. Children

Band Scored is made for musicians and bands. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Band chat lets people message each other and is not intended for young children.

If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email [email protected] and we will delete it.

19. Your choices and how to contact us

You can:

• Use the app without joining cloud chat or VII, and without turning on handwriting improvement or sending diagnostics;
• Use the app without an in-app Google Drive connection (the current App Store version does not offer one). If a later version adds that feature, you can decline to connect, or disconnect in the app;
• Turn off handwriting improvement or reset on-device handwriting learning;
• Turn off the local diagnostics log, or choose not to send it;
• Turn off “Send crash reports” in Settings, if you do not want crash reports sent to Google Firebase Crashlytics;
• Block or report someone in band chat;
• Delete your account in Settings;
• Email [email protected] to ask a question, request access to information we hold, or ask us to delete leftover cloud data.

20. Changes

If we change this policy, we will update this page and the “Last updated” date. If a change is material, we will take additional reasonable steps to let you know, such as a note in the app or on this site.

21. Contact

David
Email: [email protected]
Privacy policy: this page
Support: the Band Scored support page on this site