This Privacy Policy explains how Glitchord collects, uses, stores and protects personal information when you use our Android application, visit glitchord.app, or contact us.
We aim to collect only the information needed to provide our services, respect your choices and keep Glitchord secure.
You can use Glitchord without creating an account. Google sign-in is optional for cloud backup and required if you choose to activate a seven-day Pro trial.
1. Who operates Glitchord?
Glitchord is developed and operated by James Muscat-Sharp, a UK sole trader trading as Glitchord.
The operator is the data controller for personal information processed in connection with Glitchord where applicable.
Business address: 70 Galton Road, Smethwick, B67 5JU
Privacy enquiries: privacy@glitchord.app
General support: support@glitchord.app
Website: https://glitchord.app
Our Terms of Use are available at glitchord.app/terms/.
2. What information does Glitchord use?
The information processed depends on which features you choose.
- Using the app without signing in: Most musical features and preferences work locally on your device.
- Google sign-in and cloud backup: We process information needed to identify your account and synchronise supported musical data.
- Pro trials and purchases: We process limited eligibility and transaction information to provide paid features and prevent misuse.
- Advertising: Eligible Free users may see contextual, non-personalised advertisements, subject to applicable privacy safeguards.
- Notifications: We store limited local preferences and scheduling information for optional reminders.
- Support: We use information you provide to respond to your enquiries.
The following sections explain these activities in more detail.
3. Information stored on your device
Glitchord stores information locally so its features work and your choices are remembered.
Depending on your use, this may include:
- Favourite chords and saved voicings.
- Saved progressions and musical working data.
- Custom chord shapes, fret positions, fingerings and barres.
- Standard, alternative and custom tuning selections.
- Capo settings and other musical preferences.
- Display settings, handedness, theme and haptic preferences.
- Chord of the Day selections and display history.
- Notification choices and records of reminders already shown.
- Trial presentation preferences and locally retained entitlement evidence.
- Account and deletion-recovery information.
Most ordinary musical activity can remain on your device without being uploaded to Glitchord's cloud service.
Some application data may be included in Android's operating-system backup or device-transfer facilities, depending on the app configuration and your device settings.
Certain sensitive entitlement, notification and account-deletion records are stored separately and excluded from ordinary Android backup.
Clearing the app's storage or uninstalling it may remove locally stored information. Copies held by Android backup services follow those services' retention arrangements.
4. Google sign-in and account information
Glitchord offers optional Google sign-in through Google authentication services and Firebase Authentication.
When you sign in, information processed may include:
- Your Firebase user identifier.
- Your Google authentication identifier.
- Your email address.
- Your display name and profile photograph, where available.
- Authentication tokens handled by Google and Firebase.
- Relevant account, session and security information.
We use this information to authenticate your account, display relevant account details, protect your information and provide supported cloud features.
We do not receive your Google account password.
Your Google account is separate from your Glitchord cloud account. Deleting your Glitchord account does not delete your Google account.
Authorised demonstration or app-review accounts may use separately configured authentication credentials where required for application review.
5. Cloud backup and synchronisation
If you sign in and enable cloud backup, Glitchord uses Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore to store and synchronise supported musical information.
This may include:
- Favourite chords and saved voicings.
- Saved progressions and their musical content.
- Tuning selections, including custom tunings.
- Saved chord shapes and fingering information.
- Supported display and application preferences.
- Synchronisation revision numbers, deletion markers and technical metadata.
This information is associated with your Firebase account identifier.
We use it to restore supported musical information, synchronise changes between devices and resolve conflicting changes.
Where necessary, the app may ask you which version of conflicting information to retain.
Cloud synchronisation depends on authentication, connectivity, available service capacity and successful security checks. Locally saved information may therefore exist before it has been successfully backed up.
Not everything stored on your device is uploaded to Firebase. Only data supported by the synchronisation system is included.
Your private cloud-backup records are not automatically published or shared with other Glitchord users.
6. Seven-day Glitchord Pro trial
Glitchord offers an optional seven-day Pro trial.
The trial requires Google sign-in and starts only when you explicitly request activation.
No payment card is required. The trial is not a subscription and does not result in an automatic charge.
To manage trial eligibility, Glitchord processes:
- Your Firebase user identifier.
- An immutable record of trial activation.
- A server-generated trial start timestamp.
- Technical records used to verify server time and remaining eligibility.
- Limited locally stored evidence used to support bounded offline access.
These safeguards help prevent a trial from being restarted or extended through ordinary actions such as reinstalling the app or changing your device clock.
An interrupted connection or an expired offline verification period may prevent Glitchord from confirming your current trial status. In that situation, the app may ask you to reconnect.
Trial records are separate from ordinary cloud-synchronised musical preferences.
7. Lifetime Pro purchases
Glitchord offers an optional one-time purchase of lifetime Pro access through Google Play.
The launch version does not offer an automatically renewing Pro subscription.
Google Play processes the payment. Glitchord may receive and process information needed to provide and manage your purchase, including:
- The purchased product identifier.
- Purchase and ownership status.
- Purchase tokens or transaction references.
- Pending, completed or cancelled purchase states.
- Acknowledgement and restoration information.
- Relevant refunds or entitlement changes.
We use this information to unlock Pro features, recognise valid purchases and restore previously acquired access.
We do not receive your full payment-card details.
Lifetime Pro ownership is associated with Google Play and does not require you to maintain a Glitchord cloud account.
Deleting a Glitchord cloud account does not automatically refund a purchase or remove payment records held independently by Google.
For further details, see Google's Privacy Policy.
8. Advertising
The Free version of Glitchord may display advertisements supplied through Google AdMob.
Users with an active Pro trial or confirmed lifetime Pro ownership do not receive in-app advertisements.
Advertising requests are subject to applicable entitlement, consent and age-related safeguards. Where the necessary conditions cannot be established, advertisements are not requested.
Contextual, non-personalised advertising
Glitchord's advertising model is contextual and non-personalised.
We do not intentionally use your previous browsing activity, behavioural profile, saved chords or private musical information to select advertisements.
Ad selection may instead use contextual information such as the application or content category and general geographic information.
Information processed by advertising services
Even non-personalised advertisements may involve technical data processing by Google and its advertising partners.
Depending on your device, jurisdiction and privacy choices, this may include:
- IP address and general network information.
- Device and application characteristics.
- Permitted advertising or device identifiers.
- Approximate geographic information derived from technical data.
- Advertising requests, impressions and interactions.
- Information needed for frequency limits, security, fraud prevention and aggregated reporting.
We do not request precise GPS location for advertising.
Non-personalised advertising does not mean that no identifiers or personal information are processed. Google may use certain identifiers for purposes such as frequency capping and advertising reports.
Advertising privacy choices
Where required, Glitchord requests appropriate advertising privacy choices through Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP).
These choices affect whether relevant advertising-related processing is permitted.
Where applicable, the app provides a way to revisit required advertising privacy options.
If consent required for particular processing is not provided, that processing must not take place. This does not prevent you from using Glitchord's ordinary Free features.
For more information about Google's advertising practices, see Google's advertising privacy information.
9. Younger users
Glitchord is a general guitar-learning and music-reference app intended for users aged 13 and over, including people aged 13–15, 16–17 and adults.
It is not designed or marketed specifically for children under 13.
We recognise that users under 18 require appropriate privacy protections.
Our approach is to minimise unnecessary personal information, make account creation optional, keep ordinary musical activity local where possible and avoid behaviourally personalised advertising.
Glitchord does not require users to supply their date of birth for ordinary musical features.
Advertising involving younger users or users whose ages are unknown is subject to applicable legal and Google Play safeguards. Glitchord must not request advertisements where those safeguards cannot be met.
We do not request precise location for musical functionality, advertising or daily reminders.
Parents or guardians who have concerns about information relating to a young user may contact privacy@glitchord.app.
10. Chord of the Day
Chord of the Day introduces a playable chord, a short musical explanation and a practice suggestion.
The feature works using bundled or previously downloaded educational content.
Glitchord may periodically retrieve updated lessons from publicly accessible content hosted at glitchord.app or the legacy chordatlas.app domain.
These requests do not require Google sign-in or identify your Glitchord cloud account.
As with ordinary website requests, the hosting provider may process technical information such as IP addresses, request times, device characteristics and security diagnostics.
The app stores limited local information about the selected daily chord and whether its card has already been shown.
Chord selection uses the device's local calendar date. It does not require your GPS location.
We do not upload your individual daily chord practice activity to an educational analytics service.
11. Notifications and promotions
Glitchord provides optional Android notifications, including:
- Chord of the Day reminders.
- Notifications relating to an approaching Pro trial end.
- Promotional offers, where separately enabled and available.
Notifications depend on your choices within Glitchord and Android's notification permission and channel settings.
The app uses your device's local date, time and time-zone settings to schedule reminders. It does not require precise location access.
Limited notification preferences, scheduling information and delivery history are stored locally to prevent unnecessary duplicate notifications.
Trial reminders may rely on previously verified trial information. Notification records do not themselves establish Pro entitlement.
Offers and promotions
Allowing ordinary notifications does not automatically enrol you in promotional messaging.
Offers and promotions require a separate affirmative opt-in, which you can withdraw through Glitchord Settings.
The promotional notification preference is initially off. A remote promotional campaign-delivery system is not part of the current launch functionality.
Any future promotional communications will be subject to applicable privacy and age-related requirements.
You can also restrict or disable notifications using Android's settings.
12. Microphone use
Glitchord's guitar tuner uses your device's microphone to detect musical pitch.
Microphone access requires the appropriate Android permission and is used while the tuner is listening.
Ordinary tuning audio is processed locally on your device.
Glitchord does not intentionally record, retain or upload the microphone audio used for tuning.
You can withdraw microphone permission through Android settings. Other app features will remain available.
13. Support and correspondence
If you contact us through the app, by email or another available support channel, we process the information you provide.
This may include:
- Your question, issue report or suggestion.
- An email address or other reply information.
- Screenshots or technical details you choose to provide.
- Correspondence needed to investigate and resolve your enquiry.
We use this information to respond, resolve problems, investigate faults and provide support.
Support correspondence is handled through our email service provider.
Submitting a support request does not subscribe you to unrelated marketing.
Please avoid including passwords, authentication tokens or unnecessary sensitive information in support messages.
14. Website, cookies and hosting
The Glitchord website is built with Astro and hosted through Cloudflare.
It provides product information, legal documents and publicly accessible educational content.
At the date of this policy, we do not use:
- Google Analytics or Cloudflare Web Analytics.
- Advertising or remarketing pixels.
- Behavioural analytics or non-essential tracking cookies.
- Newsletter registrations or website contact forms.
- Third-party video embeds that track visitors.
Cloudflare may process technical information required to deliver and protect the website, including:
- IP addresses.
- Browser and device information.
- Requested pages and files.
- Request timestamps.
- Security and network diagnostics.
Cloudflare may also use technologies necessary for website security and reliable delivery.
If we introduce non-essential cookies, analytics or other tracking technologies later, we will update the relevant disclosures and obtain consent where required.
15. Why we process personal information
Where UK data-protection law applies, we use the following lawful bases according to the processing involved.
- Requested account, backup and synchronisation features: Performance of a contract, where necessary.
- Purchased functionality and restoration: Performance of a contract.
- Tax, accounting and other legal obligations: Compliance with a legal obligation.
- Application and account security: Legitimate interests.
- Preventing trial misuse and inappropriate restoration of deleted data: Legitimate interests.
- Responding to support requests: Contractual necessity where applicable, or legitimate interests.
- Advertising-related data processing: Consent where legally required; otherwise an appropriate lawful basis.
- Optional promotional communications: Consent where required.
- Operating and protecting the website: Legitimate interests.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider those interests alongside the rights and freedoms of affected individuals.
Where processing requires consent, you can withdraw it. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before consent was withdrawn.
16. Service providers and sharing
We use third-party services where necessary to operate specific Glitchord features.
These include:
- Google and Firebase: Authentication, cloud backup, trial verification and related account-security services.
- Google Play: App distribution, purchase processing, verification and restoration.
- Google AdMob and relevant advertising partners: Contextual advertising, permitted measurement and fraud prevention.
- Cloudflare: Website hosting, static educational content and associated security services.
- Email service providers: Receiving, storing and responding to support correspondence.
We may also disclose information where legally required or necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.
We do not sell users' saved musical information to advertisers.
Content you choose to share
Some Glitchord features allow you to export or share musical content using Android's sharing facilities.
If you choose to share content with another application or recipient, the selected material may be passed to them.
Their subsequent use of that information is governed by their own practices and policies.
Glitchord does not automatically publish your private cloud-backup content.
17. International processing
Glitchord's production Cloud Firestore database is configured in London, United Kingdom (europe-west2).
This does not mean every related service operates exclusively within the UK.
Google, Cloudflare, advertising providers and email-service providers may process relevant information in other countries.
Where international transfers are subject to UK data-protection law, applicable transfer requirements and appropriate safeguards must be met. These may include recognised adequacy arrangements or approved contractual safeguards.
For information about relevant transfer safeguards, contact privacy@glitchord.app.
18. How long we keep information
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for its purpose, subject to applicable legal, operational and security requirements.
Local musical information
Local chords, progressions and preferences generally remain until you remove them, clear the application's storage, uninstall Glitchord or they are replaced through ordinary use.
Android backup copies follow the relevant operating-system arrangements.
Cloud accounts and backups
Supported cloud data is normally retained while the associated account remains active and the information is needed to provide backup and synchronisation.
Account deletion initiates removal of the relevant private cloud data, subject to completion and verification of the deletion procedure.
Trial information
Trial activation records are retained while needed to establish whether an existing account has already used its trial.
These records are designed to prevent ordinary reinstalls or account activity from restarting the same account's trial.
Related verification records are retained only as needed for trial operation, security and account lifecycle management.
Account-deletion security records
Glitchord uses safeguards intended to prevent previously authenticated sessions or devices from recreating deleted cloud data.
Limited recovery information may remain locally while interrupted deletion operations are resolved.
A restricted cloud deletion-barrier record may be retained after account deletion. It is linked to the former Firebase account identifier and does not contain ordinary musical backups.
The current deletion-barrier design has no automatic expiry. Its continued retention is subject to applicable data-protection requirements and valid rights requests.
Purchases
Relevant local purchase evidence may remain as needed to maintain lifetime Pro access and support restoration.
Google Play retains transaction and payment records under its own policies and applicable obligations.
Notification records
Local notification settings, scheduling records and delivery history remain until changed or removed through application operation, data clearing or relevant lifecycle controls.
Support correspondence
We normally retain support and general correspondence for no more than 24 months after the last substantive interaction.
Information may be retained longer where reasonably necessary for an unresolved support matter, a legal obligation, security investigation, dispute or other lawful purpose.
When the applicable retention period ends, the correspondence is deleted or otherwise disposed of securely.
Website and technical logs
Website and service-security logs are retained according to the applicable provider's operational retention arrangements and the purposes for which those records are needed.
We review retention where required and respond to valid deletion and objection requests, subject to applicable legal exceptions.
19. Signing out and deleting your account
You can use Glitchord without a cloud account, and you can sign out without deleting your Google account.
Signing out
Signing out ends your authenticated Glitchord cloud session.
Signing out does not automatically delete an existing online backup.
Locally saved musical information remains on your device.
Google Play lifetime Pro ownership is not cancelled simply because you sign out of Firebase.
Deleting your Glitchord cloud account
You can request deletion in the app:
Glitchord → Settings → Account & Backup → Delete account
You can also find account-deletion instructions and request deletion through:
https://glitchord.app/delete-account/
For help, including if you no longer have access to the app, contact privacy@glitchord.app.
Deletion is separate from signing out and may require recent Google reauthentication to protect the account concerned.
The deletion process is designed to remove associated private cloud-backup records and the Firebase authentication account while preventing old sessions from recreating deleted information.
Glitchord reports deletion as complete only after the required operations have been verified.
If deletion is interrupted or cannot be confirmed, limited recovery information may be retained and additional verification or support may be necessary.
What deletion does not automatically do
Deleting your Glitchord cloud account does not automatically:
- Delete your Google account.
- Remove musical information stored locally on your device.
- Refund or reverse a Google Play purchase.
- Remove independently retained Google Play transaction records.
- Remove information that we or our providers must or may lawfully retain.
You can also delete individual favourites and saved progressions within Glitchord without deleting your account. Where those items are included in cloud synchronisation, their removal is synchronised with your connected account, subject to successful completion of the relevant sync operation.
Any retained deletion or security records are described in Section 18.
20. Security
We use technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information, including:
- Firebase authentication and account-ownership checks.
- Firestore access restrictions for private user records.
- Encrypted network communication.
- Synchronisation revision and conflict-handling safeguards.
- Protected storage for sensitive local recovery information.
- Restrictions on trial-record modification.
- Controls designed to prevent deleted cloud content being restored by old sessions.
No internet-connected service or device can be guaranteed completely secure.
If you believe your information has been compromised, contact privacy@glitchord.app.
21. Your data-protection rights
Depending on applicable law and your circumstances, you may have the right to:
- Access personal information held about you.
- Correct inaccurate information.
- Request deletion of personal information.
- Restrict certain processing.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Receive certain information in a portable format.
- Withdraw consent where processing relies on consent.
You also have the right to object to the use of your personal information for direct marketing.
Some rights are subject to legal conditions and exceptions.
We may need to verify your identity before responding to requests concerning private information.
To exercise your rights, email privacy@glitchord.app.
We will respond within applicable legal timescales, normally within one calendar month for UK data-protection rights requests, subject to permitted extensions.
22. Complaints
If you are concerned about how we handle personal information, contact privacy@glitchord.app.
We will acknowledge data-protection complaints within 30 days, investigate without unnecessary delay, keep you informed as appropriate and provide an outcome without unjustifiable or excessive delay.
You may also complain to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Website: https://ico.org.uk/
You do not need our permission to contact the ICO.
23. Future features and changes
Glitchord may introduce new functionality in future releases.
Features such as Band Space, which is currently marked Coming Soon, are not part of the enabled cloud collaboration service described in this policy.
If future functionality introduces materially different personal-data processing, we will update this policy and provide any additional information or choices required by law.
The date at the top identifies the policy's most recent update.
The current policy is available at:
24. Contact
Data controller: James Muscat-Sharp
Trading name: Glitchord
Business address: 70 Galton Road, Smethwick, B67 5JU
Privacy enquiries: privacy@glitchord.app
Support: support@glitchord.app
Website: https://glitchord.app