Privacy notice
Earfling beta ยท last updated 31 October 2026 (share links, group mixtapes and listening settings added)
Earfling is in a private beta. This notice explains, in plain English, what we collect, why, who else sees it and what you can ask us to do.
Who we are
Earfling is run by Rob Duncan. For anything about your data, email hello@earfling.com.
What we collect
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your first name (optional) | To greet you and show who shared a mixtape |
| Your email address, and your Google account ID if you sign in with Google | To sign you in on any device and get your account back, and for messages about your account (for example a code to sign in, or a change to your plan). We don't send marketing emails. Kept while you have an account. Child profiles have no email; they belong to the parent's account. |
| Sign-in codes and attempts | To check it's really you and stop people guessing codes. We keep only a scrambled form of each code, for 10 minutes; failed attempts for a day. |
| Your answers (first music player, Saturday nights, what music is for, old favourites or new crushes) and favourite bands | To pick music for you |
| Your approximate region (for example "Scotland, United Kingdom"), worked out from your internet connection each time you ask for picks | To suggest artists that are well known where you live. We don't store it. |
| Your swipes, loved and removed songs, mixtape and its name | To learn your taste and build your mixtape |
| Mixtapes you choose to share, and your votes | To run the community chart. Shared mixtapes and your first name are visible to other testers. |
| Share links you create for a mixtape or party | So friends can open them. Anyone with the link can see the mixtape's name, your first name and its songs, or the party's name and code. Nothing else about you is on the page. Stop sharing and the link stops working. |
| Group mixtapes: songs friends add, with their first name | So everyone in the group can see who added what. The mixtape's owner can remove any song. |
| Your listening settings (no AI music, clean lyrics, themes to avoid, approved songs) and a parent PIN if you set one | To filter what Earfling suggests and plays. We store only a scrambled form of the PIN, never the PIN itself. |
| Podcasts: the shows you swipe on, follow or import, your topics and episode length, your episode queue and how far you've listened | To pick podcasts for you, keep your queue and tell you about new episodes. If you import a list from another podcast app (an OPML file), it's read on your phone and only the show links are sent to us. |
| Your friends on Earfling, and your friend link and code | So you and your friends can see each other's music. Anyone you give your link to can become your friend; you can make a new link to stop the old one, and remove a friend at any time. Friends see your first name only. |
| What you play in Earfling (artist and song), only if you choose "Show friends what I'm playing" | So your friends can see what you're listening to. Off by default: we ask first, and with it off nothing is kept. Switching it off deletes what was kept. We keep your last 50 songs, for no more than 30 days. |
| Songs you send to friends, with any note | So your friend can listen. Your friend sees your first name, the song and the note, and you see if they've opened or loved it. Deleted after 90 days. |
| Artists you report as AI-generated | To hide them from you, and from everyone once several listeners report the same artist. |
| A random account ID, kept in a cookie | To keep you signed in. This is the only cookie we set, and it's essential. |
| How many AI requests you make each day | To keep costs under control |
We don't ask for your email, phone number, location or payment details. We don't sell your data or use it for advertising.
The app also keeps a copy of your progress in your browser's storage, so it works smoothly. "Start over" clears it.
Usage data
We record how the app is used, such as which screens you visit and how you swipe, tied to your account ID, so we can improve Earfling. We keep this for 12 months and don't share it. It stays in our own database; no analytics company sees it.
Our lawful basis
We use your data because it's needed to give you the service you signed up for (UK GDPR: contract), and to keep the service secure and affordable and to improve it (legitimate interests).
Who else handles your data
- Cloudflare hosts the app and our database, stored in Western Europe.
- Anthropic (the makers of Claude) receives your answers, favourite bands, swipes and approximate region to suggest music (and, for podcasts, the shows you love and your topics to suggest shows) and write your taste summary. We don't send your name. Anthropic doesn't use this data to train its models.
- Deezer: our server looks up cover art and previews by artist and song name only. When a 30-second preview plays, your browser loads it from Deezer.
- YouTube: Earfling uses YouTube API Services to find and play music videos. When a video plays in Earfling, the YouTube player is provided by YouTube (Google), which may set its own cookies and collect data under the Google Privacy Policy. We only send YouTube an artist and song name to search for; we don't share your name or account with YouTube. We keep the video matches we find, and whether YouTube marks a video as made for kids, for no more than 30 days. Videos marked made for kids play in YouTube's privacy-enhanced player. We don't allow third parties to serve ads in Earfling, though YouTube may show ads in its player.
- Snapchat: when you open the share options, your browser loads Snap's share button from Snap, which may collect data under Snap's Privacy Policy. If you share to Snapchat or WhatsApp, the link goes through that app, under its own terms. We don't send them anything about you.
- Podcast Index (podcastindex.org): our server looks up podcast shows and episodes there. We send show names, search words and feed links, never anything about you.
- Podcast publishers: episodes play straight from the podcast's own host, as in any podcast app, so the host sees your internet address and which episode you played.
- Resend sends our emails, such as sign-in codes. It receives your email address and the message. Resend is based in the United States.
- Google sign-in, only if you choose "Continue with Google": Google tells us your email address and a Google account ID, under the Google Privacy Policy.
- Google Fonts supplies the app's fonts, so your browser connects to Google when the page loads.
Some of these companies may handle data outside the UK, under the safeguards UK law requires.
How long we keep it
For as long as you use the beta. When the beta ends, we'll either move your account into the full app (and tell you first) or delete it. You can ask us to delete it at any time.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct, export or delete your data, or object to how we use it. Email hello@earfling.com and we'll reply within a month. If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Age
The beta is for people aged 18 and over.
Changes
If we change this notice we'll update the date above, and tell testers about anything important.