Bitstrom

1. Data collection

We do not collect, transmit, or store any personal information. Bitstrom has no accounts, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking, and crash reporting is switched off. We operate no servers in connection with this app, so there is nothing for us to receive.

2. Your library

Your library lives in a file you choose — on your device, in iCloud Drive, or in Google Drive. Your collections, favourites, subscriptions and settings are written into that file and nowhere else. Devices that open the same file share one library; Bitstrom reads and writes the file where it lives and does not copy it to us.

If you keep the file in iCloud Drive or Google Drive, it is synced by Apple or Google, under your own account, and their terms apply to it — not ours. Bitstrom is not part of either service and has no cloud storage of its own.

A backup is one JSON file that you export and keep wherever you choose.

3. Passwords and service keys

When a media server or a service needs a password or a key (for example a Jellyfin or Subsonic server, or the Podcast Index), you enter it yourself. Secrets stay on the device where you entered them and are used only to talk to that server or service. They are not written into the shared library file and are never sent to us. A server's address and user name may travel in the library file, so your other devices can find the same server.

4. Your local network

Bitstrom is a remote control: it finds the music players on your home network and tells them what to play. To do this it uses local network access — on iPhone and iPad you are asked for this permission the first time. It looks for players and media servers on your network, or connects to an address you enter by hand. What it sends to a player is the address of the stream and playback commands such as play, pause and volume.

On a computer, the desktop app also runs a Bitstrom server on that computer: your own phones and tablets can sync their library against it, and it serves the music in folders you add to the players on your network. It runs on your machine and reports nothing to us.

5. Network connections

Apart from your local network, Bitstrom connects only to the places you browse or add:

• Public directories you search — radio directories such as radio-browser, SomaFM, the Icecast directory, Radio Paradise, KEXP, NTS and WFMU; podcast directories (Apple's iTunes Search, and the Podcast Index if you add a key); and the open catalogs Internet Archive, Jamendo and Audius. Your search text goes to the directory you are searching.
• Media servers you add — your DLNA / UPnP, Plex, Jellyfin or Subsonic-compatible servers, at the addresses you give.
• Cover pictures — when an item arrives without a picture, Bitstrom may look one up by the item's name: Apple's iTunes Search for tracks, albums and podcasts, and radio-browser for stations. Only the name (and the artist, for music) is sent.
• The streams themselves — the player you choose, or this device when it is the player, fetches the audio directly from the broadcaster, podcast host or server that publishes it.

Each of these services receives the request and your IP address, as with any connection on the internet, and handles it under its own privacy policy. None of them receives anything from us, and Bitstrom does not send them an identifier for you.

6. Crash reporting

The app's code includes support for anonymous crash reports, but it is switched off: no reporting destination is configured in the released app, so no crash reports or diagnostics are sent anywhere.

7. Deleting your data

Everything Bitstrom keeps is in places you control. Delete the library file to delete your library; remove a password or key in Settings, or remove the app to delete everything it stored on the device. There is nothing to ask us to delete, because we hold nothing.

8. Children

Bitstrom is not directed at children and collects no information from anyone, including children.

9. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date.