GroovSide
Privacy Policy
GroovSide is a Mac app that shows the song playing in Apple Music or Spotify as a record on your desktop. It's made by zinu kim, an individual developer in South Korea ("I", "me"), and sold on the Mac App Store.
The short version: the app has no accounts, no analytics and no tracking, and I don't collect any data about you. What it needs stays on your Mac. It only goes online to look up album track lists.
What the app reads on your Mac
To show the current song, the app asks Music or Spotify (with your permission, through macOS Automation) for the song title, artist, album, album artist, track and disc numbers, length, playback position and album art. It only reads. It doesn't control playback and never opens Music or Spotify.
It also reads your Mac's output volume to turn the volume knob, and your Mac's clock to set the light from the window.
What the app sends over the internet
| Where | What is sent | Why |
|---|---|---|
Apple's iTunes Search API (itunes.apple.com) | Artist, album and song names of the song you're playing, and a store country | To find the album's track list and song lengths, so it can be split into LP sides |
| Spotify's image server | A request for the album art address Spotify gave the app | To show the cover of a Spotify song |
These services see your IP address, as any website does, and handle it under their own privacy policies: Apple, Spotify. These requests don't go through me, and I never receive them.
Nothing else is sent. The app has no analytics, crash reporting or advertising code of its own, and I never receive your listening history.
What the app keeps on your Mac
- Settings (colors, layout, sounds and so on).
- Today's songs: the title, artist and time of each song played today, to show the "Played Today" count. It starts over each day.
- The current record: the lines drawn on the record and which album it belongs to.
- Album track lists found through the iTunes Search API, up to 500 albums, so they don't have to be looked up again.
This stays on your Mac and is never sent to me. It's kept in the app's own folder, ~/Library/Containers/kim.zinu.groovside. macOS keeps that folder when you delete the app, so to remove the data too, quit the app and delete that folder.
Buying the app
You buy the app from Apple on the Mac App Store. Apple handles payment, tax, refunds and family sharing under its own terms and the Apple privacy policy. I don't receive your name, email address or payment details. Apple only gives me sales reports that don't identify you.
If you have turned on sharing with app developers in your Mac's settings (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements), Apple may share crash reports and usage statistics with me. Apple doesn't identify you in these, and I use them only to fix problems and improve the app. You can turn this off at any time.
If you write an App Store review, it is published by Apple under the name you chose, and I can read and reply to it there.
This website
This website is hosted through Cloudflare, which may process your IP address to deliver and protect the site. This site uses no cookies and no analytics.
If you email me, I use your email address and what you write only to reply, and delete the conversation when it's no longer needed. Mail sent to support@zinu.kim is forwarded to my mailbox by Cloudflare, Inc.'s email routing service in the United States.
Where data goes
Apple and Spotify may process the requests above outside South Korea (for example in the United States) under their own policies. I don't transfer any personal information myself, because I don't collect any through the app.
Children
The app isn't directed at children, and I don't knowingly collect information from them.
Your rights
The only information I may hold about you is an email conversation, if you sent me one. You can ask me what I have, and ask me to correct or delete it. Depending on where you live (for example, the EU, the UK, California or South Korea), you may have further rights, including complaining to your local data protection authority. For anything about your purchase, contact Apple. Email me and I'll answer within 30 days.
Changes
If this policy changes, I'll update it here and change the date at the top. If a change affects what the app sends, I'll also mention it in the App Store release notes.
Contact
zinu kim · support@zinu.kim