Hayden Keys

The short version

Hayden Keys has no accounts, no server and no database. The app runs entirely on your device. There's nothing to sign up for, and we don't store or sell anything about you.

What's stored, and where

Hayden Keys saves your lesson progress, XP, streak, badges, saved songs, songs you upload, cover pictures and keyboard settings in your device's local storage, a standard private browser feature. This data:

• Never leaves your device, and is never sent to us or anyone else.
• Isn't linked to you: there's no account, email or name.
• Can be erased any time by clearing your browser's site data for haydenkeys.com, or by deleting the iPhone/iPad app.

Camera access

The Practice tab's Camera Overlay can use your camera to show which key to press next, drawn over a live view of your keyboard. The video is used live on your device only, and is never recorded, saved, uploaded or sent anywhere. You can say no to camera access and still use the rest of the app.

Microphone access

Hayden Keys asks for microphone access in a few places, all on your device:

• Keyboard calibration ("Get Started"): listens briefly to check which key you played.
• Ear Check practice mode: checks you played the right note while practicing a song.
• "Tune this note" buttons in lessons: a tuner needle shows if your piano's note matches the one on screen.

Audio is analyzed live and never recorded, stored or sent anywhere. The microphone only turns on when you start one of these, and you can say no and still use the rest of the app.

MIDI keyboards

If you tap "Connect MIDI keyboard" (supported in Chrome, Edge and Firefox on a computer), your browser asks permission to read which keys you press. Key presses are used live on your device only, and are never recorded, stored or sent anywhere.

Uploading your own recording

If you upload an audio or video file, Hayden Keys works out its notes entirely on your device, using Spotify's open-source basic-pitch model built into the app (see the third-party notices). The file is never uploaded to a server. Your song is saved in My songs, on your device only.

Third-party network requests

The Discover tab looks up album covers using Apple's free, public iTunes Search API. It sends only the song title and artist, nothing about you, and the pictures load from Apple's servers. These results are only kept while the app is open.

The piano sound comes from public-domain Steinway recordings built into the app, so playing notes never contacts another server.

"Which song is this?" (iPhone and iPad app)

When you upload a song in the iPhone/iPad app, it may try to name it with Apple's ShazamKit. It turns about 12 seconds of the recording into an audio fingerprint on your device and sends only that to Apple, never the recording. We don't receive or store it, and Apple's privacy policy applies to that lookup. The website doesn't do this.

Tip jar (iPhone and iPad app)

Tips are optional and handled entirely by Apple's In-App Purchase. Apple processes the payment; we never see your card or Apple Account details, and a tip unlocks no features. The app only remembers on your device that you left one, to say thank you.

Song cover art

When you open a song in Practice, the app asks Apple's public iTunes Search service for its cover art, sending only the title and artist. The picture is saved on your device so it's only asked for once. Tapping it opens the song in Apple Music. Apple's privacy policy applies to that lookup.

Microphone: Wait for me

If you turn on Wait for me (or a lesson's listening step), the microphone is used only to hear your piano keys, and the notes are worked out on your device. Nothing is recorded, saved or sent anywhere, and the microphone turns off when you leave that screen.

Optional videos

A few "Did you know?" facts have a Watch button. Nothing loads from YouTube until you tap it. On the website the video plays from YouTube's privacy-enhanced domain (youtube-nocookie.com); in the iPhone/iPad app it opens in YouTube. YouTube's privacy policy applies to what you watch there.

Photos of musicians are built into the app (freely licensed, credited under each photo) and make no network request.

What we don't do

• No account creation, no login, no password.
• No analytics, no trackers, no advertising, no third-party ad SDKs.
• No selling, renting or sharing of data. We have none to share.
• No tracking cookies (no cookies at all, beyond what your browser may use for local storage).

Children's privacy

Hayden Keys collects no personal information from anyone, of any age. With no accounts and no data collection, that's true whether you're 8 or 80.

Changes to this policy

If the app changes in a way that affects this policy, we'll update this page to match.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the app: open an issue on the GitHub repository.