searchzPrivacy policy
searchz is a music app for iPhone and a website, searchz.eu. This page explains what we keep about you, why, for how long, and what you can do about it. In short: we keep what searchz needs to work and nothing more. We don't sell anything, and there are no ads, analytics or trackers.
1. Who we are
searchz (searchz.eu) is run by Pieter Steenbergh, Wittenburgerweg 38, 2244 CB Wassenaar, the Netherlands, [email protected], who is responsible for your data. Questions, requests or complaints: email us or use the contact form, and we'll answer by email.
2. Without an account
- The app works without an account. Your likes, playlists, taste and the songs you've seen are then kept only on your phone.
- To find songs and play their 30-second previews, the app asks Apple (the Apple Music catalogue) directly. Apple sees your phone's internet address, as with any app or website.
- Free music and artists' uploads come from our own server, which sees your phone's internet address too.
- Songs that sound alike: to find free songs and uploads that sound like what you liked, the app works out from the previews of songs you liked or swiped away a short list of numbers that describes how they sound (not the sound itself) and sends those to our server. They're used for that answer and not kept.
- On searchz.eu you can search and play songs without an account. When you play a song kept on our own server, a cookie (
sz_listener) with a random number counts how long it's listened to, so artists can be paid by listening time. It's not used for anything else and expires after 400 days.
3. With an account
- Your account: your email address, your password in a scrambled form we can't read back, your name, and your profile picture if you add one. Every account gets a short ID like K7Q2M9X.
- Where your account is used from: the internet addresses you use searchz from, kept for 90 days. We use them for one thing: when we ban an account for breaking the terms of use, the addresses it used are banned with it, so it can't simply come back.
- Your library and taste: Liked Songs, Love it, your playlists and folders, how you reacted to songs (likes, loves, skips and how long you listened) and which songs you've already seen. That's how your library comes along to any phone and Discover never plays you the same song twice. You can see your library at searchz.eu/library.
- What you listen to: every song the app plays for you (in Discover, from your library, offline and from downloads) and on searchz.eu: the song, its artist, when, how long, and whether it was offline or from a download. The app counts it on your phone and sends it when it's online. Your profile at searchz.eu/library and the app's Stats show it to you, and it's how your subscription is split (see the terms of use).
- Song details (title, artist, cover) of songs that are in people's libraries.
- Artists: the songs you upload, your artist name and how long people listen to your songs. See the artist terms.
- Subscriptions: what you paid and when. For the App Store, the transaction Apple sends us (its ID, the product, the price and when it renews or ends); we never see your card, bank or Apple ID. For crypto payments on searchz.eu, the transactions on the chain.
- Crypto payments are public and permanent: a blockchain shows everyone the payment, its amount, the sending address and the memo, which holds your account's short ID. That can't be deleted from the chain, not by us either, also after you delete your account.
- Getting paid (artists): the payout address you give us: a crypto address, or your IBAN and the name on the account. We keep every payout we make (amount, date, where it went) for our accounts, also after you delete your account.
4. The map and chats
- The map is off until you turn it on. Then, while searchz is open, the app sends your location, rounded to about 10 m, and what you're playing. People within 75 m who are on the map too see your name, picture and what you're playing, and can message you. They see your pin 15 to 30 m away from where you are, never your exact spot, and only around where their own phone is.
- We keep only your latest location, and delete it three minutes after your phone last sent it, or straight away when you turn the map off.
- Chats: messages are kept so both of you can read them. Deleting a conversation removes it for you; once the other person has deleted it too, it's gone from our server. Messages pass through a filter that masks slurs and abuse.
- Blocking and reporting: we keep who you've blocked. When you report someone, we keep the report and a copy of the message you reported, so we can look into it even if the chat is deleted. When you report a song, we keep the report and which song it was.
5. The contact form and notices
Your name, email address and message, so we can answer you. For a notice about content (the notice form), also what it's about and where it is.
6. Who else is involved
- Cloudflare passes all traffic to searchz.eu and protects it against attacks. It sees your internet address.
- Apple: the app gets songs, covers and previews straight from Apple. For App Store subscriptions, Apple handles the payment.
- Google (Gmail) sends our emails: the link to set a new password, and our answers to the contact and notice forms. It gets your email address and what's in the email.
Nobody else gets your data. Cloudflare, Apple and Google are based in the United States, so data can pass through there; they're bound by the EU's rules for transfers outside Europe.
7. Why we may use it
- To give you what you signed up for: your account, keeping your library in sync, your listening stats, chats and the map.
- To pay artists what they earned, and to keep the accounts the law asks us to keep.
- The map only with your permission, which you take back by turning it off.
- To keep searchz safe: preventing abuse, handling reports and protecting the server.
8. How long
- Everything kept with your account stays until you delete the account. In the app: Profile → Delete account; on searchz.eu: your profile → Delete your account. That deletes your library, taste, seen songs, listening stats, chats, blocks, picture, uploads, payout details and reports about you. Reports you made stay, without your name, and so do payouts we made to you (for our accounts).
- Your location: at most three minutes after it was last sent.
- Messages through the contact form and notices: as long as we need them to help you, or to show what we did about a notice.
- Our server writes technical logs (the time, an internet address and what was asked for) to keep it running and safe. They're not used for anything else, and are deleted after 30 days at the latest.
9. Your rights
You can ask to see your data, get a copy, correct it or have it deleted, and you can object to how we use it. Most of it you can do in the app yourself or on searchz.eu: change your name or picture, turn off the map, delete your account. For anything else, use the contact form. You can also complain to the data protection authority in your country.
10. Age
You need to be at least 16 to make an account.
11. On your phone
The app keeps your library and taste on your phone too, and your searchz login in the iPhone's Keychain. Deleting the app removes them from the phone.
12. Changes
We'll put changes on this page and update the date at the top. If a change matters for how we use your data, we'll tell you in the app.
See also the terms of use.