This Privacy Policy explains how LeiChain AI Limited ("we", "us") collects, uses and protects information when you use the ChirpReel mobile application and www.chirpreel.com (together, the "Service").
ChirpReel records sounds you point your phone at, identifies them and turns them into illustrated sound cards. This Policy describes what that involves. We collect only what the Service needs to work.
1. Information We Collect
- Account data: a guest account is created automatically on first launch and is identified by an app-generated device identifier — no sign-up is required. If you choose Sign in with Apple, we receive the identifier Apple provides and the email address Apple forwards, which may be a private relay address. We also store the display name and avatar you set.
- Recordings and identification data: the audio clip you record, its duration and the time it was made; the card generated from it (illustration, species name, quick facts, tags and Sound Score); and, if you allow location access, the coordinates of the recording, from which we derive a city-level place name.
- Activity data: plays, likes, favourites, playlist contents, which cards you chose to share, reports you submit, users you block, and a count of identifications used against your daily quota.
- Device and diagnostic data: app version, operating system, device model, language and region, IP address, and a push token if you allow notifications.
- Purchase data: the App Store transaction identifiers needed to validate your subscription. We never receive or store your payment card details.
- Measurement data: if you allow tracking under App Tracking Transparency, limited identifiers used only to measure which campaign an install came from. ChirpReel shows no ads.
2. How We Use Information
- Identify the sound you recorded and generate its illustrated card.
- Keep your recordings, cards and playlist available across sessions and, if you sign in with Apple, across devices.
- Maintain your session, count daily identifications and apply your subscription entitlement.
- Send the notifications described in section 5.
- Operate Discover: display the cards you chose to share, and handle reports and blocks.
- Diagnose crashes, improve stability and playback, and prevent abuse such as automated bulk uploads.
- Comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.
Audio you record is processed in order to identify it and to produce your card. We do not use it to identify you as a person, and we do not sell it.
3. What Is Private and What Is Shared
New recordings are private by default. They stay in My Sounds and are visible only to you.
If you choose to share a card to Discover, other people see the app-generated illustration and text, your audio clip, your display name and avatar, and — only if the recording carried a location — a city-level place name. Exact coordinates are never shown.
You can unshare a card at any time, which removes it from Discover. Every shared card carries report and block controls. A card reported by several users is hidden from Discover immediately, and every report is reviewed within 24 hours.
4. Who We Share Data With
We do not sell personal data. We share limited data with:
- Service providers who host our servers, deliver media over our CDN, deliver push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging) and provide aggregate usage analytics (Firebase Analytics).
- Apple, to validate subscriptions and to support Sign in with Apple.
- Meta, only where you allowed tracking, to measure install campaigns.
- Authorities, where we are legally required to respond, and other parties where necessary to investigate abuse or protect the rights and safety of users.
5. Push Notifications
Identification runs on our servers and takes a short time, so if you have left the app we send the result by push notification. We also notify you about likes on a card you shared to Discover and about subscription changes such as renewal or expiry. Notifications are only sent if you granted permission, are never used for advertising, and can be turned off in iOS Settings at any time.
6. Retention and Account Deletion
We keep your account, recordings and cards while your account exists. You can delete your account in the app under Settings > Delete Account.
After you confirm, the account is permanently closed and can no longer be signed in to on any device, its recordings and cards are no longer accessible in the app, and any card it shared is removed from Discover immediately. Records we must keep by law, such as transaction and moderation records, are retained for the required period.
7. Permissions You Control
- Microphone: required to record the sound you want identified. Recording only starts when you tap the record button and stops when the app leaves the foreground.
- Location (optional, while using the app): improves identification for birds found in your region. Only a city-level place name is ever shown on a shared card.
- Notifications (optional): used for the messages described in section 5.
- Tracking (optional): used only for install campaign measurement.
Each of these can be changed at any time in iOS Settings; the rest of the app keeps working without them, except that identification needs the microphone.
8. Children
The Service is not directed to children under 13, or under the higher age set by your local law. If we learn that we hold data from a child below that age, we will delete it promptly.
9. International Transfers
Data may be processed on servers in regions other than your own. We apply safeguards consistent with this Policy wherever your data is processed.
10. Security
We use encryption in transit (HTTPS), scoped access keys, least-privilege access and periodic key rotation. Credentials on your device are stored in the iOS Keychain. No system is completely secure; please report any issue to [email protected].
11. Your Rights
- Request a copy of your account data, or its correction or deletion.
- Delete your account yourself at any time in Settings.
- Withdraw microphone, location, notification or tracking permission in iOS Settings.
- Manage or cancel a subscription in your App Store account settings.
12. Changes
We may update this Policy. Material changes will be highlighted in the app or on this website and reflected in the date above. Continued use of the Service constitutes acceptance.
13. Contact
LeiChain AI Limited · Flat 2304, 23/F Ho King Commercial Centre, 2-16 Fa Yuen Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong · [email protected]