Privacy Policy
backsample is designed to process audio locally on your Mac.
What we collect
The application itself does not transmit captured audio to our servers by default.
We may receive information you voluntarily provide when contacting support (for example, your email address and message content).
If you purchase a license, the payment is handled by Paddle.com, our authorized reseller and merchant of record. Paddle collects your billing information and processes it under its own privacy policy. We receive your email address, your country, and an order reference — we never see your card details.
We send your license key to that email address using Resend, a transactional email provider. We store your email address only as a one-way hash, so we can match a support request to an order without keeping the address itself on our servers.
System Audio Recording permission
macOS requires System Audio Recording permission for apps that capture system audio via Core Audio process taps. backsample uses this permission for audio only. The app does not record, store, or upload your screen or video.
Local data
The app may store on your device:
- User preferences (theme, buffer duration, clips folder location)
- System audio onboarding state
- Exported WAV clips in your clips folder (default:
~/Music/backsample/)
Copying a clip with ⌘C does not write any file to disk; the WAV is created in your clips folder only when you paste it.
You control exported files and can delete them at any time.
License activation
Licensed copies of backsample contact backsample.com to activate and to periodically re-check the license. Each request sends only:
- Your license key
- A random identifier generated on first launch, used to count how many Macs a license is active on. It is not your serial number, hardware ID, or anything derived from your Mac.
- The app version and macOS version
It does not send your name, your files, your audio, or a list of your devices. Activation happens once, and the re-check runs about weekly; if your Mac is offline, the app keeps working and retries later. You can release a machine at any time from Settings, which deletes that identifier from our records.
During the free trial, the app contacts the same endpoint once to timestamp the start of the trial. No license key exists yet, and no personal information is sent.
Analytics
The backsample app does not include third-party analytics SDKs and does not send usage telemetry.
The website records anonymous counts of installer (.dmg) downloads so we can see how often the app is downloaded. That log includes the filename, country, and time of the request. It does not use cookies, does not store an email address or persistent identifier, and is not linked to use of the app.
Changes
We may update this policy on our website. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.