Privacy policy

The German Datenschutzerklärung is the legally binding version. This is a translation.

1. Controller

The controller for data processing on this website and in the TONO app within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:

Julian Ivanov (Julian Digital)
Am Birkenhain 51A
49811 Lingen (Ems)
Germany
Phone: +49 1520 8381870
Email: kontakt@julian-digital.de

Referred to below as “we”. We have not appointed a data protection officer because the law does not require one. For any privacy question, reach us at the email address above.

2. This website

Hosting and server logs

This website is hosted by Vercel Inc., 440 N Barranca Avenue #4133, Covina, CA 91723, USA, and delivered through its worldwide server network. Whenever a page or file is requested, Vercel processes technically necessary data: your IP address, date and time, the address requested, the amount of data transferred and the status code, the page you came from (referrer, if your browser sends it) and your browser and operating system (user agent).

The purpose is to deliver the website to you and to keep it running and secure, for example to detect attacks and abuse. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is a secure, working website. We do not analyze the logs for marketing, build no profiles from them and do not combine them with other data. Vercel keeps them only briefly, for operations and security, and then deletes them according to its retention periods.

Vercel processes this data as our processor (Art. 28 GDPR) under its Data Processing Addendum. Data may be transferred to the USA in the process. Vercel is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, so the transfer is based on the European Commission’s adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR), and additionally on standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR). More: Vercel’s privacy policy.

No cookies, no tracking, no third-party content

We set no cookies and use no analytics, advertising or tracking services, no social media plugins and no embedded third-party content. Fonts, images, the 3D model and every script are served from our own server; visiting the site sends no data to third parties.

Your browser alone remembers two settings in its local storage (localStorage): the language you picked (tono-lang) and the finish you picked, Alu or Graphit (tono-finish). They are never sent to us or anyone else, and you can delete them in your browser at any time. The legal basis is § 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG (German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act: strictly necessary for a function you asked for).

The listening demo on the home page runs entirely in your browser: the music is generated there, the equalizer and 3D run there, and a recording from the demo is saved straight to your device. Nothing is uploaded.

Links to other websites (for example to Lemon Squeezy or to the vendors in our comparisons) are plain links. Only when you click one do you leave our website; the other site’s privacy policy then applies.

Contact by email or phone

When you write to us or call us, we process your details (for example your name, email address, phone number and the content of your message) to handle your request. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR when it concerns a purchase, a license or a contract, and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR otherwise (our legitimate interest in answering inquiries). We delete the data once your request is settled, unless statutory retention periods require otherwise (see section 6).

Emails to kontakt@julian-digital.de are received and stored for us by our email provider, STRATO GmbH, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin, Germany. STRATO processes them as our processor under a data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR).

3. Buying TONO Pro through Lemon Squeezy

You buy TONO Pro from Lemon Squeezy (Link, LLC, formerly Lemon Squeezy LLC, 222 South Main Street, Suite 500, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA), our reseller (merchant of record). The buy buttons on this website and in the app lead through a forwarding page at tonoaudio.app/buy/… to Lemon Squeezy’s checkout. Lemon Squeezy runs the checkout, takes the payment (also through payment service providers), charges VAT, issues the invoice, sends the license key and manages subscriptions and licenses. To do so it processes in particular your name, email address, billing address and country, payment details, IP address (also for tax purposes) and order data.

As the seller, Lemon Squeezy is an independent controller and processes this data under its own privacy policy, which also explains how it transfers data to the USA and safeguards it. The purchase is governed by Lemon Squeezy’s buyer terms.

Through our merchant account, Lemon Squeezy gives us your name, email address, country, order and subscription data, your license key and its activation (the Mac model, see section 4), but not your full payment details. We use this data to perform the license agreement, manage licenses and help you with questions (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and to meet statutory retention duties (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR). We do not send you advertising.

4. The TONO app

The principle: everything stays on your Mac

TONO needs no account and contains no analytics, no tracking, no ads, no telemetry and no crash reporter that reports to us. Whatever TONO does with your sound, your microphone and your displays happens on your Mac. TONO connects to the internet only for its license (Lemon Squeezy) and for updates (tonoaudio.app), as described below. Links in the app (such as “Buy” or “Manage License”) open in your browser.

License activation and checks

TONO Pro is unlocked and checked through Lemon Squeezy’s license API (api.lemonsqueezy.com):

• Activation: when you enter a license key, TONO sends the key and a name for this Mac. The name is only the Mac model, for example “MacBook Pro (MacBookPro18,1)”; the name you gave your Mac is never sent.
• Checks: afterwards TONO checks the license about once a week, with the key and the ID of this activation. If a check fails (for example without internet), TONO tries again a few hours later; Pro keeps working offline for 30 days after the last successful check, 60 days with a lifetime license.
• Signing out: when you sign a Mac out in TONO (“Sign Out This Mac”), TONO sends the key and the activation ID so the seat becomes free.
• The answer: Lemon Squeezy replies with the license’s status and expiry date, the number of allowed and used activations, the store, product and plan IDs and the activation’s ID; its answer also contains the name and email address from the order, which TONO ignores. TONO keeps only the status, expiry date, activation limit and usage, the IDs and the key, locally in your Mac’s keychain, plus a sealed copy without the key in the app’s preferences. TONO does not store your name or email address.

As with any internet connection, Lemon Squeezy also receives your IP address. TONO sends nothing else: it uses your Mac’s hardware ID only locally, to seal the stored license data against tampering; it never leaves your Mac. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the license agreement). Lemon Squeezy processes the license data as the seller and issuer of the key under its own responsibility (see section 3); where it acts on our behalf, it does so under its Data Processing Agreement (Art. 28 GDPR). Where data is transferred to the USA in the process, that agreement bases the transfer on the EU standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR); for its own processing as the seller, Lemon Squeezy’s privacy policy explains how it safeguards transfers (section 3).

Trial

The one-day trial of TONO Pro runs entirely on your Mac, without an account, without payment details and without sending anything. So that it runs once per Mac, TONO keeps its start date sealed in the keychain and in the app’s preferences. It never leaves your Mac.

Update checks

Through the Sparkle update framework, TONO looks for a new version about once a day by requesting the update feed https://tonoaudio.app/appcast.xml from our website. Automatic checks are on by default; you can switch them off under Tools → Updates and check by hand there. The only thing TONO itself sends along is its version number (in the user agent “TONO/‹version› Sparkle/‹version›”); in addition, the request technically carries your IP address, the time and the usual headers of any web request (such as your preferred language). TONO sends no system profile: Sparkle’s profiling is switched off, so no macOS version, Mac model, processor or memory details are included. When you install an update, TONO downloads it from tonoaudio.app/download/. Our host Vercel processes both requests like a visit to this website (section 2). The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in providing bug fixes and security updates) and, for TONO Pro, also Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Permissions and data processed locally

Some features need a permission from macOS. Only the first one is needed for the sound; TONO asks for the others only when you use the feature. You can revoke every permission in System Settings under Privacy & Security.

• Screen & System Audio Recording (that is what macOS calls the permission): TONO taps your apps’ audio through Core Audio, processes it live in memory and passes it on to your output device. The audio is neither stored nor transmitted. TONO does not read your screen content.
• Recordings are made only when you press record or use the hotkey. They are saved as files on your Mac, by default in a TONO folder inside your Music folder, and stay there until you delete them.
• Microphone (optional): TONO opens it only for a call recording, or while Mic Studio is on and an app reads TONO Mikro (or you preview); macOS then shows its orange dot. Mic Studio stores nothing. The virtual microphone TONO Mikro passes your processed voice to the apps you choose (for example Discord or Zoom); what those apps do with it is governed by their own privacy terms.
• Head movement (optional, head tracking with AirPods): used live only, never stored.
• Accessibility (optional, Windows): TONO reads and changes the position and size of windows, never their content.
• Location (optional, Auto Rules): without it, TONO computes sunrise and sunset from your time zone’s coordinates. Only when you click “More Precise with Location” does TONO ask macOS Location Services once for your location, round it to about one kilometer and store it locally for the calculation. It is not transmitted.
• Hearing Profile: the hearing test results and the profile computed from them stay on your Mac. They are not part of presets and are not shared; you can delete them in TONO at any time.
• Other local data: settings, presets, Auto Rules, window and display layouts, the Monitor’s history (only readings from the last 24 hours, no app names), the hearing guard’s listening history (the estimated sound dose, listening time and peak level per day for the last two weeks) and what is currently playing (for the Sleep Timer) are processed and stored only on your Mac. Presets leave your Mac only if you export and share them yourself.

We never receive this data. It stays under your control alone; when you delete TONO, you can also delete the “TONO” folder in ~/Library/Application Support and your recordings.

5. Recipients and transfers to third countries

Apart from us, only Vercel (hosting, section 2), STRATO (email, section 2) and Lemon Squeezy (purchase and license, sections 3 and 4) receive personal data. STRATO is based in Germany. Vercel and Lemon Squeezy are based in the USA; their transfers are based on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses (Vercel, section 2) and on the EU standard contractual clauses (Lemon Squeezy, sections 3 and 4). We do not sell data and do not pass it on for advertising. Authorities receive data only where the law obliges us to provide it.

6. Retention

• Server logs (website and update checks): briefly, for operations and security, according to Vercel’s retention periods.
• Emails and inquiries: until your request is settled; business correspondence relevant to a contract or to our accounts for six years (§ 257 HGB, § 147 AO).
• Order and invoice data: for as long as the contract runs and then until statutory retention periods end (up to ten years, § 257 HGB, § 147 AO). Data that Lemon Squeezy stores as the seller follows its own retention periods.
• License and activations: for as long as the license exists; an activation ends when you sign the Mac out in TONO or in your Lemon Squeezy account.
• Data in the app: on your Mac, until you delete it.

7. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18) and data portability (Art. 20). Where processing is based on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR); the same goes for macOS permissions, which you can revoke in System Settings.

Right to object: where we process data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR). You can also simply stop the app’s update requests by switching off automatic checks under Tools → Updates.

An informal message to kontakt@julian-digital.de is all it takes.

Right to lodge a complaint: you may complain to a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example in the EU country where you live. The authority responsible for us is: Der Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz Niedersachsen (the Data Protection Commissioner of Lower Saxony), Prinzenstraße 5, 30159 Hannover, Germany, www.lfd.niedersachsen.de.

8. Whether you must provide data; no automated decisions

You are not obliged to give us any data. Without license activation, however, TONO Pro cannot be unlocked, and without the details at checkout Lemon Squeezy cannot complete a purchase. TONO Free works without sending anything at all if you switch off update checks.

We make no automated decisions within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR and create no profiles.

9. Changes

We update this privacy policy when the website, the app or the law changes. The version published here applies.

Last updated: September 30, 2026