SlowBird

Privacy policy

SlowBird and slow-bird.com are run by Unseen Forms Limited (company 14395660, England and Wales), the data controller for everything below. Questions, or any of the requests under “Your rights”: hello@slow-bird.com. Last updated 10 November 2026.

The app

SlowBird is a local tool. Your audio, your library and your notes stay on your computer, and the app has no analytics and no telemetry. It goes online only for these:

  • Update checks. It fetches slow-bird.com/appcast.xml. Our server logs the request like any other web request (see “Server logs”).
  • Your licence. Starting a trial sends your email address. Activating and periodically reconfirming a licence sends the licence key, a device identifier, the platform (Mac or Windows) and the app version. The device identifier is a one-way hash, so it does not reveal your computer’s name or serial number.
  • Reports you choose to send. If a web import fails, you can press Send report. That sends the link, what went wrong, yt-dlp’s output (with your home folder path removed), the versions of SlowBird, yt-dlp and your operating system, your CPU type and language setting, and an email address and note only if you type them in.
  • Web imports. If you choose to install yt-dlp, the app downloads it (and Deno, which it needs) from GitHub. Importing a link then contacts the site you pasted, directly from your computer. We see none of that traffic.

The microphone is never used. Recording captures only what your computer is playing, and the recording is saved to your library on your computer.

The website

  • Server logs. Every request to slow-bird.com is logged: IP address, time, page, referrer and browser user agent. We read these logs ourselves for traffic figures and to see which pages and links led to a purchase. There is no analytics script. Logs are deleted after about three months.
  • Feedback. The feedback form keeps what you write and, if you give it, your email address so we can reply. Kept for up to 400 days.
  • Fonts and assets are served from slow-bird.com itself. Pages load nothing from other sites unless you accept cookies (below).

Buying and trials

  • Payment is handled by Stripe. You give your card, name, email and billing address to Stripe, not to us. Stripe tells us your email, billing country, the amount and the tax charged. We never see your card number.
  • Where you were when you clicked Buy. We record the IP address of that request because UK and EU VAT rules require evidence of the buyer’s country. Kept for 400 days.
  • Licences. We keep each licence with its email address, the devices it is active on (hashed identifiers, platform, app version, dates), for as long as the licence exists. For a trial, that record is how we keep to one trial per person and per computer. Purchase records are kept for at least six years, as UK tax law requires.
  • Emails. We email you only about the licence you asked for: the trial code, your licence key, a short note about using the trial, and one reminder the day before the trial ends. No newsletter, and we never add you to a mailing list. Reply to any of them to ask us to stop.

Cookies

Without your consent, the site sets only cookies it needs to work:

  • sbdl, which keeps downloads unlocked for 60 days after you enter a licence key;
  • sb_cur, for one year, only if you pick a currency yourself.

Your cookie choice itself is kept in your browser’s local storage, not in a cookie.

If you click Accept All, the site loads Google Ads’ tag, which sets Google cookies (names starting _gcl) so we can tell which ad brought you here and whether that visit led to a purchase, with its amount but never your name or email. Ad personalisation and Google Analytics are switched off. If you click Reject All, or ignore the banner, nothing of Google’s loads. You can change your mind with “Cookie settings” at the foot of every page; withdrawing removes Google’s cookies.

Who else handles it

We do not sell personal data or share it for anyone else’s marketing. These companies process it for us:

Stripe and Google may process data in the United States. They do so under the UK and EU data-transfer arrangements (the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses).

Why we are allowed to

Licences, trials, payments and the emails about them are needed to provide what you asked for (contract). VAT evidence and purchase records are a legal obligation. Server logs, abuse limits, the one-trial rule and the feedback you send are our legitimate interests in running and protecting a small business. The Google Ads tag runs only on your consent.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, or to stop using it, by emailing hello@slow-bird.com. We will answer within a month. Deleting a trial or licence record removes your email address from it; we will keep only what tax law requires us to keep for a purchase. Deleting the app and its library folder removes everything SlowBird stored on your computer.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority.

Children

SlowBird is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you think a child has given us their email address, tell us and we will delete it.

Changes

If what the app or the site does with personal data changes, this page changes with it and the date at the top moves.

← SlowBird