Privacy Policy

The Cut is built by Heftii, Inc. Your privacy matters. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and how we handle data from third-party services.

Data we collect

The Cut does not collect personal data, with one exception: the optional Sendbox feature, described in its own sections below. Your track library, listening decisions, and star ratings are stored locally on your device and synced via your personal iCloud account. Heftii has no access to your iCloud data.

Third-party source connections

The Cut allows you to connect third-party services as track sources. When you connect a service, the app accesses only the data necessary to discover and play audio tracks. Each connection is initiated by you and can be disconnected at any time from the app's settings.

Google Gmail

When you connect a Gmail account, The Cut accesses your Gmail data via Google's OAuth 2.0 authentication. The app requests the gmail.modify scope, which Google classifies as a restricted scope. The Cut's use of this scope is limited to (a) discovering audio tracks from messages in labels you select and (b) executing the per-source actions you configure — adding or removing Gmail labels and archiving emails when you accept or reject a track. Both uses are described in detail below and comply with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

What Google user data we access

When you connect Gmail and select one or more labels, The Cut accesses only the following categories of Google user data, and only from messages within the labels you explicitly select:

• Message metadata — sender name, sender email address, subject line, and message date.
• Message body content — read only to extract URLs that point to audio on services such as SoundCloud and Dropbox. The body text itself is not stored or used for any other purpose.
• MIME structure and audio attachments — the message structure is parsed to identify audio file attachments (e.g. MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF, FLAC), which are then downloaded for playback.
• Gmail labels — the list of labels on your account is read so you can choose which labels to scan and which labels actions should add or remove.
• Account profile — your Gmail address and display name, used to identify the connected account in the app.

The Cut does not access:

• Messages in any label you have not explicitly selected.
• Email body text or conversation content beyond URL extraction.
• Contacts, Calendar, Drive, or any other Google service data.

How we use Google user data

Google user data accessed by The Cut is used solely to provide and improve user-facing features of the app:

• Discovering tracks — message metadata, audio attachments, and links in message bodies from your selected labels are used to populate your track library for review.
• Playing tracks — audio attachments are downloaded to your device so they can be played in the app.
• Displaying track context — sender, subject, and date are shown alongside each track so you know where it came from.
• Executing actions you configure — when you accept or reject a track, The Cut can add Gmail labels, remove Gmail labels, or archive the email. These actions are optional, only run when you have explicitly configured them per source, and only affect messages associated with tracks you act on.

In line with Google's Limited Use requirements, The Cut does not use Google user data for any of the following:

• Serving advertisements.
• Selling, renting, or transferring it to data brokers or any other third party.
• Training generalised machine-learning or AI models.
• Allowing humans to read it, except (a) with your explicit consent for specific support requests, (b) where required by law, or (c) for security investigations such as responding to abuse. Heftii operates no backend that receives Gmail data, so in normal operation no Heftii employee has any technical means to read it.
• Any purpose unrelated to the audio-discovery features described above.

How we protect Google user data

The Cut uses the following mechanisms to protect Google user data, including the data accessed via the restricted gmail.modify scope:

• On-device processing only. All Gmail API requests are made directly from your iOS device to Google's servers. Heftii operates no backend, proxy, or server that receives, stores, or processes your Gmail data.
• Encryption in transit. All requests to Google APIs use HTTPS over TLS 1.2 or higher, as required by Apple's App Transport Security.
• Encryption at rest — OAuth tokens. Access and refresh tokens are stored in the iOS Keychain, which is backed by the device's hardware Secure Enclave. Tokens are synced across your own Apple devices only via iCloud Keychain, which Apple end-to-end encrypts so that neither Apple nor Heftii can read them.
• Encryption at rest — cached audio and metadata. Cached audio attachments and track metadata are stored inside The Cut's iOS app sandbox, which is isolated from other apps and protected by iOS Data Protection (Complete Until First User Authentication) so the files are encrypted at rest.
• Minimal data retention. Only the data needed for the audio-discovery features above is retained on your device. We do not retain anything on Heftii servers because there are no Heftii servers in the data path.
• Deletion on disconnect. When you disconnect Gmail from the source settings, the OAuth tokens, cached audio attachments, and locally stored Gmail metadata for that source are deleted from the device. Removing the app deletes all locally stored Gmail data.
• Server-side revocation. You can revoke The Cut's access to your Google Account at any time from the Google Account permissions page. After revocation, The Cut can no longer make any Gmail API calls on your behalf.
• No sharing with third parties. The Cut does not transfer Google user data to any third party, including for advertising, analytics, or model training.

Google API Services — Limited Use Disclosure

The Cut's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically, The Cut:

• Only uses access to Google user data to provide or improve user-facing features that are prominent in the application's user interface.
• Does not transfer Google user data to others except as necessary to provide or improve user-facing features, comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets with the user's explicit prior consent.
• Does not use Google user data for serving advertisements.
• Does not allow humans to read Google user data, unless we have obtained the user's explicit consent for specific messages, this is necessary for security purposes such as investigating abuse, to comply with applicable law, or for internal operations where the data has been aggregated and anonymised.

Other third-party sources

The Cut may also connect to Dropbox, SoundCloud, Beatport, and IMAP email servers as track sources. Each connection accesses only audio-related content from services and folders you explicitly choose. Data from these services is processed and stored locally on your device using the same on-device, Keychain-backed approach described above for Gmail.

Analytics

We may collect anonymised, aggregate crash reports and usage analytics through Apple's standard App Store analytics, which do not identify individual users.

iCloud sync

The Cut uses iCloud for syncing your track library across devices. iCloud is subject to Apple's privacy policy at apple.com/legal/privacy.

Sendbox accounts (recipients)

Sendbox is an optional feature of The Cut: a public page at thecut.music/send/… where other people can send you tracks. It is the only part of The Cut that involves an account with us and data on our servers. Everything else in this policy stays true — the tracks you receive through a Sendbox are reviewed on your device like any other source.

What we store. When you sign in with Apple to create your first Sendbox, we store the opaque user identifier Apple assigns to you for The Cut, and the email address Apple shares with us — which may be a Hide My Email relay address if you chose that. As you use the feature we also store your Sendboxes (handle, name, display name, blurb, whether the page is accepting submissions), your plan tier and its expiry as verified from the App Store, the identifier of the App Store transaction that granted it, how much storage your submissions use, the time you were last active, and hashed copies of the session tokens the app holds. We do not store your Apple ID password, your name from Apple, or any payment details.

Why. The identifier and the session tokens are what let the app show your Sendboxes on every device signed into your Apple ID and keep anyone else out of them. The email address is kept so that Apple can tell us if you stop using your Apple ID with The Cut, and so that a future version can notify you about your submissions; we do not email recipients today. The tier, the transaction identifier and the storage figure enforce the limits of your plan. The last-active time drives the inactivity pause: a Sendbox whose owner has not used The Cut for 45 days stops accepting submissions until they return, so that tracks are not sent into a void.

Deleting your account. You can delete your Sendbox account from within the app at any time. Deleting it removes your Sendboxes, every submission they received and all of the stored audio. What remains is Apple's opaque identifier with the email address removed — so that signing in again later starts a fresh account rather than colliding with the old one — and a log of any notifications Apple sent us about the account. We also act on those notifications: if you stop using your Apple ID with The Cut, we sign out every device; if you delete your Apple ID, we delete your Sendbox account as above.

Sendbox submissions (submitters)

If you send a track to someone through a Sendbox page, you are not a user of The Cut and you do not create an account. This section describes what we collect from you. The Submission Terms describe the rights you give us in the track itself.

What we collect. Your name, your email address (which you verify with a code before uploading), your message, the artist and title you enter, and either the audio file you upload — along with its size, type and original filename — or the SoundCloud link you paste. Your IP address is recorded only in the verification records that rate-limit code sending; those records, which hold the address, a hashed copy of the code and the time, are deleted after 24 hours. After you verify, a cookie called sb_submitter remembers your verified address for 30 days so you do not have to repeat the code on your next submission; it holds only your email address and the time of verification, signed so it cannot be altered, and you can clear it from the page at any time. We send you one confirmation email per submission.

Who sees it. The recipient you chose — and, on shared Sendboxes, any reviewers they add — sees your name, your verified email address, your message, the track details and the audio or link, inside The Cut app and on the web. They may use your email address to reply to you.

Replies. The recipient may write back to you about your submission, either from their own mail or through The Cut. A reply sent through The Cut comes from our address and carries a reply address the recipient has given us and verified, so that answering it reaches them and not us; we keep the text of such a reply so that the recipient can see what they sent and so that we can enforce the limit on how many we deliver. We never send you anything else about a submission, and no one else sees your submission — we do not use it for any purpose other than delivering it, delivering those replies, enforcing the limits and rate limits described here, and dealing with abuse or legal requests.

How long we keep it. Audio files are kept for a limited time that depends on the recipient's plan and on what they decide about the track:

• Free — unreviewed tracks 30 days, accepted tracks 30 days, rejected tracks 3 days.
• Pro — unreviewed tracks 90 days, accepted tracks 180 days, rejected tracks 7 days.
• Label — unreviewed tracks 180 days, accepted tracks 365 days, rejected tracks 7 days.

The unreviewed window counts from upload; the accepted and rejected windows count from the recipient's decision. The recipient can delete a track sooner. Once a file has expired or been deleted, the audio is removed from storage within the hour. The submission record — your name, verified email address, message and track details — is kept afterwards so that the recipient's app can reconcile the deletion, and is deleted when the recipient deletes their account, or when you ask us to.

Deletion on request. Email support@heftii.com from the address you verified and we will delete the submissions you sent — audio and record — and confirm when it is done.

Who processes it for us. Audio files are stored with Amazon Web Services (S3, Asia Pacific (Singapore) region). Submission records, verification records and account data are stored with Neon (Postgres). The website and its API run on Vercel. Verification codes and confirmation emails are sent through Resend. Each of these providers processes the data only on our instructions.

Data retention and deletion

• Data accessed from third-party sources (Gmail, SoundCloud, Dropbox, Beatport, IMAP) is retained on your device only for as long as the source remains connected and the associated tracks remain in your library.
• Disconnecting a source from within the app deletes the OAuth tokens, cached audio, and locally stored metadata for that source from the device.
• Removing The Cut from your device deletes all locally stored data, including any cached Gmail content.
• Server-side access can be revoked at any time via your Google Account permissions page (Gmail) or the equivalent settings of other connected services.
• Sendbox account and submission data lives on our servers; the two Sendbox sections above say what is kept, for how long, and how to have it deleted.
• Apart from that Sendbox data, Heftii does not retain copies of any data on its own servers.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date.

Contact

Questions? Email us at support@heftii.com.