Privacy
Last updated · April 2026
The short version: your audio stays on your phone, we don’t track you, and AI usage runs through your own keys.
What we collect
As little as we can. The Sidebar website uses Plausible for privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics: aggregate page views with no personal data, no cookies, and no cross-site tracking. The Sidebar app uses RevenueCat to manage your App Store subscription: your receipt (handled by Apple) and an anonymous user ID are passed to RevenueCat so we can verify your Pro status across devices. That’s the entirety of personal data Sidebar receives.
Your audio
Recording, editing, polish, and export all happen on your device. Sidebar uses Apple’s on-device intelligence wherever it can, and other on-device neural models for the rest of the audio cleaning, so your voice notes never need to leave the phone for processing. They are not uploaded to Sidebar’s servers, are not used for training, and are not shared with anyone. The only time audio leaves your phone is if you choose to publish to a third-party podcast host, in which case it goes from your phone to that host directly.
AI services
Sidebar can read date markers using an AI voice service and generate music beds via an AI music service. Both run through API keys you provide for the providers you choose. Usage is billed and licensed under your account; Sidebar never sees the content of those requests beyond passing them through.
If you write to us at hello@usesidebar.app, we’ll keep the thread to reply. We will not add you to a mailing list, because there isn’t one.
Changes
If this policy changes meaningfully, we’ll update the date above and note the change on the next app release.