Privacy Policy

Last Updated: September 4, 2026

VinylCrate (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you use our mobile application.

Our Privacy Philosophy

VinylCrate is designed with privacy as a core principle. Your collection lives on your device and, if you turn on iCloud sync, in your own private iCloud database. We do not operate servers that hold your collection, and we only reach external services when you explicitly ask us to.

Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Collection Data: Records you add, including album information, custom crates, favorites, conditions, purchase details, and notes. Stored on your device.
Photographs: Photos you take of your own copies, record sleeves, and run-out grooves. Stored on your device.
Listening History: Plays are recorded on your device to power Most Spun This Month, Rediscover, and play counts.
Discogs Account: If you choose to connect your Discogs account, you generate a personal access token in your Discogs settings and paste it into VinylCrate. Your Discogs password is never entered into the app, and we never see or store it.

Information We Do NOT Collect

We do not receive your collection, your photographs, or your listening history
We do not analyze your collection for advertising purposes
We do not sell your data, or hand it to third parties for their own purposes
Connecting Discogs or Apple Music does send data to those services at your request — see Third-Party Services
We do not use analytics to profile user behavior

Cameras, Photographs, and AI

Scanning stays on your device

Sleeve Scan and Dead Wax Scan use your camera and Apple’s on-device foundation models. No photograph of your records is ever transmitted to us or to any third party. Extraction runs entirely on your iPhone.

Photographs you take

Photos of your own copies are stored on your device and are included in iCloud sync if you enable it. They are never uploaded to us. Export Photos (Settings → Your Data) writes them to an archive you control.

AI Insights model setting

Text insights about your collection follow your AI Insights Model setting:

Automatic may use Apple’s Private Cloud Compute for text where available
On-Device Only keeps all processing on your iPhone

In either mode, only text prompts are sent — never your images — and Sleeve Scan and Dead Wax Scan always run on device regardless of this setting.

How We Use Your Information

On-device storage

Your collection is stored on your device using Apple’s SwiftData framework. It is not transmitted to our servers, because we do not run servers that store it.

iCloud sync

If you enable iCloud sync, your collection, crates, listening history, dead-wax scans, your own photographs, and your app preferences mirror to your private iCloud database:

Sync is scoped to your Apple Account, which is separate from your Discogs login
Data travels between your own devices only, and is shared with no one
Apple, not VinylCrate, operates iCloud; Apple’s handling is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy
We have no access to the contents of your private database
Turning sync off stops further syncing; you can delete iCloud data from Settings

Discogs Integration

Discogs is an independent service. It is not operated by us, and what it collects is governed by its own privacy policy, not by this one. If you connect your Discogs account, you are using two services, and only one of them is ours.

You connect with a personal access token you generate yourself. In your Discogs account settings you create a token and paste it into VinylCrate, which stores it securely on your device. Your Discogs password is never entered into VinylCrate, never sent to us, and never stored by us. You can revoke the token from Discogs at any time.
Data moves in both directions. VinylCrate reads your Discogs collection, wantlist and inventory — and, when you sync, it also writes to them. Adding or removing a record in VinylCrate can add or remove it from your Discogs collection, and the media and sleeve condition you set in Your Copy is pushed to your Discogs entry.
Discogs can see what you do on Discogs. Every request VinylCrate makes on your behalf reaches Discogs’ own servers, where they may log it — the releases you look up, the searches you run, the changes you make to your collection, and the usual technical details such as your IP address. That activity is theirs, and their handling of it is described in Discogs’ Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
Pressing identification sends text. Dead-wax matching queries release versions from Discogs using the codes as text — never your photograph.
Album information, artwork and pricing fetched from Discogs are cached on your device.
You control the connection. Disconnect at any time in VinylCrate, and revoke VinylCrate’s access from your Discogs account settings. Revoking access does not remove data already synced to your Discogs collection — that is yours to manage on Discogs.

If you never connect a Discogs account, VinylCrate still queries the public Discogs database when you search or scan, so that Discogs can see those requests. It has no account to attach them to.

Apple Music

Apple Music is operated by Apple, and your use of it is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy.

We request permission to access Apple Music
We search for albums matching your vinyl collection
We do not store your Apple Music library data

Data Storage and Security

On your device

Data is stored in your device’s app sandbox
Data is protected by iOS security features

Third-Party Services

VinylCrate connects to the following only when you request it. Each is operated by someone other than us and carries its own privacy policy:

Service	Operated by	Used for	Their policy
Discogs	Discogs	Album data, pressing versions, collection sync, pricing	Privacy Policy
Apple Music	Apple	Digital playback of your collection	Privacy Policy
iCloud	Apple	Sync between your own devices, if you enable it	Privacy Policy

Your Rights and Choices

Access and Delete Your Data

All collection data can be viewed and deleted within the app
Export your collection as CSV, and your own photographs as an archive, from Settings → Your Data
Deleting the app removes local data; if sync is on, remove iCloud data from Settings before deleting
You can disconnect your Discogs account at any time

Discogs Data

You control what data is synced from Discogs
You can revoke VinylCrate’s access from your Discogs account settings

Camera

Camera access is requested only when you start a scan, and can be revoked in iOS Settings

Children’s Privacy

VinylCrate is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the “Last Updated” date.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

Email: support@vinyl-crate.com

Summary

What	How We Handle It
Collection Data	On your device; in your own private iCloud if you enable sync
Photographs & Scans	On your device; never sent to us or any third party
Sleeve & Dead Wax Scan	100% on-device processing
AI Text Insights	Text prompts only, never images; On-Device Only available
Listening History	Recorded on your device; we never receive it
iCloud Sync	Your Apple Account, your devices, shared with no one
Discogs Connection	A personal access token you generate, stored securely on your device. Password never entered. Data flows both ways, and Discogs’ own privacy policy governs what they collect
Apple Music	Permission-based access only
Analytics	None — we don’t track you
Data Sharing	We don’t sell or share your data