Privacy

Privacy Policy

Your nights belong to you. Here is exactly what data the app processes – and what it does not.

Recordings stay with you

Audio is stored only on your device – we never get to hear it.

Health data never leaves your device

Read-only, only for display in the app, never for ads.

No account, no sign-up

We know neither your name nor your email address.

No selling of data

Ads only in the free version, personalized only with your consent.

1Controller

Peter Edlinger
Email: [email protected]

This policy applies to the SleepTalker app for iOS and Android, to the website edlinger.dev/sleeptalker (including help and contact form) and to the redirect page edlinger.dev/sleeptalker/app.

2Recordings and app data

SleepTalker uses the microphone to record sounds while you sleep. The app detects on its own when it gets loud and only keeps those clips.

  • Recordings, nights, sound levels, tags, names, favorites and settings are stored only locally on your device.
  • They are not transferred to us or to third parties – unless you share them yourself (section 8), use server transcription (section 3) or a backup (section 5).
  • You can delete single recordings, whole nights or everything in the app. If you like, the app deletes old recordings automatically. Uninstalling the app removes all local data.
  • On Android, the app shows a persistent notification while recording. Android requires this so the microphone may keep running while the screen is locked. No data is transferred.
  • “Share app logs” in the settings creates a technical log that is only transferred if you send it yourself via the share menu.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (providing the app’s features).

3Transcription Premium

On request, the app turns a recording into text using your operating system’s speech recognition:

  • Whenever possible, this happens directly on your device. On Android, the system may download an offline language pack from Google once for this. No recording is transferred in the process.
  • If on-device recognition is not possible or finds no text, the recording is sent to Apple (iOS) or to your Android device’s speech recognition service, usually Google, for recognition. This only happens when you start a transcription yourself. Their privacy policies apply: Apple, Google.
  • The recognized text is stored only locally with the recording.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent via the system speech recognition prompt).

4Apple Health Premium · iOS · optional

If you connect Apple Health and agree in the system prompt, the app reads the following for the time of your recordings:

  • Sleep analysis (sleep stages such as core, deep and REM sleep, awake periods, time in bed)
  • Heart rate

This lets the app show in which sleep stage and at which heart rate you talked in your sleep, and create statistics.

Health data is processed only locally on your device. It is not transferred to us or third parties, not stored in the iCloud backup and never used for advertising, marketing or profiling. The app does not write any data to Apple Health.

You can turn off access in the app at any time or revoke it in iOS under Settings › Health › Data Access & Devices › SleepTalker.

Legal basis: Art. 9(2)(a) in conjunction with Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (explicit consent).

5Backups (iCloud / Android)

iCloud backup Premium · iOS · optional

If you turn on the iCloud backup, the app stores your recordings, nights (including tags and transcripts) and custom tags in a private app area of your own iCloud account.

  • We have no access to this data. It is stored by Apple in accordance with Apple’s privacy policy.
  • Health data is never part of the backup.
  • You can turn off the backup in the app and delete the backed-up data in iOS under Settings › [your name] › iCloud › Manage Account Storage › SleepTalker.

Android backup Android

If backup is turned on on your Android device, Android may automatically back up SleepTalker’s app data (e.g. settings, nights and recordings, limited by Android’s storage quota) in encrypted form to your own Google account and restore it when you reinstall the app. Google performs this backup in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy; we have no access to it. You can turn it off in the Android settings under Google › Backup and delete backed-up data there.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

6Notifications

Local notifications

The morning summary, the alarm and the recording notification on Android are created directly on your device. No data is transferred.

News (push) – only with your consent

If you allow news, we store the following on our server to occasionally send you news about new features:

  • a random push token (no device or advertising ID)
  • platform (iOS/Android), app language, app version and whether you have Premium – so that messages reach you in your language and are relevant

Messages are delivered via the Expo push service (650 Industries, Inc., USA) and Apple Push Notification service (iOS) or Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC, Android). On Android, Firebase creates a random installation ID for this, which is sent to Google; we do not use any other Firebase services (e.g. Analytics). If you turn off news in the app, your token is deleted from our server right away. If you uninstall the app or revoke the permission, the token becomes invalid and is removed automatically with the next message.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent, can be withdrawn at any time).

7Surveys, feedback and contact

The app occasionally asks optional questions, e.g. how you found SleepTalker, whether you like the app, or why you end a subscription. You can skip every question.

  • Only your answer, an optional comment, and the platform, app language, app version and whether you have Premium are transferred.
  • Answers are anonymous: no device ID, push token or IP address is stored. The IP address is only used briefly in memory to prevent abuse (spam).
  • Please do not enter personal data in the comment field.

Ratings go through the rating dialog of Apple or Google; we do not receive any data about you.

If you email us via “Feedback & suggestions”, we process your email address and message only to reply to you. The email automatically includes the app version and operating system, which you can remove before sending.

Contact form

If you write to us via the contact form at edlinger.dev/sleeptalker/help, we store your email address, your name (optional), the selected topic, your platform (optional), the page language and your message on our server to answer your request.

  • We are notified about new requests via Discord. This notification only contains the topic and platform – no message and no contact details.
  • Your IP address is only used briefly in memory to prevent abuse (spam) and is not stored.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in improving the app) or Art. 6(1)(b) for answering requests (email and contact form).

8Website, sharing and redirect page

The website edlinger.dev/sleeptalker runs on a ZAP-Hosting server in Germany and is delivered via Cloudflare. This involves processing technically necessary connection data (e.g. IP address); details are in the privacy policy of edlinger.dev. We use no analytics or tracking tools on the SleepTalker pages. If you switch the language, a cookie only stores that choice.

You share recordings only yourself, via your device’s share menu. You decide who receives the file.

Shared messages contain a link to edlinger.dev/sleeptalker/app, which redirects to the App Store or Google Play. When it is opened, we only count the link source (e.g. “share”) and the platform (iOS, Android or other) – without IP address, without cookies. The source is passed to the App Store or Google Play as a campaign label, from which they create anonymous download statistics.

When the page is opened, the web server processes technically necessary connection data (e.g. IP address) to deliver it.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in delivering the page and anonymous reach measurement).

9Advertising (Google AdMob) Free version

In the free version you can unlock locked recordings by watching optional ad videos. These are provided by Google AdMob (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC).

  • This involves processing your IP address, device information, interactions with ads and your advertising ID (IDFA on iOS, advertising ID/AAID on Android) – on iOS only if you agree.
  • In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the app asks on first launch via Google’s consent form (a certified consent management platform under the IAB TCF) whether and for which purposes your data may be used for advertising. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time in the app under Settings › Privacy settings (ads).
  • On iOS, the app asks first via Apple’s “App Tracking Transparency” prompt. If you decline, only non-personalized ads are requested.
  • On Android, you control the advertising ID in your device settings under Google › Ads (or Privacy › Ads). If you delete it there, the app no longer receives an advertising ID.
  • The number and revenue of ads shown are reported to RevenueCat (section 10) for analysis – without any content of your recordings.
  • With Premium, no ads are shown.

More: How Google uses data for ads · Google Privacy Policy. You can reset your advertising ID or turn off tracking in your device settings at any time.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR for personalized ads, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (funding the free version).

10Subscriptions (RevenueCat)

Purchases and subscriptions are handled by Apple or Google. We receive no payment data.

To manage your Premium status we use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc., USA). This involves a random, anonymous user ID, your purchase history (product, time, status), device information and country. RevenueCat Privacy Policy.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract).

11International transfers

Google, Apple, RevenueCat, Expo and Cloudflare may process data in the USA. Transfers are based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (adequacy decision of the European Commission) where the provider is certified, or on EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

12Retention

  • Local data, iCloud backup and Android backup: until you delete them, uninstall the app or turn off the backup.
  • Push token: until you turn off news or the token becomes invalid.
  • Survey answers and link visits: stored anonymously, not linked to any person.
  • Emails and contact requests: as long as needed to handle your request; they are deleted afterwards.

13Children

SleepTalker is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly process data of children.

14Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21). You can withdraw any consent at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7(3)), e.g. in the settings of the app or your device.

Since we do not receive most data at all and the rest is anonymous, we often cannot link it to a person. Feel free to contact us anyway: [email protected].

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the EU member state where you live.

15Changes

We update this policy when the app or the legal situation changes. The version published here applies.

Last updated: October 7, 2026