Privacy Policy

You need an account to buy Spectra and hold a license key. That means an email address, a record of what you bought, and a license record. Payments are handled by Polar, so card numbers never reach this site. Product analytics are collected to see which parts of the site work. Nothing is sold to anyone.

Spectra is built and operated by Cole, an independent developer. The site is spectraaudio.tech. For any privacy question, write to general@spectraaudio.tech.

• Account details. Your email address, and a name if you give one, when you sign in or sign up. Accounts are handled by Clerk.
• Purchase records. What you bought, when, and whether it was a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription. Payments run through Polar as Merchant of Record. Card numbers and billing details go to Polar directly and are never stored on this site.
• License records. Your license key and the Macs it is activated on, so the 3-Mac activation limit and device revoke can work.
• Analytics events. Page views and product events such as starting a checkout, collected with PostHog. The analytics script is proxied first-party through /ingest on this domain, so it is not a third-party request. Vercel additionally collects aggregate, cookie-free page-view counts and performance timings (Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights).
• Email records. A log of the transactional emails sent to you, so the same message is not sent twice. Delivery is by Resend, sending from general@spectraaudio.tech.
• Community presets. If you publish an EQ preset, the preset itself and the display name you choose are public by design.

• To sign you in and keep your account working.
• To deliver your license key and enforce the activation limit.
• To take payment, issue receipts, and handle refunds.
• To send transactional email such as purchase confirmations and account notices.
• To understand which parts of the site and funnel work, so the product improves.
• To publish community presets you chose to share.

There is no advertising network here. Your data is not sold, rented, or traded.

Spectra uses a small set of service providers. Each one only sees the data it needs to do its job.

• Clerk, for authentication and account identity.
• Polar, as Merchant of Record for payments, subscriptions, receipts, tax, and license keys.
• PostHog, for product analytics, served first-party through /ingest.
• Resend, for transactional email.
• Neon, for the database that stores account, purchase, license, and preset records.
• Vercel, for hosting the site, running its server code, and aggregate page analytics and performance metrics.

Each provider has its own privacy policy, and each acts on Spectra’s behalf for the purposes described above.

Spectra is a system-wide equalizer, so macOS asks you to grant audio capture permission. You grant it in System Settings, under Privacy & Security, and you can revoke it there at any time. This site never receives audio from the app.

The app talks to this site for two things: checking your license, and reading or publishing community presets. App updates are delivered by Sparkle, and the app download at /download is a redirect to GitHub Releases. If you have a specific question about what the app does on your Mac, email general@spectraaudio.tech and you will get a real answer.

The site uses a session cookie from Clerk. Without it you cannot stay signed in, so it is required for the account area to function.

PostHog sets a first-party analytics cookie to recognize a returning browser and stitch a visit together. It is served from this domain through /ingest rather than a third-party host. There are no advertising cookies and no cross-site ad trackers.

You can block or clear cookies in your browser. Analytics cookies are safe to block. Blocking the Clerk session cookie will sign you out.

• Account details: for as long as your account exists.
• Purchase and license records: for as long as your license is valid, and after that for as long as tax and accounting rules require. Polar keeps its own copy as Merchant of Record.
• Analytics events: kept on a rolling basis for product analysis, and not used to build a profile of you beyond that.
• Email log: kept so the same message is not sent to you twice.
• Community presets: for as long as they are published. Delete a preset and it comes down.

You can ask for a copy of the data held about you, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for it to be deleted. Email general@spectraaudio.tech and say what you want. Requests are handled by a person, usually within a few days.

Deleting your account removes your account and license records here. Polar may keep a record of the transaction itself, because a Merchant of Record has legal and tax obligations that survive account deletion. You can reach your Polar billing portal from /account/billing.

Depending on where you live you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or the CCPA. Those rights apply, and the same email address is the way to use them.

Spectra is not directed at children under 13, and accounts are not knowingly created for them. If you believe a child has given personal data here, email general@spectraaudio.tech and it will be deleted.

This policy will change as the product grows. When it does, the effective date at the top of this page changes. If a change is significant, it will be announced on the site or by email to account holders. Continuing to use Spectra after a change means the updated policy applies.