Bard Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 2026-09-10
1. Who We Are
Bard (the "App") is provided by Nicholas Fest, sole proprietor, based in Germany (referred to as "we," "us," or "Bard"). We are the same developer that publishes NoSheet, which matters in one specific place — see § 3.1.
Contact for privacy matters: nick@nosheet.app
Postal address: Nicholas Fest, Ginhardtstraße 40, 80639 München, Germany
This policy explains what data the Bard iOS app collects, why, who we share it with, and what rights you have.
2. Summary
- Bard has no accounts. There is no email, name, password, or social sign-in, and we never ask for one.
- Your songs stay on your device. Songs, settings, and recorded audio are written to the App's own storage on your device. We operate no Bard server and hold no database of your songs.
- We never receive your recordings. Microphone audio is processed on your device in real time and is not uploaded.
- One feature sends data off the device: when you ask Bard to write words, the subject you type, the shape the words have to fit, and — on a re-roll — the lyrics already in that song are sent to Google's Gemini to generate the lyric. See § 3.5, which is deliberately specific.
- We use a random identifier created on first launch so your subscription and usage statistics stay consistent. It is shared with NoSheet so that a subscription follows you between our two apps.
- Service providers: PostHog (analytics, EU-hosted), RevenueCat (subscriptions), Firebase Crashlytics (crash reports), Firebase App Check (abuse prevention), Google Gemini via Firebase AI Logic (lyrics).
- No advertising, no ad tracking, no IDFA, no App Tracking Transparency prompt, no data brokers. We do not sell or share your data for anyone else's marketing.
- No location data of any kind. IP-based geolocation is switched off in our analytics, and we do not store your IP address.
- The App is intended for users aged 13 and older.
3. Information We Collect
3.1 A pseudonymous identifier, and why NoSheet shares it
When you first open the App, we generate a random UUID and store it in your device Keychain. It is not derived from your device, your Apple Account, or Apple's IDFV or IDFA — it is simply a random string, and nothing can compute it or guess it.
That identifier is stored in a Keychain access group shared with NoSheet, our other app. If NoSheet is already installed, Bard adopts the identifier NoSheet created rather than minting its own; if you install NoSheet later, it adopts Bard's. This exists for one reason: every subscription our existing customers own is keyed to that string, so sharing it is what lets a NoSheet subscription unlock Bard without asking you to sign in or buy anything twice.
We use the identifier as the customer ID for subscriptions (§ 3.9) and as the person ID for analytics (§ 3.6). Under the GDPR this is pseudonymous data: it does not directly identify you, but because it persists it is treated as personal data that you have rights over (see § 9).
Bard and NoSheet are two apps by one developer. Sharing an identifier between them is not tracking in Apple's sense, which concerns linking your data with data from other companies' apps and websites. We do that nowhere, and the App declares no tracking domains.
3.2 What stays on your device and is never sent to us
The following never leaves your device, and we have no ability to retrieve it:
- Your songs — chords, melody, lyrics you typed, arrangement, section structure, tempo, key, capo, tuning, and mix.
- Your recorded takes — the audio files themselves, written to the App's own container.
- Your preferences — instrument, vocal range, and every other setting, stored in iOS
UserDefaults.
Deleting the App deletes all of it. There is no server-side copy to request or to erase, because none was ever made.
3.3 Microphone input
The App uses your microphone to hear what you sing or play: to find where a melody sits in your voice, to detect pitch and timing, and to record takes. This audio is processed on your device in real time and written only to your device. We do not receive, store, or transmit it.
You can revoke microphone permission at any time in iOS Settings. Recording and pitch detection stop working; the rest of the App does not.
3.4 On-device transcription
When a line already has a lyric typed over it, Bard runs Apple's on-device speech framework across your recording in the background to work out which word you were singing at each moment. It uses that only to line chords up with the right syllables.
No audio and no transcript leaves your device, and the transcript is never shown to you — sung vowels transcribe badly, and the text is not good enough to offer as words. Only the alignment is used.
3.5 Lyric generation — the one path that leaves your device
When you ask Bard to write words, the following is sent to Google's Gemini through Firebase AI Logic:
- the subject you type — for example, "a sad waltz about my dog";
- any note you type into "Words from a note…";
- the shape the words have to fit — the number of syllables and bars available per line, plus the chord names for musical context;
- on a re-roll that revises existing words, the lyrics already in that song, which includes lines you wrote yourself.
That last item is the reason this policy, and the App's own privacy manifest, declare that user content is collected rather than nothing.
What is not sent: your recorded audio, your melody as notes, and your chord chart. Where the request needs to describe your melody, it sends the number of notes in a line — never the notes.
The generated lyric comes back to your device and is written into your local document. We do not store it. There is no Bard server and no database of ours that it passes through.
Please do not type personal information about yourself or other people, confidential material, or anything you would not want processed by a generative AI service. Once a prompt has been sent we cannot retroactively remove it.
3.6 Product analytics (PostHog)
We log usage events so we can tell which parts of the App people actually use. Events cover: app installs, opens, and updates; songs created; words generated; takes kept; exports; paywall views, purchases, and restores; help and tutorial use; review prompts; and when the App opens NoSheet.
Each event carries counts, timings, and which of Bard's own catalogue items you picked — one of its patterns, one of its cue figures, a help topic. Events also carry the value of a setting when you change one: tempo, key, capo, meter, and similar, because how people configure the App is the point of the event and none of it describes a song.
The chords you pick are deliberately not recorded at all — not their values and not the fact of the choice. A chord placed at a position in your chart is not a setting, and enough of them in sequence would be your song.
No lyrics, no melody, no audio, and no song content of any kind are sent to our analytics.
Analytics are hosted on PostHog's EU infrastructure. We collect no location data: both the IP-based geolocation step and IP retention are switched off on our project, so we store neither your IP address nor any city or country derived from it. Session replay, screen-view capture, and interaction capture are all off.
3.7 AI usage diagnostics
For each lyric request we record the model name, the number of input, reasoning, and output tokens, how long the call took, how many lines were asked for, the cost in USD, and — if it failed — a short failure reason. This is how we watch the bill and notice when the feature is broken.
It never includes your prompt and never includes the generated lyric.
3.8 Crash and diagnostic data (Firebase Crashlytics)
If the App crashes, we receive a crash report: stack trace, device state, and App version. Crash reports contain no song content.
3.9 Subscription data (RevenueCat)
If you subscribe, Apple processes the payment. We receive subscription status — active or expired, which product, renewal date — through RevenueCat, linked to the identifier in § 3.1. We do not receive your payment method, your card details, or your Apple Account.
3.10 App Check and App Attest
To stop other people spending our Gemini budget, the App uses Apple's App Attest through Firebase App Check to prove that a lyric request came from a genuine build of Bard on a genuine Apple device. This attestation identifies the app installation, not you.
3.11 Whether NoSheet is installed
The App asks iOS whether NoSheet is installed, so that someone who already pays for it is handed the app rather than sold it again. The answer is a yes or no used on your device. Bard is permitted to ask about exactly one app, and that is the only one it asks about.
4. Why We Use Your Data (Legal Bases under GDPR)
| Purpose | Data used | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Run the App, keep your subscription attached to you | § 3.1 | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) |
| Generate lyrics when you ask for them | § 3.5 | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Hear what you sing, and align chords to it | §§ 3.3, 3.4 (on device only) | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Understand feature usage to improve the App | § 3.6 | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Monitor the cost and reliability of the AI feature | § 3.7 | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Diagnose crashes and improve stability | § 3.8 | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Process purchases and manage subscriptions | § 3.9 | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Prevent abuse of the AI endpoint | § 3.10 | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
You may object to processing based on legitimate interest at any time (see § 9).
5. Who We Share Data With
| Provider | Role | Purpose | Data shared | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase — AI Logic (Gemini), App Check, Crashlytics | Processor | Lyric generation, abuse prevention, crash reports | Lyric prompts and song words per § 3.5; app attestation; crash reports | USA |
| PostHog | Processor | Product analytics | Identifier, event names, event properties per § 3.6 | European Union |
| RevenueCat | Processor | Subscription management | Identifier, purchase receipts, subscription status | USA |
| Apple | Independent controller | App Store distribution, payment processing, on-device speech and attestation frameworks | Per Apple's terms | Per Apple's terms |
We do not sell your personal information. We share nothing with advertising networks, analytics brokers, or any third party for their own marketing. There is no ad SDK in the App.
6. International Data Transfers
We are based in Germany. PostHog processes our analytics in the EU. Firebase and RevenueCat are based in the United States. Where data is transferred outside the European Economic Area we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and, where applicable, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework adequacy decision.
7. AI-Specific Disclosures
- Model provider: Google, through Firebase AI Logic, using the Gemini model family.
- What we send: exactly what § 3.5 lists, and nothing else.
- What we store: nothing. The generated lyric is returned to your device and written into your local document. We keep only the anonymous usage counters in § 3.7.
- Training: our Firebase project is a paid, billed project, and under Google's terms for its paid services the prompts and responses sent through it are not used to train Google's generative models. If that ever changes, we will update this policy.
- Accuracy: lyrics are generated algorithmically and can be clumsy, wrong, or unusable. Bard proposes; you decide. See our Terms of Service.
- Please keep people out of it: do not enter personal information about yourself or others into a prompt.
8. Data Retention
- Your songs, recordings, and settings: held on your device only, for as long as you keep them. Deleting the App deletes them. We hold no copy.
- Lyric prompts: not retained by us at all.
- Analytics events (PostHog): retained per our PostHog plan defaults.
- Crash reports: retained by Firebase Crashlytics per Firebase's defaults, typically 90 days.
- Subscription records: retained as long as required by applicable tax and accounting law, typically up to 10 years in the EU.
9. Your Rights
If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you have the following rights under the GDPR or equivalent local law:
- Access — request a copy of the data we hold against your identifier.
- Rectification — correct inaccurate data.
- Erasure — request deletion of the analytics and subscription records held against your identifier. Your songs, recordings, and settings are not covered by this because we never had them: deleting the App removes them, and the identifier, from your device.
- Restriction and Objection — ask us to stop processing based on legitimate interest, which covers all of our analytics.
- Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
- Complaint — lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority. Ours is the Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (BayLDA), Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, Germany — https://www.lda.bayern.de.
To exercise any right, email nick@nosheet.app. We will respond within 30 days.
One practical note, because Bard has no accounts: the random identifier in § 3.1 is the only key to those records, and it is held in your device Keychain rather than by us. Email us and we will tell you what we need in order to find your records — and if we cannot locate them, we will say so plainly rather than guess.
California residents have analogous rights under the CCPA and CPRA — to know, delete, correct, and opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined, and the App contains no advertising or cross-context behavioural tracking.
10. Children
The App is intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child has used the App without parental consent, contact nick@nosheet.app and we will delete the associated records.
Under § 8(1) GDPR as implemented in Germany, users aged 13 to 15 should use the App only with the consent of a parent or legal guardian.
11. Security
We rely on the security controls of our service providers — Firebase, PostHog, RevenueCat, and Apple — and on encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest. Your songs and recordings sit inside the App's own container, protected by iOS file-system protection. Access to our production dashboards is limited to us. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last Updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision, and material changes will be described in the App's release notes.
13. Contact
Email: nick@nosheet.app
Postal address: Nicholas Fest, Ginhardtstraße 40, 80639 München, Germany