Privacy policy

1. What we collect

When you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile photo URL from your Google account. We store this data to identify contributors and attribute recordings. Your profile photo is stored internally but never displayed on the site — Sound Atlas is an image-free platform.

When you upload a recording, we store the audio file together with the metadata you provide: title, description, location coordinates, recording date and time, tags, and attribution name.

2. How we use your data

We use your data to:

• Operate the service and display approved recordings on the public map
• Attribute recordings to contributors
• Moderate content and enforce our terms of use
• Communicate with you about your submissions (via moderation status)

3. What is public

When a recording is approved and published, the following metadata becomes publicly visible: title, description, location, recording date and time, attribution name, ambience type, and tags. Your email address and Google profile photo are never shown publicly.

4. Data storage

Your data is stored in Google Cloud services (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, and Cloud Storage) and is subject to Google's security and compliance standards.

5. Third-party services

We use Google Maps to display the interactive map. Google Maps may collect usage data according to Google's privacy policy. We do not use any analytics, advertising, or tracking services beyond what Google Maps requires.

6. Your rights

You may request deletion of your account and associated recordings by contacting us. We will remove your data within a reasonable timeframe, subject to any legal obligations to retain certain records.

7. Changes

We may update this policy at any time. Material changes will be noted at the top of this page with an updated revision date.