This policy covers the Photism website (photism.app), Photism Lite, the browser version at photism.app/online, the Photism audio plugin (VST3, Audio Unit, and standalone), and the Photism app for iPhone and iPad. Photism is run by Cerrone LLC, a one-person Colorado company. The short version: the app itself runs entirely on your own machine, and the website collects only what it needs to measure traffic and ads and to deliver your purchase.
The Photism app collects nothing
The Photism device and its browser renderer run locally at 127.0.0.1 on your computer. They have no account, no login, and no phone-home. Nothing about your Ableton project, your audio, your visuals, or your usage is streamed or uploaded anywhere. Any presets or images you use stay on your machine.
The iPhone and iPad app
The Photism app for iPhone and iPad works the same way. It listens through the microphone only while you are using it, the audio is turned into visuals on the device and is never recorded, stored, or sent anywhere. Tracks and images you open stay on your device. The app has no account, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. The one-time unlock is sold through Apple's App Store, so Apple handles the payment and the receipt under its own privacy policy. Photism receives no personal details from that purchase.
Analytics on the website
Where the law asks for opt-in consent to cookies (the EU and EEA, including its outermost regions, the UK, Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and Switzerland), a banner asks first. Until you accept, none of the analytics or advertising tools below set cookies, and Microsoft Clarity and the Meta Pixel do not load. Our own first-party cookies, listed below, are set either way. Two tools still run before you answer and after you decline: PostHog, in the cookieless mode described below, and Google Analytics in Google's consent mode, which sends Google cookieless pings for page views and checkout starts. If you buy, the sale is also reported to Meta from our server whatever you chose, as described under Checkout and payment.
Everywhere else, including the United States, the analytics below run from your first page view without a banner. You can turn them off for your browser at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page, or by opening photism.app/?consent=denied. Which regime applies is decided from the country Cloudflare reports for your connection and kept in a first-party cookie named pr for 30 days. Either way your choice is saved in your browser until you change it or clear site data for photism.app. The first-party visit log described below is separate and runs either way.
These are the first-party cookies the website sets for itself:
prkeeps which of the two regimes above applies to your visit, so the banner knows whether to ask. 30 days.paties the rows of one visit together in the first-party visit log below. 30 days.gclkkeeps the click id Google added to the link if you arrive from a Google ad, so a purchase can be matched to that ad. A newer ad click replaces it. 90 days.lpab,lpbuy,lpgo, andlpstcare set while we are testing two versions of a page. Each one remembers the version you were shown so it stays the same when you come back. Only phones are entered in thelpstctest, which decides whether you see the field that emails a link to your computer, andlpstc_atkeeps the time that version was chosen. 30 days.lpoutcome_v1andlpoutcome_idare set on photism.app/go while we are testing two versions of it. The first holds the version you were shown. The second holds a random id our server uses to count a purchase against that version. Both expire 30 days after the version was chosen.stctis set when you open a link we emailed to your computer. It holds that link's id, so a purchase on the computer is credited to the phone visit that asked for the link. It expires 30 days after the email was sent.
The first-party visit log
Independently of the cookie banner, our own server records one row per page you view so we can tell which channel brought a visitor in. That row holds your IP address, your browser's user agent string, the country Cloudflare reports, the referring link, and the paths you viewed. It is stored in Cloudflare storage for 180 days and then deleted automatically. A first-party cookie named pa ties the rows of one visit together and expires after 30 days. It holds the channel and referring link you arrived from, the first page you opened, the date, a random visit id, and, if you arrived from a Meta ad, the click id Meta added to that link.
This exists because ad blockers and tracker blocking hide most traffic from third-party analytics, which left sales with no recorded source. It is used to attribute traffic and purchases to a channel. It is never sold and never used to build a profile of you. If you buy, the visit id and any Meta click id from it are included in the purchase report to Meta described under Checkout and payment. Write to hello@photism.app and we will delete the rows we hold for you.
When analytics are on, the website uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how many people visit and which pages they read. This sets cookies and collects standard analytics data such as pages viewed, approximate location (derived from IP, not stored as a precise address), device and browser type, and referring links. We use this only in aggregate to improve the site. Google processes this data as described in its own privacy policy.
When analytics are on, the website also uses Google Ads conversion tracking to measure whether ads we run on Google lead to purchases, which sets a cookie for the ad you clicked and reports each purchase's amount, currency, and order identifier to Google.
When analytics are on, the website also uses Microsoft Clarity to understand how visitors use the site. Clarity records how a page is used (clicks, scrolling, mouse movement) and builds session replays and heatmaps from it. Clarity masks the content of anything you type, so recordings never contain the text itself. Microsoft processes this data as described in its own privacy statement. We use these recordings only to find where the site confuses people.
When analytics are on, the website also uses the Meta Pixel to measure whether ads we run on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) lead to visits and purchases. The pixel sets cookies and reports page views, checkout starts, and purchases to Meta. We use it to measure and improve our own ads, and Meta also uses the data to deliver and improve ads under its own privacy policy. For visitors in the EU and EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited and Cerrone LLC are joint controllers for collecting this data on our site and sending it to Meta. What Meta does with it after that is Meta's responsibility.
The website also uses PostHog to measure which pages and features lead people to buy. While analytics are off (before you answer the banner, after you decline, or after you opt out), PostHog runs without cookies or any browser storage: it records page views and clicks, but nothing ties one page load to the next and each one starts over as a stranger. While analytics are on, PostHog sets cookies so your visit holds together, and records session replays the way Clarity does, with typed text masked. When you buy, the purchase is recorded in PostHog along with the channel that brought you in. PostHog processes this data as described in its own privacy policy.
Checkout and payment
Purchases are handled by Stripe, which acts as the merchant of record through Stripe Managed Payments. When you buy Photism, Stripe collects your payment details and email address and processes the charge. Photism never sees or stores your card number. Stripe handles that data under its own privacy policy.
When you start checkout, our server attaches a few details to the payment in Stripe so we can tell which channels lead to sales: the channel details from your pa cookie, the IP address and browser user agent your browser sent, the Meta click and browser ids and the Google ad click id if present, what the page test cookies above hold, and whether you accepted, declined, or never answered the cookie banner. If you came from a link we emailed to your computer, it also attaches the channel details and page test versions of the phone visit that asked for that link.
To deliver your download and support your purchase, Photism receives and stores your email address and a record of the purchase (the order amount, currency, and a purchase identifier). This is kept in Cloudflare storage and used to fulfill your download, deliver your free updates, and answer support requests. It is never sold. It is shared only as this page describes: the sale is reported to Meta, Google, and PostHog for measurement, and Resend delivers your emails.
When you unlock Photism Online with your purchase email, the browser checks that email with our server, and checks again about once a week. Each check notes, under that email, a random id your browser made for Photism, the country Cloudflare reports, the browser and operating system names, and a short code worked out from your network address that cannot be turned back into it. This lets us see how many browsers use one purchase. It is kept in Cloudflare storage with your purchase record, holds the 30 most recent browsers, and is never shared.
If you start checkout, enter your email address, tick the box for news and offers, and leave without paying, Stripe passes us that address and a link that reopens your saved checkout. We send one reminder email with that link. Every such email has an unsubscribe link, and we never send a second one.
When a purchase completes, our server also reports the sale to Meta for ad measurement: the order amount, currency, an order identifier, hashed (irreversibly scrambled) versions of the purchase email, name, phone number, city, state, postal code, and country (whichever the checkout collected), the random visit id from your pa cookie, the IP address and browser user agent string your browser sent when you started checkout, and, if you arrived from a Meta ad, the click identifier Meta attached to that link. The plain email address, name, phone number, and address are never sent. This report is sent for every purchase, including when you declined the cookie banner or never answered it. Meta uses it to count which ads led to sales, and also to deliver and improve ads under its own terms.
Sending a link to your computer
If you visit on a phone and ask us to send Photism to your computer, we use the email address you type to send you that link and a reminder. We also keep a hashed (irreversibly scrambled) copy of it, so that if you buy with the same address, the sale is credited to the phone visit that asked for the link. We delete both within 30 days. Neither is ever added to a mailing list or used for marketing. Resend delivers the email.
The free version's email list
If you leave your email on photism.app/lite, we keep the address and the time you signed up in Cloudflare storage. We use it to send you three short emails over your first week (how to get going, ways people use Photism, and what the full version adds) and, now and then, news of new scenes. People who signed up before that was on the form get one update email instead. We stop as soon as you buy. Every email has an unsubscribe link that works in one click, and replying "unsubscribe" works too. The address is never sold or shared, and Resend delivers the emails.
Hosting and email
The website and download delivery are hosted on Cloudflare. Cloudflare processes standard request logs (such as IP address and user agent) to serve the site securely, as described in its own privacy policy.
Purchase emails, download links, and release notes are sent through Resend, which processes your email address to deliver them under its own privacy policy. Every release note says how to opt out: reply with "unsubscribe" or write to hello@photism.app, and you come off the list the day we see it.
Legal basis
For visitors in the EU and EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, we rely on these legal bases:
- Consent for analytics and advertising cookies: Google Analytics cookies, Microsoft Clarity, the Meta Pixel, and PostHog cookies and session replays, and for the emails you sign up for on photism.app/lite.
- Contract for processing your purchase, delivering your download and updates, answering support requests, and sending a link you asked for.
- Legitimate interests for keeping the site secure, the first-party visit log, page tests, matching a purchase to a link we emailed to your computer, cookieless measurement with PostHog and Google Analytics, and the server-side purchase report to Meta, so we can see which pages and ads bring buyers. You can object to any of these at any time by writing to hello@photism.app.
- Legal obligation for keeping order records for tax and accounting.
International transfers
Cerrone LLC is based in the United States, and the services named on this page (Cloudflare, Stripe, PostHog, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Resend) process data in the United States and other countries. When data about visitors in the EU and EEA, the UK, or Switzerland goes to the United States, these providers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, or on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
Your choices
You can change or withdraw your cookie consent at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page. Declining after you accepted clears the cookies the analytics and advertising tools set on photism.app. From then on Clarity and the Meta Pixel stay off, and PostHog and Google Analytics run only in the cookieless modes described above. Anything collected before you changed your choice stays under the retention periods on this page.
You can ask what data we hold about you, ask for a copy, ask us to correct or delete it, object to how we use it, or ask a question about this policy at any time. Email hello@photism.app from your purchase address and we will take care of it. Deleting your purchase record means we can no longer re-send your download, so keep your original download or receipt if you want it back later. If you are in the EU and EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated date at the top of this page changes with it. Continued use of the site after an update means you accept the revised policy.