Sonear privacy policy

Last updated: 7 November 2026

Sonear is maintained by Hypox Studios (“we”). This policy explains what Sonear collects, where it keeps it, and what it sends. Collecting and using your data in Sonear is subject to this policy.

The short version: Sonear runs entirely on your computer and sends nothing to us. It needs no servers of ours.

What Sonear collects

When you connect your Spotify account, Sonear reads from Spotify:

your profile (display name, user ID and avatar);
your library: saved tracks, albums and shows, your playlists, and the artists you follow;
your top tracks and artists, and your recently played tracks;
what is playing, and the playback queue.

You approve these permissions on Spotify’s login page. Sonear asks only for what its features use. It changes your Spotify account only when you ask it to: controlling playback, and saving or removing a track with the heart.

Where it is kept

Everything stays on your computer:

What	Where	How long
Spotify login token, Soloist key	Windows Credential Manager	Until you log out or delete your data
Settings, including your Client ID	`%APPDATA%\Sonear\config.toml`	Until you delete your data
Listening history (time played, track and context links only)	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Sonear\history.db` by default	12 months by default, adjustable in Settings
Your Sonear queue (track links only)	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Sonear\queue.json` by default	Until you log out
Track, album and playlist details	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Sonear\cache` by default	Up to 7 days
Cover art	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Sonear\cache\covers` by default	Up to 30 days, at most 200 MB
Soloist’s own data, including its pairing	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Sonear\soloist` by default	Until you delete your data
A downloaded Sonear update, waiting for you to restart	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Sonear\updates` by default	Until you restart into it, or a newer one replaces it

You can move the data folder in Settings; the table shows the default location. Sonear builds no listening statistics or profile of you. The history is a plain list of plays.

What Sonear sends, and to whom

Spotify. Sonear talks to the Spotify Web API, and Soloist talks to Spotify to play music. Spotify’s privacy policy covers what Spotify does with this.
LRCLIB. While the lyrics panel is open, Sonear sends the playing track’s title, artist, album and length to lrclib.net to fetch lyrics. Lyrics are kept in memory only and never saved to disk. You can turn lyrics off in Settings.
GitHub. Unless you turn it off in Settings, Sonear asks GitHub for the latest release when it starts and every few hours, and downloads new versions from it. GitHub sees your IP address like any website, and GitHub’s privacy statement covers it. Nothing about your account or your music is sent.
Spotify’s download server. When you install or update Soloist, Sonear downloads it from Spotify.
Windows. Sonear shows the playing song’s title, artist, album and cover in Windows’ media controls, where other apps on your computer can read them.

Sonear sends nothing else. It has no analytics, telemetry, crash reporting or advertising, and it never sells or shares your data.

Cookies

Sonear uses no cookies and lets no third party place cookies or track your browsing. The Spotify login page opens in your browser, where Spotify’s own cookie policy applies; you manage those cookies in your browser.

This website

sonear.hypox.studio is a static site served by Cloudflare. Cloudflare handles each request and sees your IP address and browser details, which it processes for us under Cloudflare’s privacy policy. We keep no logs of visits, and the site sets no cookies and has no analytics or third-party scripts. Downloads come from GitHub.

AI features

This version of Sonear has no AI features. If later versions add them, they will be off by default, each will explain what it sends before you turn it on, and this policy will be updated first.

Your choices

Log out (Settings or the account menu) removes your Spotify login, cached details, cover art, history and queue from this computer at once. Your Soloist key and pairing stay.
Delete all Sonear data (Settings) also removes your Soloist key, Soloist’s pairing and data, and your settings. Only the Soloist program itself stays, and you can delete the data folder to remove it. Uninstalling Sonear offers to delete all of it, including your login.
Revoke access at any time on your Spotify account’s Manage apps page, or delete your developer app in the Spotify dashboard.

Because Sonear stores nothing outside your computer, we hold no data about you to access, correct or delete.

Spotify

Spotify is a third-party beneficiary of this policy and of Sonear’s end-user agreement.

Changes

If we change this policy, Sonear asks you to accept the new version before you continue.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: email support@hypox.studio.