Privacy Policy
Last updated October 2026
This policy sets out which personal data realtime processes in connection with the beta application and this website, for which purposes and on which legal basis, and which rights the persons concerned have. It is provided pursuant to Article 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Controller
The controller within the meaning of Article 4(7) GDPR is Richard Barton, c/o Postflex, Emsdettener Str. 10, 48268 Greven, Germany, e-mail studio@realtime-app.com. No data protection officer has been appointed; none is required for an undertaking of this size.
Audio remains on the device
All audio capture, separation and recording takes place locally on the user's Mac. realtime does not upload, stream or store the audio a user plays or records. There is no cloud processing stage, and no audio is transmitted to the controller at any point.
Update check
The application queries the update server at updates.realtime-app.com at intervals to establish whether a newer version exists, and downloads it if so. This transmits the user's IP address and the application version to that server, which is operated on the controller's behalf by Cloudflare (see "Hosting" below). The controller keeps no separate record of these requests. Legal basis: the legitimate interest in delivering security and defect fixes to a pre-release beta, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. A check can also be triggered manually from the Help menu.
Usage and stability diagnostics (opt-in only)
Only where the user has actively consented — at first launch, or subsequently in the Help menu — the application transmits anonymous usage and stability events to TelemetryDeck GmbH, Germany, an analytics provider. Each event comprises the event itself with a timestamp, the application version, the macOS version, the Mac model and processor architecture, the system language, and a random key. No name, no e-mail address and no IP address is stored. TelemetryDeck hashes the key a second time with its own secret upon arrival, so that neither the controller nor TelemetryDeck can reverse it, and stores the data on servers within the European Union.
The random key is generated by the application on the user's Mac and stored in the user's home folder (~/.realtime/telemetry-id). It contains nothing relating to the user or the hardware, it differs for every macOS user account, and it persists across a reinstallation of the application — deleting the application alone therefore does not reset it. It is deleted by removing the folder ~/.realtime, whereupon the application creates a new key at its next run; the two cannot be connected.
Storing and reading this key on the device requires consent under § 25 TDDDG; transmitting the events requires consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. Both may be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future, in the Help menu. Withdrawal is as simple as granting, and affects nothing else in the application.
Crash summaries
Where the user has consented to diagnostics and a realtime process terminates abnormally, the application reads the crash report macOS has already written and transmits a short summary over the same channel: the process name, the application and macOS version, the type of exception, and numeric frame offsets. The summary contains no file paths, no user name and no content of any kind.
Correspondence
Where a user writes to support@realtime-app.com or studio@realtime-app.com, or reports a vulnerability to security@realtime-app.com, the e-mail address and the content of the message are processed in order to answer it. Incoming e-mail is received by Cloudflare, Inc., USA, and forwarded to the mailboxes; Cloudflare is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, and the contract with Cloudflare incorporates the EU standard contractual clauses, Article 46(2)(c) GDPR. The mailboxes are hosted by Proton AG, Switzerland; the European Commission has recognised Switzerland as affording an adequate level of protection. Legal basis: the legitimate interest in responding to enquiries, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Support correspondence is deleted three months after the matter is closed. Vulnerability reports are retained for as long as the affected version is supported, forming part of the security record.
Download link by e-mail
The beta is obtained by entering an e-mail address on this website; realtime sends a personal download link to that address. The address is used for this one e-mail only: it is not added to any list, the controller keeps no copy of it, the link does not contain it, and no further e-mail is sent to it. The e-mail service records the sending (the address, the time and the delivery status). The controller has this record deleted one day after the e-mail was sent and once more after the link has expired; the service completes each deletion within two days. Legal basis: the performance of the free beta agreement, Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.
To be able to show how many different addresses have requested the beta, and to prevent repeated e-mails to the same inbox, a keyed one-way fingerprint of the address is kept on the controller's behalf by Cloudflare within the European Union. It shows only whether an address has been used before; the address cannot be read from it. One day after the e-mail was sent, the controller asks the e-mail service whether the receiving mail server accepted it, and notes the answer with the fingerprint. So that later changes to this record would be detectable, a hash value of the record, which contains neither an address nor a fingerprint, is sent to independent timestamp authorities; no personal data is transmitted in doing so. The fingerprint is erased one month after the end of the beta period; what remains is a count that can no longer be related to any address. Legal basis: the legitimate interest in knowing how many people request the beta and in protecting inboxes from misuse of the form, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.
No newsletter
realtime sends no newsletter. The newsletter that could be ordered on the download form until October 2026 has been discontinued; no newsletter e-mail is sent.
E-mail service
The download e-mail is sent on the controller's behalf by Sendinblue SAS (Brevo), 106 boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris, France, under a data processing agreement pursuant to Article 28 GDPR. Its record is kept within the European Union, and only for as long as stated above. Brevo records whether an e-mail was delivered and opened and whether a link in it was clicked, in order to keep delivery reliable. An e-mail address is never linked to the diagnostics key described above, and it is never sold or passed to third parties.
Hosting
This website and the update server are delivered by Cloudflare, Inc., San Francisco, USA. Cloudflare records standard server logs, which include the visitor's IP address and the time of access, in order to deliver the site securely and to defend against attacks. Legal basis: the legitimate interest in a secure and functioning website, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Cloudflare is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, and the contract with Cloudflare incorporates the EU standard contractual clauses, Article 46(2)(c) GDPR. These logs are retained by Cloudflare for a short period only.
This website sets no cookies and stores nothing on the visitor's device. Apart from the measurement script described under "Visitor statistics" below, it loads no resource from a third-party server; its typefaces are served from its own domain.
Visitor statistics
Cloudflare compiles statistics from the requests it handles for this website and for the update server, and makes them available to the controller: the number of requests and page views, and their distribution by country, device type, browser and operating system, referring website, requested address, and the network and IP address from which a request was made. The controller uses them to understand how the website is used and to recognise automated traffic and misuse. For this purpose no cookie is set and nothing is stored on or read from the visitor's device. Legal basis: the legitimate interest in operating, securing and improving the website, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The statistics are held by Cloudflare for a limited period set by its service; the controller keeps no copy that identifies a visitor.
To count visits by people separately from automated traffic, the website may additionally use Cloudflare Web Analytics. Where this is switched on, Cloudflare adds a small measurement script to the page, loaded from static.cloudflareinsights.com. It reports the page viewed, the referring website, page-load timings, and the visitor's browser, operating system, device type and country. According to Cloudflare, the script uses no cookies and no local storage, does not identify visitors by their IP address or browser characteristics, and does not follow them across websites. Legal basis: the legitimate interest named above, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.
To know how many different visitors the website has on a day, the website's own server counts them without identifying anyone. When the page has loaded in a browser, it reports this once to the website's own server. The server runs the IP address and the browser identification through a keyed one-way function whose result is different every day, and uses that value only to avoid counting the same browser twice on that day. To limit repeated requests for the download link, it runs the IP address alone through the same kind of function. Both values are deleted on the following day; the IP address itself is not stored for these purposes. What is kept are totals per hour and per day: visitors, page loads and automated requests, their distribution by country, device type, browser, operating system, referring website and network, and the number of download links requested and used; the totals per hour are deleted after thirty days. So that the controller's own visits are not counted, the network part of the IP address is compared, without being stored, with that of the controller's own network; in the same way, requests from the networks of server-hosting companies are counted separately. For this purpose no cookie is set and nothing is stored on or read from the visitor's device. The totals are held on the controller's behalf by Cloudflare within the European Union. Legal basis: the legitimate interest named above, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.
No payment data, no profiling
The beta is free of charge; no payment data is collected. No automated decision-making within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR takes place and no profiles are created. Providing an e-mail address is required only to receive the download link; the application itself can be used without providing any further personal data.
Rights of the data subject
Every data subject has the right to obtain access to the personal data held about them, to have it rectified or erased, to obtain a restriction of processing, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw any consent at any time with effect for the future. Requests should be addressed to studio@realtime-app.com and are answered within one month.
In the case of the anonymous diagnostics the controller is unable to identify the data subject: the key is hashed and is never linked to a name or an e-mail address, so these rights cannot be exercised in respect of that data (Article 11 GDPR). The key can, however, be deleted by the user as described above.
Right to object (Article 21 GDPR)
Where personal data is processed on the basis of a legitimate interest, the data subject may object at any time on grounds relating to their particular situation. Processing will then cease unless compelling legitimate grounds are demonstrated which override the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject.
Right to lodge a complaint
Every data subject has the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of their residence or place of work. The authority competent for the controller is the Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kavalleriestraße 2–4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany (www.ldi.nrw.de).
Beta Terms
Last updated October 2026
These terms govern the use of the realtime beta application and of this website. They constitute the agreement between the user and the provider identified in the Imprint. Acceptance takes place once, within the application, before first use.
Subject matter
realtime is made available free of charge as a pre-release beta version for the purpose of evaluation. It is work in progress: it may contain defects, may change, and may be suspended or discontinued at any time. Nothing in these terms constitutes a promise of a finished product, of a release, or of continued availability. Users are advised to keep backups of anything of importance.
Unfinished software (EU Cyber Resilience Act)
The beta is unfinished software, made available for testing purposes only and for a limited testing period. It does not comply with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 (Cyber Resilience Act) and is not placed on the market other than for testing.
Beta period and expiry
The beta period ends on 1 January 2027. The application displays the applicable end date at first launch. Upon expiry the beta version ceases to operate and can no longer be used; notice is given within the application beforehand. The provider may end the beta earlier or extend it; an extension is delivered as an update.
Licence
realtime grants the user a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to install and use the beta on Macs the user owns or controls, for the user's own evaluation, for the duration of the beta period. The software may not be copied, sold, let, lent, sublicensed, redistributed or otherwise made available to third parties.
The software may not be modified, reverse-engineered, decompiled or disassembled, save to the extent that mandatory statutory provisions expressly permit this irrespective of this clause — in particular §§ 69d and 69e of the German Copyright Act, concerning error correction and interoperability.
Recording: how the function works
realtime captures the audio output of the user's own Mac through the interfaces macOS provides for that purpose, separates it, and can write the result to a file. It does not decrypt, disable, remove or circumvent any technical protection measure within the meaning of § 95a of the German Copyright Act, and it is neither designed, produced, adapted nor marketed for any such purpose. What is captured is the signal the operating system has already decoded for playback.
Recording: responsibility of the user
Responsibility for the material captured, separated or recorded lies entirely with the user. Material may be recorded only where the user is entitled to do so — for example the user's own material, material for which the user holds a licence, or copies permitted by the copyright law applicable to the user. Under German law the private-copy provision (§ 53 of the Copyright Act) requires, among other conditions, that the copy serves private use, that it is not made publicly available, and that the source is not manifestly unlawful.
Independently of copyright law, the terms of the services and applications from which a user plays audio may themselves restrict or prohibit recording. Compliance with those terms is a matter between the user and the provider concerned. realtime is not a party to that relationship and makes no representation about it.
realtime does not encourage, instruct or assist the infringement of third-party rights, and no part of the product or its documentation is directed to that end. Using the recording functions for such a purpose constitutes a breach of these terms. The user shall indemnify the provider against claims asserted by third parties on account of material the user has captured, separated or recorded, in so far as the user is responsible for the underlying breach.
Recording: recordings involving other people
Where a recording captures the spoken word of other people — a call, a meeting, a conversation — stricter rules apply than those governing content. Under German criminal law, recording the non-publicly spoken word without the consent of every participant is a criminal offence, irrespective of who keeps the recording or what it is used for. The user must obtain the agreement of all participants before recording, and must observe the equivalent rules of any other jurisdiction that applies to the user.
realtime records outside the application being recorded. A participant is therefore not notified by that application that a recording is being made, and obtaining consent rests entirely with the user.
Updates
The application checks for updates and installs them; this is how defect fixes reach a beta version. A future version may be accompanied by revised terms. Revised terms take effect only once the user has accepted them within the application. Declining has no consequence other than that use of the beta ceases; nothing done up to that point is affected.
Feedback
Feedback is welcome and entirely voluntary. Access to the beta does not depend on the provision of feedback, diagnostics or any other data. Where feedback is submitted, the provider may use it to improve the product, without obligation towards the user.
Data protection
The processing of data by the application and by this website, and the diagnostics the user may enable or disable, are described in the Privacy Policy. Consent to diagnostics is separate from acceptance of these terms and is at no point a condition of using the beta.
No charge, no warranty
The beta is provided free of charge and as is. As it is provided without charge, no warranty is given as to fitness for a particular purpose, availability, or freedom from defects, to the extent permitted by law. Statutory rights which cannot be excluded remain unaffected.
Liability
The provider is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, and under the German Product Liability Act.
For slight negligence the provider is liable only where a material contractual obligation is breached — an obligation whose fulfilment makes the proper use of the beta possible in the first place and on which the user may rely — and then only for the foreseeable damage typical of an agreement of this kind. Any further liability for slight negligence is excluded.
Term and termination
This agreement runs until the end of the beta period. The user may terminate it at any time by deleting the application. The provider may terminate it at any time upon reasonable notice given within the application, and without notice in the event of a breach of these terms by the user.
Governing law
German law applies, to the exclusion of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Where the user is a consumer resident in another Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area, the mandatory consumer-protection provisions of that State remain unaffected.