Privacy Policy

Mint ("Mint", "we", "us") is a vinyl record identification and collecting app made by Gili Azgad. This policy explains, in plain language, what information the app and our servers handle, why, who else is involved, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. It applies to the Mint iOS app, the Mint server the app talks to, and this website.

The short version: you can identify records without an account. We do not sell your data and we do not show ads inside Mint. To measure our own ads on Instagram and Facebook, the app includes Meta’s SDK; it only links your activity to your device’s advertising identifier if you allow tracking when iOS asks (section 7). Photos you scan are used to identify the record and are not kept. If you create an account and use the community features, the things you choose to post are public.

1. Identifying records

Photos. When you scan a cover, label or barcode (with the camera or a photo you pick from your library), the app first tries to read a barcode on your device. If it needs help, it sends a resized copy of the image, together with the app’s language, to our server. Our server sends it to the image-recognition services listed in section 8 (Google Cloud Vision, Google Gemini and, as a fallback, Anthropic Claude) to read text and recognize the release, and then looks the result up in the Discogs catalogue. We do not store your photos: they are processed in memory to answer that request and then discarded. The app keeps a small thumbnail of each scan in its history on your device only; it is not uploaded and the app does not save anything to your photo library.

Listening (Shazam). If you use the listen feature, the app uses the microphone and Apple’s ShazamKit. ShazamKit turns the sound into an audio signature on your device and Apple matches it against the Shazam catalogue under Apple’s own privacy terms. Mint does not record, upload or keep the audio; only the song match (artist and title) is used to find the record.

Record data and prices. To show release details, pressings and market prices, our server queries the Discogs API, a copy of the Discogs public-domain (CC0) data dump that we host ourselves, and a scraping service run on Apify that reads public Discogs release pages. These requests contain the release (for example a Discogs release number, catalogue number or barcode), not information about you. Translations of reviews use Apple’s on-device translation. Album artwork is loaded from Discogs’ image servers, which see your device’s IP address as any website would.

Music previews and streaming links. To play short previews of a record’s tracks (usually 30 seconds each), the app looks the album up itself in Apple’s iTunes Search API and, if Apple has no match, in Deezer’s API. These requests contain the record’s artist, album and track titles, its barcode if it has one, the Apple Music album number from a Shazam match, and, for iTunes, your device’s region. The audio is streamed straight from Apple’s or Deezer’s servers, which see your device’s IP address as any website would. Mint does not upload or keep the audio and does not record which previews you play. When a record was found by listening, the app also looks the matched song up in iTunes by its Apple Music number, and our server may search iTunes and Deezer with the matched artist and song title, to find the album. Streaming links (for example Apple Music and Spotify) open a search for the album in that service. If you are signed in, our server replaces them with direct links to the album, which it finds by querying Apple’s iTunes Search API and Odesli (song.link) with the album’s artist and title and your device’s region. Opening a link takes you to that service under its own terms.

Feedback. If you tap thumbs up or down on a result, we store the rating with the recognized artist, title, Discogs release, scan mode and confidence, without your account or device identifier, to measure recognition quality.

2. Your account

An account is optional. You need one to sync your history, write reviews and use other community features. You can sign in with Apple or with Google; we never see or store a password.

• From Sign in with Apple: a stable user identifier, the email address Apple shares (which can be a private relay address if you choose “Hide My Email”), and, the first time only, the name you allow Apple to share.
• From Google Sign-In: a stable user identifier, your verified email address and your Google profile name.
• The name and email from Apple or Google are kept private. They are never shown to other users.
• Your account also has an internal account id, a sign-in session that is stored in your device’s Keychain, and your subscription status.

3. Community features and what is public

If you use the community, the following is visible to other Mint users, and some of it to anyone using our public API:

• your @username (a neutral one such as “collector_k3x9qa” is generated for you; you can change it),
• your reviewer name, shown as your first name and last initial (for example “Dana K.”) — the full last name you enter is stored but never shown,
• your profile photo, if you add one,
• your reviews, ratings and replies, the records they are about, and when you posted them,
• likes, follows, follower and following counts, review and like totals, badges and the date you joined.

Before a review, reply, name or username is published, our server checks it against a built-in word filter for slurs, threats, sexual solicitation and spam. This check runs entirely on our own server; the text is not sent to any outside moderation service. You can report reviews and replies and block users. Reports (with any reason you give) are stored and reviewed by us. When you block someone, we store that block so each of you stops seeing the other’s content.

We store notifications for you in your in-app inbox (for example a reply, a like milestone or a new follower), including the other user’s public handle and a short preview of a reply.

4. Scan history and collection

Your scan history, collection and wantlist are stored on your device. If you are signed in, they are also synced to our server so you can restore them and use them on another device. A synced item contains the record details (artist, title, year, genre, label, catalogue number, barcode, pressing country and format, Discogs release and link, cover image link), when and how it was scanned (cover, label, barcode or Shazam), any notes you add, and whether you marked it as a favourite, in your collection or on your wantlist. For a record on your wantlist, it also contains the price alert you set, if any: the target price, its currency and your device’s time zone, which we use so that the alert is not sent at night. When you are signed in we also keep a weekly count of your scans and your last few searches (up to eight) so “recent searches” follow you between devices; you can clear them in the app.

We use catalogue-level information across all users, such as how many people scanned or reviewed a release, to show trending records and daily facts. These features show release names and counts, never who scanned what.

5. Notifications

If you allow notifications, the app registers an Apple Push Notification service (APNs) device token with our server, linked to your account. We use it to send community notifications and occasional reminders (for example about a trial ending, or a short weekly nudge based on your recent activity in the app). Some reminders are scheduled on your device and never involve our server. Notifications are delivered through Apple. You can turn them off at any time in iOS Settings. Separately, you can choose in the app’s Settings whether you want to receive emails about Mint updates and offers. It is off until you choose, we only send marketing email if you opt in, and you can change your choice at any time.

6. Purchases

Mint Pro is sold through Apple’s App Store. Apple handles payment; we never receive your card or billing details. To unlock Pro on your account, the app sends us the App Store transaction that Apple signed, and Apple sends our server notifications about renewals, cancellations, refunds and expirations. We store the product, transaction identifiers, dates and status, and link them to your account with a random “app account token” that we create for your account and attach to your purchase.

7. App analytics

We collect a small set of first-party usage events to understand whether Mint works and how people find their way through it, for example “app opened”, “scan started”, “record found”, “paywall shown” or “purchase completed”. Each event contains the event name, where in the app it happened, a few event details, the app version, a random identifier created when the app is installed (not linked to your account, your Apple ID or your device’s advertising identifier), the day the app was installed and the number of days since. If you answer the optional question “What brings you to Mint?”, the events also include your answer, and when we test two versions of part of the app, they include which test group your installation is in; neither is sent to Meta. These events go to our own server. A few of them are also sent to Meta, as described next.

Ad measurement (Meta). We advertise Mint on Instagram and Facebook. To learn which of those ads lead to installs, and to show them to people likely to use Mint, the app includes Meta’s SDK (FacebookCore). It tells Meta when the app is installed and opened, when a record is identified and when you first add a record to your collection. For App Store trials, subscriptions and purchases, the app and the SDK send Meta the product, the price paid (zero for a free trial), its currency and the App Store transaction identifier, so that each purchase is counted once. These events carry technical details such as the app version, iOS version, device model, language and time zone, and a random identifier the SDK creates when the app is installed. We never send Meta your name, email address, account, scans or photos. No events are sent to Meta until you have answered the iOS question whether Mint may track you, which the app asks after a record has been identified or on a later launch; those from before your answer, a trial or purchase included, wait on your device and are sent once you have answered. If you allow tracking, the SDK also includes your device’s advertising identifier, which lets Meta connect these events to your Instagram or Facebook account to measure and target ads; under Apple’s rules that is tracking. If you choose “Ask App Not to Track”, or turn tracking off later in Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking, the advertising identifier is never read: the app still sends Meta the events described above, trials and purchases with their price, currency and transaction identifier included, but without that identifier, and Meta measures our ads with them only in aggregated, non-identifying form, through Apple’s SKAdNetwork and Meta’s Aggregated Event Measurement. Meta’s use of this data is covered by Meta’s privacy policy.

Website (Meta Pixel). Our website, mint-app.io, uses Meta’s pixel for the same purpose: to learn whether our Instagram and Facebook ads bring visitors who go on to the App Store. When it runs, it tells Meta that a page was viewed and when you tap a link to the App Store, along with the page address, technical details of your browser and your IP address, and it stores a Meta cookie (_fbp) in your browser. If you are logged in to Facebook or Instagram in the same browser, Meta can link these visits to your account. If your device is set to a European time zone, the website asks first and the pixel runs only if you allow it. Anyone can change this choice at any time with the cookie settings link at the bottom of every page. The website sets no other advertising or tracking cookies.

Like any web service, our server briefly uses your IP address to protect against abuse (rate limiting, kept for about two minutes) and keeps short-lived operational logs, which can include the artist and title that a scan was matched to. If you email support from the app, the draft includes your app version, device model and iOS version so we can help; you can remove them before sending.

8. Service providers

We share information only with the providers we need to run Mint and only for the purpose described. Apart from Meta, which uses ad-measurement data under its own policy (section 7), they may not use it for their own advertising:

• Meta Platforms — measuring our Instagram and Facebook ads (see section 7).
• Cloudflare — hosting for our server, database and website (data is processed on Cloudflare’s global network).
• Google Cloud Vision and Google Gemini — reading and recognizing scan images.
• Anthropic (Claude) — fallback image recognition, pressing stories and some catalogue text.
• Discogs and Apify — release data and market prices (requests contain release identifiers, not your data).
• Apple — Sign in with Apple, ShazamKit, push notifications and App Store purchases; Google — Google Sign-In.
• Apple iTunes Search API, Deezer and Odesli (song.link) — music previews and streaming links (requests contain a record’s artist, album and track titles, its barcode, and your device’s region; the preview audio is streamed from Apple and Deezer, see section 1).

We do not sell or rent personal information. Apart from the ad measurement in section 7, which links data to your device’s advertising identifier only if you allow tracking, we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We may disclose information if the law requires it, to protect the safety of our users or others, or as part of a transfer of the app to a new owner, who would remain bound by this policy.

9. How long we keep information

• Scan photos: not stored; discarded after the request.
• Account, synced history, reviews, replies, likes, follows, blocks, profile photo, notifications and device tokens: kept while your account exists and deleted when you delete it (see section 10). A device token is also removed when you sign out on that device or when Apple reports it as no longer valid.
• Recent searches: only your last eight are kept.
• Rate-limit records: about two minutes. Cached catalogue and price data (not personal): typically days to weeks.
• Analytics events and result feedback: not linked to an account; kept for as long as they are useful for improving the app.
• Purchase records: kept for as long as needed for refunds, chargebacks, accounting and legal obligations; when you delete your account they are kept without your account id.

10. Deleting your account and your other choices

You can delete your account at any time in the app: Settings → Delete Account. Deletion is immediate and removes your account and the information linked to it, including your synced scan history, scan counts, reviews, replies, likes, follows, blocks, reports, profile photo, notifications, device tokens and recent searches. Purchase records are kept for refund and accounting purposes with your account id removed. If you signed in with Apple, we ask Apple to revoke Mint’s access to your Apple ID as part of deletion. Notifications already delivered to other people’s devices cannot be recalled. Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store subscription; manage that in your Apple ID settings.

• You can stop Mint from tracking you at any time in iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.
• You can edit your reviewer name (subject to a cooldown), username and profile photo, and edit or delete your reviews and replies, in the app.
• You can sign out of all devices from Settings.
• You can turn off notifications in iOS Settings and change your marketing-email choice in the app.
• You can export your collection as a CSV file from the app; the file is created on your device.
• You can use Mint without an account; nothing is synced then.

Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, UK, Israel or California), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal information, to object to or restrict some processing, and to complain to your data protection authority. To make a request, email us at support@mint-app.io from the address linked to your account (or tell us your @username). We will respond within the time the law requires and may need to verify that the account is yours. We process your information to provide the service you asked for, to meet legal obligations, with your consent (for example notifications and marketing email), and for our legitimate interests in keeping Mint secure and improving it.

11. Security and international transfers

All traffic between the app and our server is encrypted with TLS, and the app checks our server’s identity. Your session is stored in the iOS Keychain. Access to our database is limited to us. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and to keep only what Mint needs. Mint is operated from Israel and runs on Cloudflare’s global network, and our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers.

12. Children

Mint is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and if the change is significant we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.

14. Contact

Mint is made by Gili Azgad. Questions or requests about privacy: support@mint-app.io.