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Privacy Policy

Last updated 6 September 2026.

Acaville is a non-profit based in the United States. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, and what you can do about it. It covers the Acaville website at acaville.org, our podcast sites, Acaville Live, A Cappella Masterclass, and the Acaville apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch.

The short version

  • We collect what we need to run your account, play you audio, and answer your requests. Nothing more.
  • We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we never have.
  • We do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and the app contains no advertising or third-party analytics software.
  • You can delete your account from inside the app or by asking us.

Your account

An Acaville ID is one account that works across all of our sites and apps. When you create one we store your email address, your display name, and a cryptographic hash of your password — never the password itself. If you hold a membership we also store which tier it is, when it started, and whether it is currently active.

Your profile picture is supplied by Gravatar, a service operated by Automattic. When the app or website displays it, Gravatar receives a request containing a one-way hash of your email address.

Signing in, and keeping accounts safe

When you sign in on a device we store a session record for it: a device identifier the app generates, the device name you see on your account screen, and the IP address the session was last used from. This is what lets you see where you are signed in and sign a lost device out.

To slow down people guessing passwords we record failed sign-in attempts. Those records hold the IP address and a one-way hash of the email address that was tried — not the address itself — and are deleted after seven days. Our sites also use the Wordfence security firewall, which inspects requests and may record IP addresses of malicious traffic.

Notifications

If you turn on notifications, we store the push token your device is issued, which platform it is (Apple or Android), the app version, and your device’s language and time zone, so that a notification arrives in the right language at a sensible hour. We also store which categories of notification you have asked for, and a log of what was sent to you and whether it was delivered. That log records the category and the delivery result — it does not store the message text.

Notifications are delivered through Apple’s Push Notification service and, on Android, Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging. You can turn them off at any time in the app, or in your device’s system settings.

Song requests and dedications

When you send the station a song request we collect the song you asked for, your name and email address, your city, state or province and country, and any dedication or message you write. You may also record a short voice message to be played on air. We store the recording, and the IP address the request came from.

Your dedication and your first name may be read out or displayed on air, which is the point of the feature. Your recording is not published anywhere: it is stored where the public cannot reach it, and only station staff can play it back, through an authenticated page. Your email address and IP address are never broadcast or displayed publicly.

What you listen to and watch

So that the app can offer “continue listening”, downloads, favourites and course progress, we store the episodes and videos you have played, the courses and lessons you have completed, and the items you have marked as liked or favourite. Downloaded audio is stored on your own device and can be removed from within the app.

Our podcasts are also distributed as public RSS feeds. When an episode is downloaded through one of those feeds — by a third-party podcast player, or from one of our websites — our podcast software counts the download: the time, the type of player used, the portion of the file requested, and an approximate geographic area derived from the network address. This is how we report audience figures to the shows themselves. We do not retain the network address in these statistics, and they are not linked to your account.

Episodes played or downloaded in the Acaville app do not pass through that counter. The app fetches audio directly from our media host, so your listening in the app does not appear in those figures at all.

Payments

Memberships, courses and event tickets are sold only on our websites — never inside the app. Payments are processed by Stripe and PayPal, who receive your payment details directly. We never see or store your card number. We keep a record of what you bought, when, the amount, and the status of any recurring subscription, so we can give you what you paid for and answer billing questions.

Email

Transactional email — password resets, receipts, account notices — is sent through Brevo, which processes your email address in order to deliver the message.

Who else is involved

We share personal information only with the service providers who make Acaville work, and only so far as they need it to do their job. They are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

  • Stripe and PayPal — payments and subscription billing.
  • Brevo — sending transactional email.
  • Cloudflare — hosting and delivering audio and video files, and protecting our sites from attack.
  • Apple and Google — delivering push notifications to your device.
  • Automattic (Gravatar) — profile pictures.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or where it is necessary to protect the safety of people or the integrity of our service.

What we do not do

  • We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information.
  • We do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and the app asks for no tracking permission because it does none.
  • The app contains no advertising and no third-party analytics or marketing software.
  • We do not collect your precise location. The app never asks for location access.
  • We do not read your contacts, photos, calendar or health data.

How long we keep things

  • Your account — until you delete it, or ask us to.
  • Device sign-in sessions — sixty days from last use; signing out removes the record immediately.
  • Failed sign-in records — seven days.
  • Song requests and recordings — kept as part of the station’s programme records. Ask us and we will delete yours.
  • Payment records — as long as we are required to keep them for tax and accounting purposes.

Your choices and your rights

You can see and change your name, email address and password from your account screen in the app or on the website, and turn notifications on or off per category at any time.

Deleting your account. You can delete your Acaville ID from within the app, on the account screen, or by emailing us. Deleting removes your account, your sign-in sessions and your membership entitlements. If you have a paid subscription that is still billing, cancel it first — the app will link you straight to the cancellation page — so that deleting your account does not leave a payment running.

You may also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Depending on where you live you may have further rights under laws such as the GDPR or the CCPA; we apply these rights to everyone who asks, wherever they are. We do not discriminate against anyone for exercising them.

Cookies on our websites

If you sign in on our websites we set cookies to keep you signed in and to remember display choices. Login cookies last two days, or two weeks if you choose “Remember me”; display preferences last a year. Signing out removes them. The apps do not use cookies for tracking.

Children

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

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of the page. If a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will tell you in the app or by email.

Contact us

Questions, requests, or anything about this policy: info@acaville.org.