The short version

Sonic Tools works on your files right on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking. We never see your photos, videos, documents, screenshots or recordings.

Three things use the internet. Turning Word, Excel or PowerPoint files into PDFs sends the file to our converter, which sends the PDF back and deletes its copy straight away. Pasting a link to a post sends the link to our media service, which fetches the post's photos and videos for you and deletes them once they're on your device. And Send uses our server to connect your devices; when it has to carry a file, the file is encrypted end to end and the server can't read or keep it.

Files you work on

Compressing, merging, splitting, scanning, cropping, converting images, removing backgrounds, blurring faces, marking up screenshots, editing recordings in Studio and every video tool all run on your device. The files never leave it.

What you make is saved in the app's own folder, which you can see in the Files app under Sonic Tools, and in your photo library only when you tap Save to Photos.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint to PDF

When you use this tool, the file you picked is uploaded over an encrypted connection to a conversion server run by Round Social. Only the file and its type are sent. Its name, your name and anything that identifies your device are not.

The server converts the file, sends the PDF back and deletes both straight away. Document contents are never written to logs and are not kept, read by people or used for anything else.

Links you paste

When you paste a link to a post into the search box, the link is sent over an encrypted connection to a media service run by Round Social. Only the link is sent: nothing about you or your device.

The service fetches the post's photos and videos and holds them only until your device has collected them, at most five minutes. Links and files are never written to logs, and nothing is kept.

Only save posts you have the right to keep, such as your own or ones their owner has allowed.

Camera and photos

The camera is used only while the scanner is open, to photograph the pages you scan. Those pictures stay on your device.

Sonic Tools only opens the photos and videos you pick. Saving back to your library asks for permission to add, not to read.

Screenshots and recordings

On the Mac, Sonic Tools only captures your screen when you start a screenshot or a recording, and what it captures stays on your Mac. macOS asks you first for Screen Recording permission. On iPhone and iPad, the screenshot editor and Studio open only the screenshots and recordings you pick.

On the Mac, the camera and microphone are used only when you turn them on for a recording. Captions in Studio are worked out by speech recognition on your device, and the audio is not sent anywhere. Your device asks you first for Speech Recognition permission.

Auto-scroll in scrolling capture scrolls the page for you, which macOS lists under Accessibility. It is used for nothing else.

Send

Send moves files between your devices, or to someone you give a code to. There is no account. The first time you open Send, your device makes its own key, and a short ID made from that key is all our server knows it by. Your name and email are never asked for.

Devices on the same network find each other directly and send files straight across, without our server, which is why your device asks before Sonic Tools looks on your local network. While Receiving is on, they see the name you give your device in Send. On iPhone and iPad, Send works while Sonic Tools is open, and files you accept go in the Received folder you can see in the Files app.

Across the internet, our server passes short connection messages between your devices and holds a code's first three characters for up to an hour so someone can use it. The rest of a code never leaves your devices. When two devices can't reach each other directly, the server relays the transfer. Everything it relays is encrypted end to end with keys made on the devices, so it can't read the files, and it keeps nothing.

The server sees your IP address while you're connected, as any server does. It is kept in memory only, never written to disk or logged, and forgotten when you disconnect. The server is run by Round Social on a computer we rent in Germany.

Quiet mode on the Mac

Quiet mode works on your Mac only. It shrinks pictures you copy and files in folders you choose to watch only if you turn those on, and saves what the drop panel makes next to the original file.

Data we collect

None. Sonic Tools has no sign in and collects no personal data, usage data or identifiers. The converter, the media service and Send's server only handle what they need while they're working for you, and keep none of it.

Children

Sonic Tools collects nothing from anyone, including children.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be in the app with a new date at the top.

Questions? Email dev@roundsocial.com.