PodMeister Privacy Policy

Overview

PodMeister is a podcast app for Apple devices. This policy explains what information the app, this website, and the separately operated PodMeister notification service handle, and how privacy-sensitive features work.

PodMeister is a registered business name of Machine Info Tech Pty Ltd (Australia), which is the data controller for the information described here.

PodMeister has no user accounts and no PodMeister sign-in. None of the data described below is linked to your identity, and none of it is used to track you across apps or websites owned by other companies. PodMeister does not sell your data.

Diagnostics You Control

Two switches decide what leaves your device for diagnostics. Both are shown during the app's welcome tour and are always available under Settings › Privacy & Diagnostics:

• Usage analytics — on by default, off with one tap. Shares the anonymous usage analytics described below through TelemetryDeck.
• Crash reports — on by default, off with one tap. Controls the crash and performance reporting described below.

Turning either switch off stops that collection from that point on. Because PodMeister has no account, these switches are how you control this collection, and turning either one off does not affect the app's podcast features.

Anonymous Analytics

When Usage analytics is on, PodMeister sends anonymous analytics through TelemetryDeck. These help understand broad app usage, improve reliability, and guide future development.

Analytics record feature-level usage only. They do not include podcast subscriptions, listening history, show or episode titles, feed addresses, private feed credentials, search terms, transcript contents, or account identifiers.

Crash Reports and Performance Diagnostics

When Crash reports is on, PodMeister sends crash and diagnostic reports through Sentry, which processes them on PodMeister's behalf so that failures can be found and fixed.

A report can contain the crash or error and its stack trace, app-hang reports, MetricKit performance diagnostics from the operating system — for example the system ending the app for using too much memory or disk — timings of a small set of app operations, such as launch, loading the library and saving changes, with counts like how many episodes were involved, your device model, the operating system version, and the PodMeister version and build number. That device, system and version context is what usually makes a failure diagnosable at all.

If a PodMeister Plus purchase or restore fails, or goes through without turning Plus on, a report says which step failed and how. It carries no payment details: Apple handles payment, and PodMeister never sees your card or Apple Account.

Reports are identified only by a random installation identifier generated for crash reporting alone. It is not derived from your device or your Apple Account, and it is deliberately not the notification service's installation identifier, so the two systems cannot be joined together. Turning crash reports off discards that identifier, so turning them back on starts a new one rather than rejoining your earlier history.

Before a report leaves your device it passes through PodMeister's own scrubber. The parts of the Sentry SDK that would capture network requests, file activity, on-screen interaction, screenshots or view hierarchies are switched off, and whatever survives is then stripped of feed addresses, show and episode titles, file paths, tokens, credentials and similar values before it is sent.

Turning Crash reports off also means anything still queued on your device is not uploaded unless you switch it back on.

Crash data, performance data and the other diagnostic data described here are not linked to your identity and are not used for tracking.

Diagnostics You Choose to Send

Settings › Help & Support has two tools for when something goes wrong. Both only act when you tap them.

• Export diagnostics builds a text file of the app's recent log lines and opens the share sheet, so you decide where it goes, if anywhere. Identifiers in it are hashed or hidden, but it is your own log, so look it over before you send it.
• Report playback problem asks what went wrong and roughly when, with an optional note of up to 300 characters. With Crash reports on, it sends your answers, the note and the recent playback events kept on your device — such as when a call began and ended, and what paused or resumed playback — to Sentry. Those events never name a show or episode, and email addresses, phone numbers and links are removed from the note before it is sent. With Crash reports off, nothing is sent and the share sheet opens with the file instead.

Podcast Data

Podcast subscriptions, downloaded episodes, playback positions, playlists, history, and app settings are stored by the app so PodMeister can provide its core podcast features.

Private feed credentials, when used, are held in your device's Keychain and are used only to access the feeds you add to the app. They are never sent to PodMeister, to the notification service, or to anyone else.

Podcast Discovery

Searching for a show sends your search text to Apple's iTunes podcast catalog, which returns the matching results and their artwork. Apple handles those requests under Apple's own privacy policy.

The app also fetches curated lists from podmeister.app — PodMeister Picks, DJ Mixes and Video Podcasts — and a short list of which optional features are switched on. That request carries no personal information, no identifier, and nothing about what you subscribe to or listen to — it asks for the same lists everyone else gets, and the app keeps the last copy so Discover still works offline. Cloudflare hosts the site serving that list.

New-Episode Notifications

PodMeister offers two kinds of new-episode alert. Free alerts are checked on your device: the app refreshes your feeds itself and schedules the alert locally, and nothing is sent to the notification service.

When you enable instant new-episode notifications (part of PodMeister Plus), PodMeister sends an anonymous installation identifier, an application-encrypted Apple Push Notification service (APNs) device token, app version, and the public podcast feeds for which you enabled notifications to a separately operated PodMeister notification service at notifications.podmeister.app. The app registers only while notification authorization permits delivery. The service also processes bounded public show and episode titles, stable feed and episode identifiers, device-local podcast identifiers used to open the correct show, and notification delivery and read state.

This information is used only to check public podcast feeds, send and reconcile new-episode alerts, maintain the unread badge, prevent duplicate alerts, handle retries, and operate the service. The service does not require a PodMeister account or iCloud account and does not receive email, Apple ID, listening or playback history, playlists, favourites, searches, transcripts, downloaded audio, or private-feed credentials. Authenticated and private feeds remain on the device and use device-side refresh.

Cloudflare processes the Worker, D1 database, queues, scheduling, and related network requests. Apple processes App Attest verification material and APNs delivery. Production installation creation uses App Attest to reduce abuse. APNs tokens, installation secrets, feed URLs, and public titles are excluded from application logs.

If you link a show to its 1001Tracklists page, PodMeister may share that link so other listeners of the same show can inherit it. The app sends a one-way hash of the show's public feed URL, the public 1001Tracklists page URL, and the same anonymous installation identifier to notifications.podmeister.app. The feed URL itself never leaves your device, shows with private or credentialed feeds are skipped, and the service never fetches or stores any tracklist content — only the link. A link is shared with other listeners only once at least two independent installations agree on it. Removing or changing your link withdraws or replaces your contribution, and contributions that have not been confirmed for a year are deleted.

Turning off notification authorization causes the app to request deletion of its anonymous notification installation. Delivery is disabled immediately when that request is accepted; revoked token and credential material is deleted within seven days. Completed delivery records and bounded public episode metadata are retained for up to 30 days for deduplication, retry, read recovery, and operations. Public feed rows are deleted after 30 days without an active subscriber. Coarse non-identifying operational totals may be kept longer. If a deletion request is temporarily offline, the app retains its anonymous credential so it can retry.

Transcription

PodMeister generates episode transcripts on your device. With the default setting, episode audio and transcript contents are not sent anywhere, and chapters built from transcripts are created and stored on your device.

Settings › Playback › Transcripts contains a Server transcription switch, which is off unless you turn it on. When it is on, Apple's Speech framework may send episode audio to Apple's speech recognition servers to produce the transcript, and Apple handles that audio under Apple's own privacy policy. Leaving the switch off keeps transcription entirely on your device — and means transcript generation fails when on-device recognition is unavailable for your device or language.

Finished transcripts are stored on your device either way. When a transcript is turned into chapters, the chapter titles are written by Apple's on-device language model (Apple Intelligence, where your device supports it); the transcript is not sent anywhere to do it. PodMeister does not upload transcript contents, and does not send them to the notification service or include them in analytics or crash reports.

Apple Music and Spotify

Episode tracklists can hand a song off to a music service. The two services work differently:

• Apple Music — with your permission, PodMeister adds a song from a tracklist to your Apple Music library using Apple's MusicKit. Your device asks for Music access the first time, and you can change that later in the system Settings app under PodMeister. Adding a song requires an active Apple Music subscription. PodMeister uses the access to search for the song and add it; it does not read through your library or your Apple Music listening history.
• Spotify — PodMeister only opens a search for the song in Spotify. There is no PodMeister Spotify sign-in, no account connection, and no access token. Nothing is sent to Spotify beyond the search text contained in the link you open.

Local Network and Casting

To find Chromecast devices, PodMeister uses Google Cast, which needs local network access; your device asks for permission the first time. Discovery happens on your own network, and declining the permission only disables Chromecast.

Google Cast collects a device identifier along with basic interaction and diagnostic data in order to cast. This is declared in PodMeister's privacy manifest, is not linked to your identity, and is not used for tracking.

iCloud Sync

If you enable iCloud sync (part of PodMeister Plus), PodMeister syncs your library, playback positions, playlists, history and settings through your private iCloud account. Apple provides and controls the iCloud service, and PodMeister cannot read that data. PodMeister also works without iCloud sync.

Share Links

When you share a show or an episode, PodMeister sends podmeister.app what the link needs to open: the show's public feed address, its title, author and artwork address, and for an episode, its title and public audio address. podmeister.app stores that so the link can show a preview and open the right show in the app. Anyone with the link can see it, and links do not expire. Nothing about you, your library or your listening is included.

Share is not offered for private or paid feeds, for shows with saved sign-in details, for episodes whose audio address carries an access token, or for shows added by URL or from an OPML file, because PodMeister cannot confirm those are public. To have a share link removed, send it through the support page.

Listening Insights

Listening insights — your listening totals, listening days, top shows and year summary — are calculated on your device from your own listening history. They are not sent to PodMeister. A year summary leaves your device only if you choose to share it.

Sharing a year summary as a link sends PodMeister only what the card shows — the year, your listening total, listening days, top month, up to five top shows with their listening time and artwork address, and the name you type, if any — so that podmeister.app can show it. A shared summary never keeps feed addresses: the app sends artwork only for shows it can confirm are public, and any feed address the app includes is checked and then discarded, never stored or shown. Anyone with the link can see that summary, and the link does not expire. To have a shared summary removed, send its link through the support page.

Support Requests

If you send a message through the support form, the email address you give, your message, and the optional name and subject are stored and emailed to PodMeister's own support mailbox so the request can be read and answered. They are used only to reply to you and to fix the problem you reported, are never sold or shared for marketing, and the stored copy is deleted after twelve months. You can ask for your message to be deleted sooner.

The form is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that submissions come from people rather than bots and processes limited technical signals from your browser for that purpose. Please do not include passwords or private feed credentials in a support message.

TestFlight Beta Registration

PodMeister is now available on the App Store, and podmeister.app no longer collects email addresses for beta invitations.

If you registered for the beta before the public link was available, the email address you submitted is kept so a TestFlight invitation can be sent to it. It is used only for beta invitations and essential beta-related communication, is never sold or shared, and you can ask for it to be removed at any time through the support page.

Third-Party Services

PodMeister may use Apple services for platform features, the iTunes catalog for podcast discovery, Apple Music and MusicKit for adding tracklist songs to your library, Apple's speech recognition servers when you turn on server transcription, Google Cast for Chromecast support, TelemetryDeck for anonymous analytics, and Sentry for crash and performance reporting. Apple also provides App Attest and APNs for new-episode notifications. Apple's on-device language model titles chapters built from transcripts. Spotify is opened only as a search link and receives no PodMeister account or token. This website is hosted on Cloudflare, which also provides the Turnstile spam protection used by the support form, stores support submissions and earlier beta registrations, delivers support messages to the PodMeister support mailbox, serves the curated lists the app fetches, stores share links and shared year summaries, and hosts the separately deployed notification service.

Changes to This Policy

If this policy changes, the updated version is published on this page with a new "Last updated" date. Material changes to what PodMeister collects will be reflected here before the change ships.

Contact

For privacy questions, data deletion requests, or any other help, use the PodMeister support form.

The data controller is Machine Info Tech Pty Ltd, Australia.