Your audio never leaves your Mac.

Effective 7 November 2026

Chorus routes sound between the devices already attached to your Mac. It does not record, and it does not upload. This page sets out the little we do hold, why, and what you can ask us to do about it.

The short version

Chorus never records or transmits any audio. Ever.
There is no account and no sign-in.
Your settings stay on your Mac. Your licence key stays in your Mac's Keychain.
The app sends a small number of anonymous usage counts to a server we run ourselves, and you can turn them off in Settings > About (Share Anonymous Usage).
We only learn your email address if you buy a licence or write to us.
If Chorus ever quits unexpectedly, it asks before sending us a crash report, which holds technical details only.

Who is the data controller?

The controller for any personal data we hold about you is TJH/CO LIMITED, trading as THEODORE HQ, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 16589593, at Fairway House, Links Business, Fortran Rd, St. Mellons, Cardiff, CF3 0LT, United Kingdom. You can reach us at support@theodorehq.com.

Given the small scale and low risk of what we do, we are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer and have not done so. Any data question goes to the address above.

What Chorus does with your audio

Nothing leaves your Mac. Chorus groups the outputs you already have, chooses your input, and sends individual apps to different devices. All of that is macOS's own audio system, running locally.

To send one app's sound to a different output, or give it its own volume, macOS asks you to grant access to that app's audio. Chorus uses that access solely to move the sound and to draw the level meters you see in the panel. Audio is never written to disk, never buffered for later, and never sent anywhere.

Dictation Controls never listen to your microphone. Chorus only checks whether a dictation app is using the microphone, which your Mac reports without any audio involved, and needs no permission. To follow a dictation app’s own setting it reads that app’s preferences on your Mac, and for Pause it uses your Mac’s Now Playing controls. None of this leaves your Mac.

What Chorus stores on your Mac

Your preferences - your groups, per-app assignments, dictation settings, keyboard shortcuts and volumes - in the standard macOS preferences store for the app.
Your licence key and activation ID in the macOS Keychain, so they are protected by the system rather than sitting in a plain file.
A record of your free trial: the date it started and how long it lasts. It is kept apart from the app's preferences, in a small hidden file and a second preferences store, so that reinstalling Chorus does not restart the trial. It holds nothing about you.
A short record of recent activity, such as when Chorus opened and anything that failed, with its error code, kept for up to two weeks. It holds no names and nothing you listen to, and leaves your Mac only inside a report you choose to send.

Your preferences and licence are removed when you drag Chorus to the Trash and delete its preferences. The trial record stays on your Mac after that; email support@theodorehq.com and we will tell you exactly where it is and how to delete it. We cannot see any of these.

Permissions the app asks for, and why

Both are optional, both are requested by macOS at the moment you first use the feature, and both can be withdrawn at any time in System Settings.

Audio capture - needed only for per-app routing and per-app volume. Without it, everything else still works.
Accessibility - needed only so your keyboard's volume keys control a group rather than a single device.

The network requests Chorus makes

The version of Chorus you download from this website makes these three requests, plus crash reports and diagnostics when you choose to send them, and no others.

Update checks. Chorus checks for updates automatically about once an hour by downloading a small file from our website. Like visiting any website, this shares your IP address with our web host.
Licence activation and validation to Polar (api.polar.sh), when you enter a key or when your licence is re-checked. This sends your licence key and your Mac's name (as shown in System Settings > General > About) so we can enforce the three-Mac limit.
Anonymous usage counts to aptabase.theodorehq.com, a small analytics server we run ourselves rather than handing to an analytics company. It records a handful of plain events, such as Chorus being opened, a free trial starting or ending, or a licence being activated, so we can tell whether Chorus is being used. Each count also carries your Mac's model (for example Mac14,2), your macOS version, your language setting, the Chorus version, and a random number that changes every time Chorus opens. It carries no name, no email, no audio, not your Mac's name and nothing about what you listen to. During a free trial that started on version 1.0.11 or later, these counts also say which day of the trial it is, whether Chorus was used that day, and the first time each main feature is used: a group made or turned on, an app sent to its own output, a switching rule added, or your audio lowered for dictation. They stay anonymous, and the same switch turns them off. Trials started on an earlier version send nothing extra. If a count cannot be sent, for example because a network blocker refuses it, Chorus tries again a couple of times over a few minutes and then drops it. You can turn these counts off at any time in Settings > About (Share Anonymous Usage); your licence and trial work exactly the same either way.
Crash reports and diagnostics, only if you choose to send them. See Crash Reports and Diagnostics below.

If you use Chorus through Setapp, the app tells Setapp's own framework when it is used so that Setapp can pay us. Setapp's privacy policy covers what it collects. The Setapp version makes no update checks, no licence checks and sends no usage counts to us: Setapp handles updates and payment itself. It asks before sending a crash report, just like the version from this website.

Crash Reports and Diagnostics

If Chorus ever quits unexpectedly, it asks the next time you open it whether to send us a crash report. Nothing is sent unless you choose Send or Always Send, and you can turn Always Send off at any time with Send Crash Reports in Settings > About. A crash report holds only technical details about the crash: the Chorus version, your macOS version, your Mac’s chip, and where in Chorus it happened. It also holds a short record of what Chorus was doing just before, such as a group macOS would not create or a licence check that failed, and the error code it got. It holds no audio, no names of your groups, speakers or microphones, and nothing about you, and the full crash report macOS keeps on your Mac never leaves it.

If Chorus stops responding for a couple of seconds, it notes where in Chorus it was stuck. With Always Send on, it sends us that note with how long it lasted and the same technical details. Otherwise the note is not sent. If you quit Chorus while it is not responding, Chorus asks the next time you open it, just as it does after a crash.

When you choose Report a Bug, Chorus asks whether to include diagnostics. Chorus sends them with your report only if you choose Include. They hold the Chorus version, your macOS version, your Mac’s chip, whether you use Chorus directly or through Setapp, whether you are on a trial or have bought Chorus, how many groups, devices and switching rules you have, whether a group is on, which permissions Chorus has, Chorus’s settings, any recent crashes and freezes, and the same short record of recent activity. They never include the names of your groups, speakers, microphones or dictation apps, your licence key or your email address. Diagnostics go privately to our Support Centre and are never shown on it.

Chorus keeps its record of recent activity on your Mac for up to two weeks. It leaves your Mac only inside a report you chose to send. Reports go to our Support Centre, where your internet address is used only to stop any one address sending too many, and is never stored. If macOS itself shows a “Send to Apple” dialog, that is Apple’s standard system, not us, and you control it in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements.

What personal data we hold, and on what basis

Your email address and purchase record, if you buy a licence. Basis: performance of our contract with you, and a legal obligation to keep tax records.
Your licence key and the devices it is active on. Basis: performance of our contract, and our legitimate interest in preventing a single licence being shared without limit.
Anything you write to us. Basis: our legitimate interest in answering you.
Our newsletter, only if you ask for it. When you buy, you can tick an optional box to get the THEODORE HQ newsletter. It is unticked unless you tick it. You can also sign up on our website. You can unsubscribe at any time by replying to any of our emails, and every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link. Basis: your consent.
Anonymised usage analytics. Page views, clicks on the Download and Buy buttons with the site you first arrived from, and the country your visit came from, counted by our own Umami server. No cookies, nothing that identifies you, no profile. Basis: our legitimate interests in understanding which pages are useful, Art 6(1)(f) UK GDPR.
First-touch attribution and download clicks. When you click Download, our server is told which page you came from, the site that sent you and any campaign tags, so we know a download happened. Nothing is stored beyond an email to us. Turning analytics off stops this. Basis: our legitimate interests in knowing which of our writing brings people here, Art 6(1)(f) UK GDPR.

We do not profile you, and we make no automated decisions about you.

How long we keep it

Purchase and tax records are kept for six years after the end of the relevant financial year, as HMRC requires. Support emails are kept for two years. Anonymous usage counts carry nothing that identifies you, so there is nothing in them to delete. Crash reports and diagnostics you chose to send are deleted twelve months after a crash was last seen, and twelve months after diagnostics arrive.

The attribution item stays in your own browser until you clear this site's data; we hold no copy of it unless you buy or click a download. A download notification is an email, kept like any other. Analytics are aggregate and hold nothing about an individual to expire.

Cookies and this website

This site sets no cookies. We count page views and clicks on the Download and Buy buttons with Umami, an analytics server we run ourselves at analytics.theodorehq.com rather than handing your visit to an analytics company. It stores no cookies, records nothing that identifies you, and builds no profile. Your IP address is used in passing to derive a country and is never stored.

Beyond our own analytics server, loading a page here fetches nothing from anyone else. The one exception is deliberate: if you move towards the Buy button, we fetch Polar's checkout so the payment window can open on the page rather than sending you elsewhere. Nothing is fetched from Polar until you show that intent.

When you first visit, your browser keeps a small note of the page you landed on, the site that sent you and any campaign tags. If you buy, this note is passed to Polar, our payment provider, with your order so we can see which pages lead to sales. It is never used for advertising. If you turn analytics off with the button on this page, no note is kept or sent. The note is stored in your browser's local storage as chorus_attr, and you can clear it at any time by clearing this site's data.

If you would rather not be counted at all, this switches our analytics off for this browser. It sets a flag your browser keeps, and nothing further is sent.

Do Not Track and US visitors

We don't track you across other websites and we don't run advertising, so there is nothing for a Do Not Track signal to switch off. If you are in the United States, including California: we do not sell or share your personal information, and you can ask to see or delete what we hold by emailing support@theodorehq.com.

Who else handles your data

We keep suppliers to a minimum. Where one is outside the UK, an approved UK transfer safeguard is in place.

Polar (United States) is the Merchant of Record and the seller for your purchase. For the details it collects at its own checkout, including your email, country and tax details, Polar acts as a separate, independent controller under its own terms. Polar uses Stripe to process payments. We never see or receive your card details.
Vercel (United States) hosts this website and our Support Centre, which receives crash reports. It is not used for analytics: the page counts described above come from Umami, on our own server.
Umami, on our own server (United Kingdom) counts page views and button clicks. It is not a third party in the usual sense: Umami is open-source software running on infrastructure we operate, and the figures never leave it.
Hostinger (United Kingdom) hosts that server, which runs both the analytics and the automation that emails us when someone clicks a download. The server is in the United Kingdom, so no international transfer arises.
Missive (Heliom Inc., Canada) is the email app we use to read and answer messages sent to support@theodorehq.com. Canada is covered by UK adequacy regulations for commercial organisations. Missive keeps those emails on Amazon Web Services servers in the United States.

Your rights under UK GDPR

Access - ask for a copy of what we hold (Art 15).
Rectification - correct anything inaccurate (Art 16).
Erasure - ask us to delete it, subject to the tax retention above (Art 17).
Restriction - pause our processing while a dispute is resolved (Art 18).
Portability - receive it in a structured, common format (Art 20).
Object - object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art 21).
No automated decisions - we make none about you (Art 22).

To exercise any of these, email support@theodorehq.com. We answer within 30 days, free of charge.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data you can complain to us directly, a right under section 164A of the Data Protection Act 2018. Email support@theodorehq.com and we will acknowledge it within 30 days, look into it, and tell you the outcome.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, on 0303 123 1113, or at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. You may contact the ICO at any time, though we would like the chance to put things right first.

Children

Chorus is a general-purpose utility and is not directed at children under 13, the UK age of digital consent under section 9 of the Data Protection Act 2018. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If you believe we hold any in error, email us and we will delete it promptly.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. For any change that materially affects you, we will email customers a plain-English summary at least fourteen days before it takes effect. We will not start collecting more from people who have already bought Chorus.

Contact

Any question at all, write to support@theodorehq.com. A real person reads it.