Privacy Policy

Menu Bar Controller for Sonos runs on your Mac and talks to your speakers over your own network. Here is everything that ever leaves it.

The Short Version

Six things worth knowing before the details.

  • No personal data. Ever.

    No name, no email address, no location, no identifier that points at you. The only account involved is your Sonos one, and Sonos manages that.

  • Your music stays yours.

    Playback runs between your Mac, your speakers and Sonos. Our own server handles only a few narrow jobs, listed below, and keeps none of them.

  • Crash reports, so bugs die early.

    Anonymous crash reports through Firebase Crashlytics, so a bug gets fixed before most people ever meet it.

  • Voice Messages, gone in minutes.

    Held on our own server behind a one-time password, then deleted after playback or within 10 minutes.

  • Usage counts, so we build the right things.

    Anonymous, aggregated counts through Firebase Analytics: which features get used and how, never by whom.

  • This website counts visits.

    Google Analytics counts page views. Cookies only if you accept them in the banner; declined, it counts without cookies and without any stored identifier.

Who We Are

Menu Bar Controller for Sonos ("MBC", or "the app") is a macOS app made by App Lane OÜ, Ahtri tn 12, 15551 Tallinn, Estonia, registry code 17207691, the controller for everything on this page within the meaning of the GDPR.

Questions go to mbc@app-lane.com.

How MBC Reaches Your Speakers

MBC controls your system over two paths. Most commands go through Sonos's own cloud API, which is what signing in to Sonos is for. Alongside that, the app talks to your speakers directly on your local network: to discover them, to react faster, to reach things the cloud API does not cover, and to keep working when the cloud is not available. macOS asks for local network permission the first time.

Either way, the traffic runs between your Mac, your speakers and Sonos, and it does not reach us. Your rooms and speakers, what is playing, queues, playlists, favorites, volumes, groups, Shortcuts and settings live on your Mac and in your Sonos account. A few features do route through a small server of our own; the next section is the complete list.

Scenes are the one thing that leaves your Mac by design: if you use them, they sync through your own private iCloud database so your other devices see the same set. That is Apple's storage under your Apple Account. We cannot read it, and the sync can be switched off in the app's settings.

What Our Server Receives

A small server of ours handles a few jobs that cannot run on your Mac alone. What it receives, and why:

  • For a Sleep Timer: the speaker group, the time, and a Sonos access token, so playback can be stopped at the right moment.
  • For cover art: the title and artist of a track, so the artwork can be found.
  • Voice Messages and the Sonos sign-in, each covered in its own section.

Each is used for that one job and discarded when it is done. The sign-in is only passed through, so no token stays behind; a pending Sleep Timer is the one time a token of yours rests on our server at all.

What the App Sends

Two things leave the app on their own, both anonymous. Crash reports go through Firebase Crashlytics: the stack trace, the app and macOS version, your Mac's model, and a random per-installation identifier that groups reports from the same installation. Usage events go through Google Analytics for Firebase, which counts what happened: a Scene played, a Shortcut fired, the app launched.

Neither carries your name, your email address, your Apple Account or your Sonos account. The identifier is generated on your Mac, means nothing outside Google's console, and is replaced if you reinstall. Usage data is read only in aggregate.

Google receives your IP address with the request and derives an approximate country from it; we never see it. Advertising is off: no ad profiles, no Google Signals, no sharing, no selling. Crash reports are kept for up to 90 days and usage events for up to 14 months, then deleted automatically by Google. Legal basis for both: our legitimate interest in a stable app and in knowing which features are worth our time, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Voice Messages

The Voice Message Intercom records up to 30 seconds on your Mac and plays the recording on a speaker. It needs microphone access, which macOS asks for the first time and which you can withdraw at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.

A Sonos speaker can only play audio from an address it can reach itself, so the recording is uploaded to a server we run on Heroku and fetched from there.

How the recording is protected

  • HTTPS, behind a one-time password generated for that single message.
  • Deleted the moment it finishes playing, and within 10 minutes even if it never does.
  • Never listened to, transcribed or analyzed by us.
  • No account, name or identifier attached to it.

Legal basis: performing the feature you asked for, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Microphone access rests on your consent, Art. 6(1)(a), which you can withdraw at any time.

Signing In to Sonos

You sign in on Sonos's own page, in your browser. Your Sonos password is never typed into MBC and we never see it. Finishing that sign-in needs a confidential key that cannot safely ship inside a Mac app, so the sign-in, and each later token refresh, is relayed by a small service we run on Heroku, which passes the token straight back to your Mac and keeps no copy.

On your Mac the token lives in the macOS Keychain until you sign out or delete the app. Sonos handles your account under its own policy.

Your Purchase

MBC is sold through the Mac App Store. Apple handles the purchase, receipt, refund and license; we never see your name, address, payment details or Apple Account, only aggregated sales reports with no individual in them. The 14-day trial needs no account at all.

When You Write to Us

If you email support, we get your address and whatever you send, and we use it to answer you and nothing else. There is no mailing list. Our mail is hosted by Gandi in France.

This is the one place we hold data that identifies you. It is deleted after at most 24 months. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

This Website

These are static files, and the fonts are served from this domain rather than from Google Fonts. One measuring script runs here: Google Analytics, which shows us which pages are read, where visitors come from, and whether they use a phone or a desktop.

A small banner asks before any cookie is set. If you accept, Google Analytics sets cookies that recognize a returning browser. If you decline or ignore the banner, it counts without cookies and without any stored identifier. Google receives your IP address either way and derives a coarse location from it; we never see it, advertising features are off, and reports are read only in aggregate. Data is kept for up to 14 months. Your choice is stored on your device, and you can change it here at any time. Legal basis: your consent for cookies, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR; our legitimate interest in knowing how the site is used for the cookieless counting, Art. 6(1)(f).

Netlify hosts it and keeps ordinary server logs (IP address, time, page, user agent) to deliver pages and fend off attacks, for a short period Netlify sets; we do not read them as statistics. Links that leave the site are ordinary links, and from there the other service's policy applies. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Who Processes Data for Us

The complete list. Each is bound by a data-processing agreement and may use the data only to provide their service to us. The US-based ones operate under standard contractual clauses, Google additionally under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. We do not sell personal data and never share it for advertising.

  • Sells and distributes the app through the Mac App Store.

    Data
    Purchase, receipt and license data, held by Apple. We receive only aggregated reports. Your Scenes, if you sync them, in your own private iCloud database.

  • Authenticates your Sonos account and provides the speaker APIs.

    Data
    Your Sonos credentials, entered on Sonos's own login page.

  • Hosts this website.

    Data
    Server logs: IP address, time, page requested, browser user agent.

  • Hosts our email, and therefore anything you send to support.

    Data
    Your email address and the contents of your messages to us.

  • Heroku (Salesforce)

    Privacy policy ↗

    Runs our own server: the Sonos sign-in relay, Sleep Timers, artwork lookups and short-lived voice recordings.

    Data
    Voice recordings for up to 10 minutes; a Sonos access token while a Sleep Timer is pending; song title and artist for artwork lookups; request metadata in server logs.

  • Google (Firebase)

    Privacy policy ↗

    Crash reports and anonymous usage counts from the app; visit statistics for this website.

    Data
    Crash reports, usage events, website page views, a random per-installation identifier, device and OS version, IP address (coarse location; not stored by us). Analytics cookies on this website only with your consent.

Your Rights

The law gives you a set of rights over your own data. In plain terms, you can ask us to:

  • Tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy.
  • Correct anything that is wrong.
  • Delete it.
  • Stop using it, or use it only in a limited way.
  • Hand it over in a form you can take elsewhere.

In practice there is very little to act on. The app sends nothing that identifies you, so we cannot look you up in crash reports or usage counts. There is no “you” in there to find. The exception is email you have sent us, which we can find, change or delete whenever you ask.

If you think we have handled something badly, you can complain to a data protection authority: ours is the Estonian Andmekaitse Inspektsioon, or the authority where you live.

Children's Privacy

MBC is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If a child has emailed us, tell us and we will delete it.

Changes to This Policy

When something changes, this page and the date at the top change with it. Anything material is also called out in the app's release notes.

Still have a question about your data?

Ask. It goes to the same address as everything else, and the developer answers.

Email Us