Privacy Policy

QBox Player ("QBox Player," "the app," "we," "us," or "our") is developed and operated by OpenRise Studio. This Privacy Policy explains what information is collected when you use QBox Player, how that information is used, how long it is retained, and the choices available to you.

QBox Player does not require an account or login. We do not ask you to provide your name, phone number, postal address, or payment information to use the app.

1. Information We Collect

Device Identifier

QBox Player generates an identifier the first time the app is opened and stores it on your device. The app sends this identifier with its requests to our servers, so that those requests can be recognized as coming from the same device.

On Android, this identifier is derived from your device's Android system ID (Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID) using a one-way transformation — the underlying system ID itself is never transmitted or stored, only the derived value. Because of this, the identifier normally stays the same across an uninstall and reinstall of the app on the same device. It can still change after a factory reset, a change to the device's user profile, or on some devices, if the app is reinstalled under different signing circumstances. On other platforms, or if the system ID is unavailable, a random identifier is generated instead and does not survive a reinstall.

We use the device identifier to:

• Recognize requests made by the same device;
• Associate a QR drop with the device that created it;
• Calculate basic statistics, such as daily active devices;
• Apply usage limits and prevent spam, fraud, and abuse;
• Send notifications and in-app messages to a particular device (see "Notifications and In-App Messages");
• Let a recipient locally block future drops from the same sender (see "Reports and Blocking Information" below);
• Apply reporting, blocking, moderation, or enforcement actions where necessary.

Your device identifier is not shown to people who open a drop you create. Instead, the drop's details include a sender code that our servers derive from your device identifier with a secret key. The code is the same for every drop your device creates, so a recipient's app can offer to block drops from the same sender, but the device identifier cannot be worked out from it. Anyone who has the drop's link can request these details from our servers.

The device identifier is not connected to an account, name, email address, or phone number. However, because it can recognize the same device over time, it is a pseudonymous device identifier and should not be considered completely anonymous information.

Device and App Information

With its requests, the app sends technical information about your device and installation:

• The app version and platform (for example, Android);
• Your device model (for example, the model code of your phone);
• Your Android version;
• The language the app is currently displayed in, and the region set on your phone — sent together as a short tag such as "en-JP" (English, on a phone whose region is Japan);
• Whether Google Play services are available and up to date on your device (a yes or no answer) — this tells us whether the device can be shown ads from Google;
• Request timestamps and technical information needed to operate and secure the service.

This information is stored with your device identifier and is used to operate the service, investigate problems that affect particular phones or Android versions, decide which devices a notification is sent to, and understand the devices our app runs on.

Install Source (Google Play Install Referrer)

If you installed QBox Player from Google Play, the app reads the install referrer that Google Play provides. This is the referral information attached to the link you used to reach the app's Play Store page (for example, the name of a campaign), together with the time the link was clicked and the time the installation began. The app reads this once and sends it to our servers, where it is stored with your device identifier. We use it to understand which links and campaigns bring people to the app.

Approximate Country

When your device connects to our servers, we look up the country your IP address belongs to using a country database (DB-IP's free country database) stored on our own server — the address is not sent to any outside location service. We store the resulting two-letter country code with your device identifier, together with when it last changed, and with a record each time a drop link is opened. We do not store your IP address with these records.

If your IP address does not match a country, and we have not already found your device's country from its address, we use the region set on your phone instead (the region part of the tag described under "Device and App Information") and record that the country came from your phone's settings. A country later found from your address replaces it.

Our servers and service providers may also process your Internet Protocol ("IP") address to operate network connections, prevent abuse, apply rate limits, and protect the service. When you report a drop, we store a keyed hash of your IP address with the report (see "Reports and Blocking Information").

QBox Player does not request or collect your device's precise GPS location.

Notifications and In-App Messages

QBox Player uses Google Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver push notifications. When the app starts, it registers with Firebase and sends us the notification token Firebase issues for your installation, together with whether notifications are currently allowed for QBox Player on your phone. It sends this again when that setting changes. We store the token, the notification setting, and when the setting last changed with your device identifier; if our servers have no record for your device yet, this creates one. The app registers its token even if you have not allowed notifications.

We use notification tokens to:

• Send announcements and news about the app to groups of devices (for example, by app language, app version, or how recently the app was used);
• Send a notification to a particular device, for example to let it know a message is waiting in the app, including a message reminding a device that has not been used for a while about the app;
• Check whether the app is still installed, about once a day. These checks are silent messages that never appear on your screen. If Firebase reports that the token is no longer valid, we record that the app appears to have been uninstalled and remove the token.

If the app has told us that notifications are turned off for QBox Player, we do not send visible notifications to your device. The silent checks continue, because they show nothing on your screen.

We may also show a message inside the app to a particular device. Such a message may mention the last song played on that device. For these messages we store the text we wrote, when it was created, when your app received it, and when you acknowledged it. The app also counts when a notification is opened.

Audio Files and Drop Information

When you voluntarily create a QR drop, the selected audio files are uploaded to our servers so that a person who scans or opens the drop can download them.

Information connected with a drop may include:

• The uploaded audio files, including any details stored inside them (such as artist, album, or cover art);
• For each file: its filename (which is also used as the track title), file type, size, length, and a fingerprint of the file's contents (a SHA-256 hash);
• A title for the drop (for example, the name of the playlist you shared);
• The drop identifier and creation and expiry timestamps;
• The device identifier of the device that created the drop (stored on our servers; people who open the drop receive only the sender code described under "Device Identifier");
• A record each time the drop's link is opened in a web browser or the drop is opened in the QBox Player app: the time, the approximate country, and — for the app — the device identifier of the device that opened it;
• Reports, moderation status, and enforcement information associated with the drop.

Creating a drop is optional. You can continue using QBox Player as a local music player without uploading audio files to our servers.

When you create a drop, you intentionally direct us to make its contents available to people who receive or scan its QR code or link. You should treat a drop code or link as shareable information and avoid sending it to anyone who should not receive the files.

A drop's details — its title, the names, types, sizes, and lengths of its files, and its sender code — stay available to anyone who has its link after the audio files have been deleted, unless the drop is removed. After a drop expires, its link page still shows the drop's title and how many songs it had.

Reports and Blocking Information

QBox Player has two separate safety controls, available from a received drop's menu:

• Report a drop — sends a report to our servers, reviewed by our team. When you report a drop, we store the drop identifier, the reason you enter, and a hash of your IP address made with a secret key that only our servers hold, so the address cannot be recovered from it. The hash lets us tell reports from different networks apart, so that one person cannot have a drop removed by reporting it many times. The app also tells our servers that a report was sent, as part of its usage statistics.
• Block a sender — the list of senders you block is stored only on your device, and it only stops your own device from opening future drops from that sender. The app tells our servers that a block happened, as part of its usage statistics, but not which sender you blocked. If you blocked senders in an earlier version of the app, the app sends those entries to our servers once so they can be converted to sender codes; the server returns the codes and does not keep the list.

We use report information to investigate complaints, prevent future unwanted drops, enforce our Terms of Service, and respond to legal or copyright requests.

Feedback You Send

If you send feedback from inside the app, we store your message together with how many times the app has been opened on your device, the app version and platform, how long ago the device first used the app, how many drops it has created, and how many songs are in its library. Feedback is stored with your device identifier. The app does not ask for your email address when you send feedback.

Crash Reports and Diagnostics

We use Sentry to detect crashes, errors, and performance problems, in the app and on our servers. Crash and diagnostic data from both is sent to Sentry's data region in the European Union (Germany). Depending on the error, diagnostic information may include:

• Stack traces and error messages. When a song cannot be played, these can include the song's title (or, for a song without one, its file name);
• App version and operating-system version;
• Device model and technical details such as memory and storage, battery level, screen size, network type, language, time zone, and the permissions the app has been granted;
• A random identifier that Sentry creates for your installation (it is not the device identifier described above);
• Your approximate location (country, region, and sometimes city), which Sentry works out from the IP address the report comes from. The reports do not include the IP address itself;
• Actions or technical events leading up to an error;
• Performance and diagnostic information;
• For errors on our servers, details of the request being handled, including the device identifier and the device and app information the app sent with it. Security credentials and IP addresses in the request are removed before the report is sent.

We use this information to identify bugs, investigate failures, improve performance, and maintain the security and reliability of the app. We also read the device model, app and Android versions, and country in these reports to see which devices a problem affects, and we have used that country to fill in the country of devices that had none. The app does not attach screenshots or recordings of your screen to these reports. We do not intentionally send uploaded audio files to Sentry.

Usage and Playback Statistics

The app regularly reports usage statistics to our servers, associated with your device identifier. This includes:

• How much time the app spends in the foreground, and how many separate times it is opened ("sessions"), including when your first and last activity of each day happened and which app version you used that day;
• How much of that time is spent actively playing audio;
• The title (or, for a song without one, its file name) and artist of each song you play, once it has played for about a second — songs skipped straight away, or that could not be played, are not reported — and how many songs are played to the end;
• How many songs are present in your local on-device music library, how many playlists you have, how many songs you have marked as favourites, and how many songs you have downloaded from drops (counts only — your song list, album names, playlist names, and files are not uploaded, apart from the song plays described above and anything you put in a drop);
• How often you use features and controls of the app — for example playback buttons, playlists, the equalizer, the QR scanner, settings, and search. For search, we count whether a search found results and whether a result was tapped; we do not collect what you typed;
• Whether the audio permission was denied, and whether the in-app prompts to update the app, rate it, or send feedback were shown and accepted;
• Advertising activity on your device: when ads are requested, loaded, not filled, shown, tapped, or closed, and the estimated value Google AdMob reports for the ads shown;
• Basic performance measurements, such as how often the screen fails to draw smoothly;
• A short-lived timeline of which of these actions happened and when (for example, that a playlist was opened), without the names of any songs, playlists, or searches.

We use this information to understand how the app is used, calculate statistics such as session length and time spent listening, identify which features are used most, measure advertising performance, and improve the app. This data is tied to your device identifier, not to a name, email address, or other directly identifying information, but as noted above the device identifier is a pseudonymous identifier, not a completely anonymous one.

Advertising Data

QBox Player uses Google AdMob to display and measure advertisements. The Google Mobile Ads SDK may automatically collect or process information such as:

• Your IP address, which may be used to estimate an approximate location;
• Advertising identifiers, App Set ID, and other device identifiers;
• App launches, advertisement views, taps, and other app or advertisement interactions;
• Diagnostic and performance information;
• Information used to detect fraud, invalid traffic, and security incidents.

Google may use this information for advertising, advertisement measurement, analytics, security, and fraud prevention in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy.

Where legally required, including in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, the app uses Google's consent tool when it starts, before it sets up ads, to ask for your advertising choices. The app does not request ads until Google's consent tool confirms that ads may be requested.

Where required, you can review or change your advertising consent choices at any time from the app's About screen ("Privacy Choices"). You may also manage or reset your Android advertising identifier through your device settings.

Separately from Google, the app reports its own advertising statistics to our servers, as described under "Usage and Playback Statistics". Your advertising consent choices apply to Google's processing; they do not change the advertising statistics the app reports to us.

2. How We Use Information

We use the information described above to:

• Provide local music playback and QR drop functionality;
• Upload, host, transmit, and deliver files at your request;
• Recognize drops created by the same device;
• Measure general app and feature usage, including listening and advertising statistics;
• Send notifications and in-app messages, and detect whether the app appears to have been uninstalled;
• Understand which links and campaigns bring people to the app, and which countries it is used in;
• Maintain, troubleshoot, secure, and improve the app;
• Show and measure advertisements;
• Read and respond to feedback you send;
• Prevent spam, fraud, copyright abuse, malicious activity, and misuse of the service;
• Allow recipients to report drops and locally block senders;
• Investigate reports and enforce our Terms of Service;
• Comply with legal obligations and valid legal requests.

3. How Information Is Shared

People You Choose to Share With

Audio files and drop information are made available to people who receive or scan the QR code or link that you choose to share. A drop's details include a sender code derived from the creating device's identifier, not the identifier itself (see "Device Identifier"), and stay available to anyone with the link after the audio files are deleted (see "Audio Files and Drop Information").

Service Providers

We use service providers to operate and maintain QBox Player. These include DigitalOcean for cloud hosting and file storage, Google AdMob for advertising, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging for delivering notifications, Sentry for crash reporting and diagnostics, platform providers such as Google Play, and, when we use email for them, an email delivery provider for internal alerts to our team. Those alerts contain summary figures such as counts, phone models, and app versions, not device identifiers.

These providers may process information as necessary to provide their services to us and according to their own privacy terms.

Legal, Safety, and Enforcement Reasons

We may preserve or disclose information when we reasonably believe it is necessary to comply with applicable law, respond to a valid legal request, protect users or the public, investigate fraud or abuse, enforce our Terms of Service, respond to copyright complaints, or defend the rights and security of QBox Player and OpenRise Studio.

Business Changes

If OpenRise Studio or QBox Player is involved in a merger, acquisition, restructuring, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to applicable law and appropriate confidentiality protections.

We do not sell your personal information for money. Third-party advertising providers may process information for personalized advertising where permitted and where any legally required consent has been obtained.

4. Data Retention

Uploaded Audio Files

A drop expires 24 hours after it is created. The period is set by us, is the same for every drop, and is not chosen per drop. An admin may extend or shorten a specific drop's expiry where appropriate.

After a drop expires, an automated process runs approximately once per hour and deletes its uploaded audio files from active storage. Files are normally deleted within about an hour after expiry.

Files may be removed earlier if the drop is deleted, reported, found to violate our rules, or removed for technical, security, copyright, moderation, or legal reasons.

Usage and Activity Data

The following records are deleted automatically:

• Detailed activity records — a list of which in-app actions were taken and when, stored as numeric action types rather than as any description of the songs, playlists, or searches involved — 14 days after they are recorded;
• Records of the songs played on a device (title, artist, and time) — 180 days after the song was played;
• Records of which app features were used and when — 180 days after they are recorded;
• Records of each time a drop link was opened — 365 days after the drop was opened;
• Day-by-day usage counts — after 90 days. Before deletion they are combined into per-month totals, and those monthly totals are retained.

The job that deletes these records runs every six hours, so a record can remain for a few hours past its period.

Images attached to notifications are deleted after 24 hours if they were never sent; images that were sent are kept.

Drop and Track Metadata

After uploaded audio files are deleted, records relating to the drop remain in our database — track titles, filenames, file fingerprints, drop titles, drop identifiers, device identifiers, timestamps, expiry information, reports, and moderation status.

These metadata records are currently retained indefinitely unless manually deleted following an accepted deletion request, removed during maintenance, or deletion is required by applicable law.

Device, Notification, Message, and Feedback Records

Device identifiers and the device and app information stored with them (including install source, country, and daily-active-device records), in-app messages, and feedback are currently retained indefinitely unless manually deleted following an accepted deletion request, removed during maintenance, or deletion is required by applicable law. A notification token is kept until it is replaced by a new token, until the app appears to have been uninstalled, or until the device's records are deleted.

Reports and Enforcement Records

Reports, moderation decisions, and enforcement information may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, prevent repeated violations, resolve disputes, respond to copyright complaints, enforce our Terms, or comply with legal obligations. The list of senders you have blocked stays on your device only, so we have no copy of it to retain or delete.

Server Backups

Before each update to our servers, we save a backup copy of our database on the server. Records that have been deleted — automatically or following a deletion request — can remain in these copies until the copies are deleted. Copies are deleted after 30 days, except that the five most recent copies are always kept, so if our servers have not been updated for a while a copy can be older than 30 days.

Sentry Diagnostics

Sentry retains crash and diagnostic information according to the retention settings applicable to OpenRise Studio's Sentry account. These settings are managed through Sentry and may vary by plan and data type.

Advertising Information

Information processed by Google AdMob is retained according to Google's policies, account settings, and legal obligations.

5. Your Choices and Deletion Requests

Optional Uploads

You do not have to create drops or upload audio files. Local music playback can be used without uploading your songs to our servers.

Notifications

You can turn notifications for QBox Player off at any time in your device's settings. Android then stops showing them, the app tells us, and we stop sending visible notifications to your device. As described above, the app still registers its notification token with us, and silent checks of whether the app is installed are not affected by this setting.

Advertising Choices

Where available or required, you can review or change consent choices via "Privacy Choices" on the app's About screen. You may also manage or reset your Android advertising identifier through your device settings.

Reporting and Blocking

From a received drop's menu you can report it to us, or block the sender locally on your own device — see "Reports and Blocking Information" above for how each works.

Resetting the Device Identifier

On Android, the device identifier is derived from your device's system ID and normally stays the same across an uninstall and reinstall (see "Device Identifier" above). It changes if you perform a factory reset, switch to a different device user profile, or in some cases reinstall under different signing circumstances. Simply updating the app (without uninstalling) never changes it.

Changing the device identifier does not automatically delete information already transmitted to our servers, Sentry, Google, or other service providers under the old identifier.

Requesting Access or Deletion

You may request access to or deletion of information associated with your device or a specific drop by emailing support@openrisestudio.com. Step-by-step instructions are also available on our Data Deletion page.

To help us locate the relevant information, include the device ID from the app's About screen (tap it to copy it), the drop identifier, or the QR code or link connected with the request.

Because QBox Player does not use accounts and does not normally collect your name or email address, we may be unable to locate information if you cannot provide an identifier associated with the relevant device or drop.

We may ask for reasonable verification before processing a request. We may also retain information where retention is required by law or reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, copyright enforcement, dispute resolution, or legal claims.

When we delete a device's records, some information remains: a note in our internal admin log that we did so, with the device identifier and the reason; records of that device opening other people's drops, until they are deleted 365 days after each drop was opened; the server backups and Sentry reports described in "Data Retention".

6. Security

Information transmitted between the app and our servers is protected in transit using HTTPS/TLS. We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect stored information, restrict unauthorized access, and reduce the risk of loss, misuse, or alteration.

No electronic transmission or storage system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. International Processing

QBox Player and its service providers may process information in countries other than the country where you live. Our servers and the files uploaded to drops are hosted by DigitalOcean in New York, United States, and crash and diagnostic reports are stored by Sentry in the European Union (Germany). Those countries may have different data-protection laws. Where required, we and our service providers use appropriate legal and contractual protections for international processing.

8. Children's Privacy

QBox Player is intended for users aged eighteen and older and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

If you believe that a child has provided information through the app, contact us at support@openrisestudio.com so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our practices, features, service providers, or legal obligations change. The updated version will be posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. When this policy changes, the app asks you to accept the updated version the next time you share or receive a drop. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or request consent.

10. Contact Us

Questions, privacy requests, and complaints may be sent to:

OpenRise Studio
Email: support@openrisestudio.com
Web: openrisestudio.com