Privacy Policy
How KaraOrchee collects, uses, discloses, retains, and protects personal information
This Privacy Policy explains how KaraOrchee, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("KaraOrchee," "we," "us," or "our"), handles personal information in connection with the KaraOrchee mobile application, related websites, and services (collectively, the "Service"). The Service supports music lesson recording, transcription, AI-assisted notes, score-linked practice steps, private teacher-student pairing, and score viewing and upload.
Release 1 is offered only in the United States. Teachers must be at least 18. Users under 13 may not create an account or use the Service, and lessons that include anyone under 13 may not be recorded or uploaded. Age is self-reported; we do not verify age or identity. A student age 13 through 17 may create login credentials, but the account remains restricted until a parent or legal guardian opens the approval link we send to an email address different from the student's and signs the guardian approval.
Information we collect
Information you provide
- Account and role information. Name, email address, user identifier, password or authentication information, selected role, attested age range, and, if you choose to add them, a studio name and profile photo.
- Guardian approval information. For a student age 13 through 17: guardian name, separate email address, and relationship as entered by the student; adult and authority attestations, approved activities, electronic signature name, IP address and browser information at signing, timestamps, policy versions, and withdrawal history.
- Lesson and practice content. Lesson audio, transcripts, AI-generated draft notes, teacher-approved notes, annotations, completion actions, read status, read-aloud audio of notes, recording confirmations, and related metadata.
- Scores and files. Photos of musical scores, profile photos, and associated file, upload, ownership, sharing, and deletion information. The app may crop, correct perspective, re-encode an image, and remove EXIF or location metadata before upload.
- Support and legal communications. Information included in support requests, privacy requests, copyright notices, security reports, and other communications, and in any problem report you choose to submit through the “Help improve KaraOrchee” option.
Information collected automatically
We may collect device, network, authentication, request, security, and operational log information, such as request identifiers, your account identifier, and device and app version information, needed to provide, secure, troubleshoot, and maintain the Service. Release 1 does not use advertising, cross-app tracking, or third-party advertising or analytics SDKs. Our service logs do not record IP addresses. We will update this Policy before enabling any materially different practice.
How we use information
- Create and authenticate accounts; apply roles and guardian approval; pair designated teachers and students; and enforce pending, active, and revoked account states.
- Record, upload, transcribe, and process lessons; generate draft notes; permit teacher review; deliver approved notes or private student-only notes; display scores and provide Vision Notes; and support practice activities.
- Operate, maintain, secure, debug, and improve the reliability of the Service. We do not use lesson content or uploaded scores to train AI models, except content in a problem report you choose to submit through the “Help improve KaraOrchee” option.
- Respond to support, privacy, parent or guardian, copyright, and security requests; investigate misuse; enforce our Terms; and comply with law.
- Maintain consent, policy-version, deletion, security, and audit records needed to demonstrate compliance and protect users and the Service.
How information is disclosed
We disclose personal information only as described below. We do not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it for targeted advertising.
- Paired users. Lesson notes, annotations, completion actions, and score materials may be visible to the specifically paired teacher or student as the feature indicates. Profile photos are shown to the other party while the pairing is active. A student can continue to view notes and score pages already sent to them after a pairing ends. The Service does not provide public profiles or public score sharing.
- Service providers. Microsoft Azure hosts accounts, sign-in, databases, files, email delivery, and platform services in the United States. ElevenLabs receives a time-limited link to lesson audio to create a transcript (ElevenLabs Scribe), and receives the text of a note after it is sent to create read-aloud audio. Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service receives transcript text to generate draft notes. Vision Notes uses a KaraOrchee-operated score-recognition service hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). That service temporarily receives score pages through time-limited Azure download links and generates MusicXML, score-position information, and page-recognition results. Requests may contain internal account or job identifiers rather than your name or email address. KaraOrchee can associate the job with your account. Apple supports App Store distribution. These providers may process information only to provide contracted services, subject to applicable terms and safeguards.
- Parents and guardians. For a student age 13 through 17, the approving parent or guardian receives emails and a management page showing the account status, approved activities, and connected teachers.
- Legal and safety. We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, legal process, or enforceable government requests; protect rights, safety, and security; investigate fraud or abuse; or establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
- Business transactions. Information may be transferred in a merger, financing, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of assets, subject to appropriate confidentiality and notice where required.
Artificial intelligence processing
KaraOrchee uses third-party services to transcribe lesson audio and generate draft lesson notes. Notes from a teacher-created lesson remain drafts, visible only to the teacher, until the teacher sends them to a student. A student self-recorded lesson may produce notes visible only to that student without teacher approval. AI output may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unsuitable and is not a substitute for the judgment of a qualified teacher. KaraOrchee does not use lesson data or uploaded scores to train AI models. The only exception is a problem report you choose to submit through the separate “Help improve KaraOrchee” option, which KaraOrchee may use to diagnose and fix problems and to improve, train, and evaluate its models, as described when you submit the report. Microsoft states that Azure OpenAI Service does not use customer prompts or outputs to train its models, but Microsoft may retain and review content flagged by its automated abuse-monitoring systems.
Retention and deletion
We retain each category only as long as reasonably necessary for the stated purpose, legal requirements, security, dispute resolution, and enforcement. Our current retention periods are summarized below.
If you choose to submit a problem report through “Help improve KaraOrchee,” the score pages and recognition results you submit may be used to improve and train Vision Notes. The report is linked to your KaraOrchee account and retained for up to 180 days. Ordinary score recognition without a problem report is not included in this use.
| Category | Active system period | Residual or recovery period |
|---|---|---|
| Raw lesson audio | Deleted 90 days after upload, or sooner when the account that recorded it is deleted or the lesson is deleted before a note is sent | Recoverable by our staff for up to 14 days after deletion |
| Transcripts and raw AI output | Deleted 90 days after creation, including transcript excerpts stored with the lesson record. The AI note as first generated is kept with the note | Recoverable by our staff for up to 37 days after deletion |
| Sent notes, annotations, and read-aloud audio | For the life of the account holding them, or until deleted as described below | Database backups are kept for up to 35 days |
| Private lesson score photos and profile photos | Until the owner deletes the photo or the account | Recoverable by our staff for up to 14 days after deletion; copies in the app are cleared at sign-out or account deletion |
| Guardian approval and consent records | Approvals: for the life of the account. Unanswered or declined requests: guardian contact details erased after 14 days | After account deletion, the guardian's contact details, signature, and IP address are erased; a record of the approval (dates, document versions, and approved activities) and lesson recording confirmations are kept as compliance records |
| Logs, support, security, and legal records | Service logs: 30 days. Email-delivery records: 180 days. Account and audit records needed to show compliance, including a deleted account's age range, role, and accepted document versions: retained. Support email and other records: as needed for the request, security, legal obligation, or claim | Subject to legal holds and backup cycles |
Temporary Vision Notes recognition files are separate from score photos kept for private lesson sharing. The AWS recognition service deletes input images when the task ends and retains recognition results for no more than 24 hours. On Azure, temporary input pages, recognition records, and generated score files are removed when the recognition record expires after 24 hours; storage lifecycle rules provide a fallback deletion window of up to two days. Deleted Azure temporary files may remain in soft-delete recovery for seven days. When you choose to keep a recognized score, the long-term copy is stored on your device. These temporary-file periods do not apply to a problem report you separately choose to submit through “Help improve KaraOrchee,” which is subject to the report retention period stated above.
Account deletion removes the account and associated information from active systems except information that must be retained for law, security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or other permitted purposes. Soft-delete systems and backups expire on their configured cycles. Deleting a student account deletes the notes linked to that student, including the teacher's copy of notes sent to that student. It does not by itself delete recordings made under a teacher's account or their transcripts; those are deleted on the 90-day schedule or when the teacher's account is deleted, whichever comes first. We ask our transcription and read-aloud providers to delete their copies after processing. Withdrawing guardian approval stops new pairing, recording, and processing but does not delete information; deletion is a separate request.
Your choices and rights
- Access, correct, or update account information through available account settings or by contacting us.
- Initiate deletion of an account from within the app and submit a privacy request at https://legal.karaorchee.com/parent-requests/ or by emailing privacy@karaorchee.com.
- Withdraw an optional consent. Withdrawal does not affect processing already completed and may prevent use of a feature that requires the information.
- A parent or legal guardian who approved a teen account may withdraw approval, disconnect a teacher, or delete the account through the management link in the most recent email from us, and may request access, a copy, correction, or any other change by contacting privacy@karaorchee.com.
- Exercise any additional rights available under applicable state law. We may verify identity and authority before responding and will not discriminate for exercising a legal right.
Children and teens
The Service is not available to children under 13 in Release 1. If we learn that an under-13 user has provided personal information outside a permitted limited purpose, we will disable the account and delete the information as required. If a child under 13 is recorded, stop the recording and do not upload it. Students ages 13 through 17 are subject to the guardian approval and feature restrictions described above. See the Children and Teen Privacy Notice at https://legal.karaorchee.com/children-privacy/.
Security
We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed for the nature and sensitivity of the information we handle. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. Please report suspected vulnerabilities to security@karaorchee.com and do not include unnecessary personal information in the report.
U.S. service and changes
The Service is intended only for users in the United States, and we store Service data in the United States. We may update this Policy to reflect changes in the Service, law, or our practices. If a change is material, we will provide notice and obtain renewed consent when required before applying the new practice to previously collected information.
Contact us
KaraOrchee, Inc. 4725 Dorsey Hall Drive, Suite A, PMB 1037, Ellicott City, Maryland 21042-7738 616-591-6204 Privacy: privacy@karaorchee.com Support: support@karaorchee.com