Privacy Policy
Last updated 2026-08-27. HearAura is an iOS app for joining Auracast™ broadcast audio with hearing aids.
The short version
HearAura is built to keep your data on your device. It has no accounts, no advertising, and no analytics or tracking SDKs. We don't sell data because we don't collect it.
What stays on your iPhone
- Captions. Live captions are transcribed entirely on-device (Apple Speech with on-device recognition, or the offline Whisper model). The audio and the resulting text never leave your phone. Saved Meeting Mode transcripts are stored only in the app on your device.
- Hearing-aid connection. HearAura talks to your hearing aids directly over Bluetooth to command Auracast joins and volume. That link is between your phone and your aids; nothing about it is sent to us.
- Favorites, recents, and settings. Stored locally on your device.
- Diagnostic reports. iOS may hand the app a crash and performance summary (Apple's MetricKit) about once a day. HearAura writes it to your iPhone and leaves it there. It is never uploaded; the only way it moves is if you open Settings → Diagnostics and share it yourself, to a recipient you choose.
What uses the network (only when you choose it)
- Venue directory. When you open the Venues map, the app requests nearby venue listings from the HearAura venue API. If you grant location access, your approximate location is used to sort venues by distance; it is used for that request and not stored by us with any identifier.
- Venue reports. If you report that a venue's broadcast worked or didn't, we store that anonymous report (venue, worked/failed, optional hearing-aid brand) to improve the directory. No identifier is attached.
- Broadcast captions. If a venue publishes captions for its broadcast, the app fetches that public text feed for the broadcast you joined. This is venue-published text, not your microphone.
- Channels. "Channels" conversation audio streams directly between nearby phones over your local network (peer-to-peer). It does not travel over the internet or through our servers.
- Device compatibility results. The Device check screen tells you what your hearing aids can do. It works entirely offline. If — and only if — you tap "Send this result anonymously", the app posts a brand word chosen from a fixed list in the app (for example "resound" or "other") plus four yes/no capability flags, your iOS major version, and the app version. Your device's name, your location, and any identifier are deliberately excluded, and the screen shows you the exact text before you send it. We publish nothing that could identify a person; the purpose is to answer "do brand X hearing aids work with Auracast apps?" with real counts.
What we do not do
- No user accounts or sign-in.
- No third-party advertising, analytics, or tracking.
- No selling or sharing of personal data.
- No microphone audio or caption text sent off your device.
- No automatic or background reporting of any kind. Diagnostic and compatibility information moves only when you tap a button that says so.
Permissions
Bluetooth (connect to your hearing aids), Microphone and Speech Recognition (on-device captions and channel audio), Local Network (channels and the optional offline caption relay), Camera (scan Auracast QR codes), and Location (sort venues by distance). Each is used only for the feature it names, and you can decline any of them.
Children
HearAura is a general-audience accessibility tool and is not directed at children under 13.
Contact
Questions about privacy: privacy@hearaura.app.