Cord legal
Privacy Policy
Cord records Mac-routed iPhone calls locally. Merge Labs Ltd does not receive your recordings, transcripts, contacts, or caller details. Optional iCloud Backup stores recordings in your own Apple iCloud account.
Effective and last updated:
1. Who we are and what this policy covers
Merge Labs Ltd ("Merge," "we," "us," or "our") provides the Cord macOS application. Merge is the controller of the personal information that we actually receive.
This policy applies to Cord distributed directly by Merge or through the Mac App Store, the cordmac.app website, software-update and download services, product analytics, and support communications (collectively, the "Service"). It does not govern Apple's own processing through macOS, iCloud, the App Store, or other Apple services.
2. Information handled by Cord on your Mac
Cord handles the information needed to provide its recording and call-library features. This may include call recordings; caller or contact details; call date, time, direction, and duration; titles, notes, tags, and starred status; and your app settings. Contact information is used only if you give Cord permission to access Contacts.
This information is handled on your Mac and is not sent to Merge. It leaves your Mac only when you choose to export or share it, or when you enable iCloud Backup. Merge cannot listen to, view, retrieve, or delete this content for you.
Cord does not currently send recordings to Merge or any third party for transcription. If a future transcription feature requires information to leave your devices, we will explain that processing and any available choice before it begins and update this policy.
3. Recording, storage, and deletion choices
Cord may hold a recording temporarily while a call is active or while giving you an opportunity to decide whether to save it. Unsaved temporary recordings are deleted after the applicable in-app save period. Saved recordings remain on your Mac until you delete them.
Deleting a recording from Cord does not remove copies you previously exported, shared with another person, or included in a Mac or other backup. Merge has no access to those copies and cannot delete them on your behalf.
4. Optional iCloud Backup
iCloud Backup is off by default. If you turn it on, Cord stores finalized recordings and their related call-library information in your own iCloud account. Temporary recordings are not backed up through this feature.
Apple operates iCloud under your Apple account settings and Apple's Privacy Policy. Merge does not receive or have access to your iCloud recordings. When you turn iCloud Backup off, Cord lets you choose whether existing iCloud copies should be kept or removed. Copies may also remain in backups managed by you or Apple.
5. Information Merge receives
Although Merge does not receive your recordings or call-library content, we receive limited information in the following circumstances:
- Product analytics: Cord reports limited information about app use and reliability, such as a random identifier for your copy of Cord, app version, distribution channel, selected recording mode, broad feature events, and high-level success or failure categories.
- Website, download, and update requests: our hosting and delivery providers receive ordinary request information, such as IP address, requested page or file, time, and basic browser or app information, when they deliver the website, downloads, or updates.
- Support communications: if you contact us, we receive your contact details and whatever information or files you choose to include.
- Purchase information: if Cord offers paid features through the App Store, Apple may provide purchase or entitlement information needed to provide the feature and maintain business records. Merge does not receive your payment-card details.
Product analytics does not include call audio, transcripts, contacts, caller names or phone numbers, call dates or duration, recording titles, notes, tags, search text, or exported content. We do not use analytics for advertising or cross-app tracking.
The Cord website does not use advertising trackers, browser analytics, or an account system. Where applicable, you may object to our analytics processing by contacting us.
6. Why we use information
We use the limited information Merge receives to:
- provide Cord, downloads, updates, purchases, and support you request;
- understand whether Cord is working reliably and improve the product;
- protect the Service, prevent misuse, and investigate security problems;
- maintain necessary purchase, tax, and accounting records.
7. When information is disclosed
We do not sell or rent personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or disclose it to data brokers. We disclose only the limited information described in this policy:
- to service providers that help us operate Cord, including Google Analytics for product measurement and AWS for the analytics relay, website, download, and update hosting;
- to Apple when you use iCloud, the App Store, or other Apple services;
- to professional advisers, courts, regulators, or authorities when reasonably necessary for legal, security, fraud-prevention, or safety purposes; and
- in connection with a merger, financing, reorganization, or sale of all or part of our business, subject to appropriate safeguards and notice where required.
Providers acting on our behalf are required to protect personal information and use it only for the services they provide to us.
8. International processing
Merge is based in Israel. The providers that support Cord may process the limited information they receive in Israel, the United States, the European Economic Area, and other countries where they operate. Where required, we rely on an adequacy decision, contractual safeguards, or another lawful transfer mechanism.
9. Retention
- Recordings and call-library content: remain under your control on your Mac or in your iCloud account until you delete them, subject to backups and copies you have shared or exported.
- Temporary recordings: are kept locally only while needed to record the call or offer the applicable save decision, and are then saved or deleted.
- Product analytics: analytics associated with Cord's random identifier and individual product events are kept for no more than 14 months. Statistics that no longer reasonably identify a copy of Cord may be kept longer.
- Support communications: are generally kept until the request is resolved and for up to 12 months afterward, unless a longer period is needed for security, legal obligations, or claims.
- Purchase records: are kept as needed to provide paid features and meet tax, accounting, fraud-prevention, and legal obligations.
Information may remain for a limited period in protected backups after deletion from active systems and is removed as those backups expire.
10. Your choices and privacy rights
You can manage Cord's system permissions in macOS System Settings. Within Cord, you can choose the recording mode, enable or disable iCloud Backup, decide what to save, and delete saved recordings.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction or deletion of, or a copy of personal information Merge holds about you. These rights may be subject to identity verification and legal exceptions.
Where the California Consumer Privacy Act applies, California residents may request to know, delete, or correct personal information and may exercise their applicable rights without discrimination. The categories Merge may receive are identifiers, app or website activity, purchase information, and support communications. These come from you, your use of Cord or the website, and service providers such as Apple. We use and disclose them only for the purposes and to the recipients described in this policy. We do not sell or share personal information for behavioral advertising.
Most Cord content exists only on your Mac or in your iCloud account, so Merge cannot locate or provide that content. For information Merge does hold, email contact@activeday.app with "Cord privacy request" in the subject. We may request limited information needed to verify and fulfill your request.
11. Other call participants
A recording may contain personal information about people who do not use Cord. You decide when and why Cord records, what you keep, whether you enable iCloud Backup, and how you use or share a recording. You are responsible for providing any legally required notice, obtaining any legally required consent, respecting participant privacy rights, and using recordings lawfully. See the Terms of Service for the recording-specific rules.
12. Children
The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Anyone who has not reached the age of legal majority may use Cord only with authorization and supervision from a parent or guardian. Contact us if you believe a child has provided personal information to Merge.
13. Security
We use reasonable safeguards designed to protect the limited information Merge receives. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure. Because recordings are under your control, the security of your Mac, Apple account, backups, exports, and shared copies also affects their protection.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Cord, our providers, or applicable law changes. We will post the revised policy here and change the effective date. If a change materially affects how we use information already collected, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent where required before the new use begins.
15. Contact
Merge Labs Ltd
Email: contact@activeday.app