austinfarwell.com
Privacy
The short version
- You can use the free part of the trainer without an account.
- If you sign in, we keep your email address and what you've joined or unlocked.
- Payments go through Stripe (outside the US, through Link, Stripe's payment service) or PayPal. We never see your full card number.
- Your practice progress stays in your browser on your device.
- If you use Ask Austin, the AI tutor, your typed questions go to Anthropic to write the answers. We keep the conversation for up to 7 days without your name, email or IP address, and no voice is recorded.
- We don't sell your information or use it for ads.
- You can delete your account any time from your account page.
Who is responsible
Austin Farwell, an independent musician based in Los Angeles, California, is responsible for the information described here. Contact: austincfarwell@gmail.com.
This policy covers all of austinfarwell.com: the home page and the commission inquiry form, the sheet music store, Golden Piano and Ask Austin, and the World Map. If you need it in another format, email me (see Accessibility).
What we collect, and why
Everyone
- Practice progress (scores, best runs, settings) is stored in your browser's local storage on your device. It isn't sent to us.
- Basic request data such as your IP address and browser type reach our host, Cloudflare, every time a page loads. It's used to deliver the site and keep it secure.
- Anonymous counts of a few events, such as "the join panel was shown" or "the sheet music link was clicked", with the song name. These carry no account, email or user ID.
If you send a commission inquiry
- What you type: your name and email address, what the piece is for, a date, and anything you choose to tell me about the moment, the people involved or your project (for a film, brand or venue: company, where and how long the music will run, budget and rights).
- How it reaches me: the form sends it through FormSubmit (formsubmit.co), a form-to-email service, which emails it to me. If that fails, your own email app opens with the message ready to send.
- What I do with it: reply to you and, if we go ahead, write and deliver the piece. If you tell me about other people, such as your partner or someone who has died, please share only what you're comfortable with.
If you're listed on the World Map
The World Map ranks instrumental pianists and piano creators using public information: artist and account names, public profile links and images, Spotify monthly listeners, public follower counts, public tour dates, and where an artist is based (from public bios, Wikidata and MusicBrainz). Visitors to the map aren't asked for anything. If you're listed and something is wrong, or you'd like to be removed, email me and I'll correct or remove it.
Things on our pages that come from other companies
Some parts of our pages are delivered by other companies, so your browser connects to them directly and they receive your IP address and basic browser information, as with any website:
- A font inside Stripe's checkout form, which Stripe loads from Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com) when the form opens. The site's own fonts come from our own server.
- Code libraries from jsDelivr (cdn.jsdelivr.net) for Golden Piano's sound engine and the World Map, and from cdnjs (Cloudflare) for the World Map.
- Video pictures from YouTube (i.ytimg.com) on the sheet music and Golden Piano pages.
- YouTube videos: on the sheet music pages, a video loads only when you press play. On the home page, the film's player loads when you scroll to it. Both use YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). In Golden Piano, the tutorial video for a song loads with the song from YouTube. YouTube may store information on your device once its player loads or plays, under its own privacy policy.
- Spotify: the player on the home page loads only when you click "Load the Spotify player". After that, Spotify may set cookies.
These companies don't get your name or email address from us through these connections. They handle what they receive under their own privacy policies.
If you sign in
- Your email address, to sign you in and to send the emails described below.
- Sign-in codes and sessions. We store only scrambled (hashed) versions. Codes work for 15 minutes.
- What you have access to: your membership status and dates, and the songs you've unlocked.
If you pay
- Link, Stripe's payment service, collects your payment details and billing address. We never see or store your full card number.
- From Link we receive your customer ID, what you bought, amounts, currency, country, dates and payment status.
- One free week and one automatic refund per person: we store a keyed, one-way hash of your card's or bank account's fingerprint and of your email address, so we can tell if a free week or an automatic refund was used before. The hash can't be turned back into the card, account or email, and we keep it after an account is deleted, only for this purpose.
- Sign-in link: when you ask for a code, your browser gets a short-lived cookie (15 minutes) so the emailed link works only in that browser.
- Proof of your agreement: when you check out, we record the exact price and renewal terms you were shown, the boxes you ticked and when, your country, your browser type and a hash of your IP address. The law requires us to keep proof of agreement to automatic renewal.
If you buy sheet music
- Your email address, to deliver your PDFs and send fresh download links when you ask. If you don't type it, Stripe, Link or PayPal gives it to us when you pay.
- Your order: the songs, amounts, tax, date, the payment provider's order and payment IDs, your country (from your IP address at checkout, and the country Stripe, Link or PayPal reports), your time zone and a hash of your IP address. The payer email Stripe, Link or PayPal reports is kept too, so either address finds your files.
- A browser cookie (__Host-af_buy, 30 days) so only the browser that paid sees the download buttons on the thank-you page.
- Downloads: when a download link was used, with a hash of the IP address, to stop links being shared or abused.
- Emails about new sheet music, only if you ask: when you tick the box at checkout or tap "Yes, email me", we record the exact wording you agreed to, when, your country, your browser type and a hash of your IP address, then add your email to our list at Kit. If you unsubscribed from Austin's emails before, we keep a hash of your address (not the address) so the box can never add you again.
- Lost your download? uses Cloudflare Turnstile to stop bots, and we count requests per email and per IP address (hashed) to stop abuse.
If you use Ask Austin (AI)
Ask Austin is an AI version of Austin, not Austin himself. It answers questions about the song you are learning, practising and music, in text.
- Your questions are sent, with the song, section and practice settings you are on (and the free-play results, if you ask about a take), to Anthropic, whose Claude model writes the answer. We do not send your name, email address or IP address. Email addresses and phone numbers typed into a question are removed before it is sent, but please don't type personal details.
- The conversation (your questions and the answers) is kept for up to 7 days so follow-up questions make sense, under a random ID with no name, email or IP address. Then it is deleted automatically.
- No voice is recorded. The microphone button only appears where your browser turns speech into text on your device, and no audio is sent to us or to Anthropic. Answers are text only.
- Limits: to stop abuse we count questions per IP address, stored only as a hash, for up to a day.
- In Golden Piano apps (13 and older): answers can be spoken in Austin's voice, and after some practice passes the coach can say a fresh line of feedback written by AI. For that feedback only facts about the pass are sent (song, section, bars, hand, mode, tempo, score, timing, notes missed, practice streak and level) with the coach's own recent lines, to Anthropic for the words and to ElevenLabs for the voice. Never a name or anything typed. The app also sends an anonymous random ID made on the device, used only to count fair-use daily and monthly limits; it is stored as a hash with counts and is not linked to an account. Under 13, the app uses only Austin's recorded lines. You can turn live feedback off in Settings › Sound.
Emails
We send emails you need: sign-in codes, a welcome email with your terms, a reminder before your free week ends, renewal and price-change notices, and confirmations when you cancel, withdraw or delete your account. We keep a log of which emails we sent and when. We don't send marketing emails from the trainer.
Who we share it with
We use these services to run the site. They only get what they need for their part.
| Service | What for |
|---|---|
| Link and Stripe | Payments, tax, receipts, fraud checks. Link is the seller of record and also handles your data under its own privacy policy. |
| Cloudflare | Hosting, our database and file storage, and the Turnstile check that stops bots at sign-in. |
| Resend | Sending our emails. |
| Google (YouTube) | Videos on the home page and the sheet music pages, in privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), Golden Piano's tutorial videos, through YouTube API Services, and video pictures (i.ytimg.com). When a video player loads, Google may collect data under the Google Privacy Policy. |
| Stripe | Sheet music card, Apple Pay and Google Pay payments from the United States. Austin is the seller; Stripe processes the payment and checks it for fraud. |
| Link and Stripe | Sheet music payments from outside the United States in Link's payment form. Link is the seller of record for those orders. |
| PayPal | Only if you pay for sheet music with PayPal. PayPal handles that payment under the PayPal privacy statement and tells us your PayPal email and country. |
| Kit | Only if you ask for emails about new sheet music: your email address, to send those emails. Every one has an unsubscribe link. |
| Anthropic | Only if you use Ask Austin: your questions and the trainer context described above, to write the AI answers, under Anthropic's privacy policy. No name, email or IP address is sent. |
| ElevenLabs | Only in Golden Piano apps, for people 13 and older: the text of Ask Austin answers and live coach lines, to say them in Austin's voice. No name, account or device details are sent. |
| FormSubmit | Only if you send a commission inquiry: it emails your inquiry to Austin. |
| Spotify | Only if you load the Spotify player on the home page, under Spotify's privacy policy. |
| Google Fonts | Delivers one font inside Stripe's checkout form, and sees your IP address. |
| jsDelivr and cdnjs | Deliver open-source code libraries for Golden Piano and the World Map, and see your IP address like any website. |
| Previous store platform | Only for purchases from Austin's previous sheet music store, before it moved to this site in October 2026. |
We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for advertising.
Cookies and storage
| Name | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|
| __Host-af_sid | Keeps you signed in. | Up to 90 days after your last visit |
| af_in | Tells the page you're signed in, so it knows to check your account. | Same as above |
| __Host-af_buy | Sheet music: lets the browser that paid see its download buttons. | 30 days |
| Local storage (af_cart_v1) | Your sheet music cart, on your device only. | Until you clear it or buy |
| Local storage (trainer:*) | Your practice progress and settings, on your device only. | Until you clear it |
| Stripe, Link, Turnstile, YouTube | Set by those services inside the payment form, the bot check and the video player. | See their policies |
| PayPal, Spotify | Set by PayPal inside its payment button (US sheet music orders), and by Spotify only after you load its player on the home page. | See their policies |
Some browsers, including Safari, delete local storage after 7 days without a visit, which can clear your practice progress.
How long we keep it
- Your account (email, access): until you delete your account.
- Payment and agreement records: at least 3 years, or 1 year after your membership ends if that's later. After you delete your account, we keep these under a random number, without your email, until that time is up.
- Sign-in codes: 15 minutes. Sign-in sessions: up to 90 days after last use.
- Anonymous event counts: up to 2 years.
- Ask Austin conversations: up to 7 days, without your name, email or IP address. Question counts used for limits: up to a day.
- Commission inquiries: in Austin's email for 2 years after our last message, unless you commission a piece; then for as long as the commission agreement and tax records need them.
- Sheet music orders and download records: 7 years, for tax records. Newsletter consent records: as long as you're on the list, then 3 years. Unsubscribe hashes: for as long as we send email.
Your choices and rights
- Delete your account: in your account page, press Delete my account. We delete your email, sign-in and access, and keep only the records the law requires (above).
- See or correct your information: email us. We'll answer within 30 days.
- California: you can ask what we hold about you and ask us to delete it. We don't sell or share personal information.
- EU and UK: you can ask for access, correction, deletion, restriction, a copy of your data, or object to how we use it. You can also complain to your data protection authority.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
We don't use advertising trackers or analytics scripts from other companies, and we don't follow you across other websites. So there is nothing for a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal to switch off, and the site works the same whether or not your browser sends one. Companies whose content we embed (YouTube, and Spotify if you load its player) may collect information under their own policies, as described above.
EU and UK: why we use your information, and transfers
- To give you what you asked for (contract): orders, downloads, accounts, the membership, Ask Austin's answers and replies to your inquiry.
- Legitimate interests: keeping the site secure and stopping fraud and abuse (hashed IP addresses, limits, the Turnstile check), anonymous event counts, and the World Map's public information.
- Consent: emails about new sheet music, and loading the Spotify player. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Legal obligations: tax records and proof of agreement to automatic renewal.
Austin is in the United States, and so are most of the services listed above. When information goes from the EU, the UK or Switzerland to the United States, we rely on each provider's certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (and its UK extension and Swiss framework), or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in its data processing terms.
Children
Accounts are for adults. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. Parents can hold the account for a child who uses the trainer.
Ask Austin and children. Before the first question on a device, Ask Austin asks what year you were born. Your browser keeps only an age group on the device ("13 or older" or "under 13"), never the year, and sends only that age group to our server with each question. It is not passed on to Anthropic.
If the answer shows that someone may be under 13, Ask Austin offers only its suggested questions about the song: there is no box to type in and no microphone. For those questions we collect nothing about the child and keep nothing: no conversation is saved, and Anthropic receives only the suggested question's fixed wording and the name of the song and section, never anything the child typed or said, and not their age. Like everyone's questions, they still count toward a limit per internet connection (IP address); that count is kept under a scrambled (hashed) form of the address for up to a day to stop abuse, and it holds no question or answer text. An under-13 answer is kept on the device for 24 hours; after that Ask Austin asks again.
For people 13 or older, Ask Austin works as described in the Ask Austin section: typed questions go to Anthropic, and conversations are deleted automatically after 7 days.
If you think a child under 13 has given us personal information, email us and we'll delete what we hold.
Security
The site uses HTTPS. We store sign-in codes, sessions, card fingerprints and IP addresses only as hashes, and we never handle card numbers.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll update the date above and, for account holders, send an email.
Contact
Austin Farwell, Los Angeles, California. Email austincfarwell@gmail.com.