Privacy policy

Who is responsible

The controller is Rafael Collado, trading as NewTopic, Ehrenbergstrasse 16A, Scanbox 03400, 10245 Berlin, Germany. For privacy or support, email contact@newtopic.com. For legal matters, email legal@newtopic.com.

Visiting this website

This is an information and support website. It has no accounts, contact forms, file uploads, advertising, visitor analytics or public administration interface. We do not build advertising profiles or make automated decisions about visitors.

Your browser still sends technical connection data when it requests a page. We use that data as needed to deliver the website, protect it against misuse and investigate faults. Visiting the site does not give us access to your Butter library or media files.

Hosting and delivery

Hetzner hosts the website, and Cloudflare sits in front of it to deliver and protect requests. These providers process connection and request information, including IP addresses, as necessary for their services. Connections use HTTPS, including the connection between Cloudflare and the hosting server.

Cloudflare may process information outside the European Economic Area. Its privacy policy explains its international-transfer arrangements and retention practices: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/. Information about Hetzner is available at https://www.hetzner.com/legal/privacy-policy/. Our 14-day origin error-log limit does not describe or control Cloudflare’s own retention.

We require providers acting on our behalf to protect information to a standard equivalent to this policy and applicable law, use it only for the agreed service, and apply appropriate confidentiality and security safeguards.

Operational logs

Our minimized website access logs omit IP addresses, visitor identifiers, query strings, user-agent strings and referrers. Private server error logs may contain an IP address and request context needed to diagnose a fault or attack. We keep these error logs for up to 14 days and restrict access to people responsible for operating the service.

Language and appearance

The butter-language and butter-theme cookies remember the language and appearance you choose for this website. Each lasts for up to one year and is limited to this host, marked Secure and SameSite=Lax. We do not use localStorage for these preferences or set advertising or analytics cookies. The Cookies page explains how to change or remove them.

When you contact us

When you contact us, we process the contact details and information you provide to handle your request. Email passes through the mail providers used to send and receive it. Please send only information needed for the request; do not send media files, passwords, pairing invitations or other secrets.

We retain support correspondence for 24 months after the request is closed, then delete it unless a specific legal obligation requires longer retention or a particular legal claim requires preservation. Where such an exception applies, we retain only the information needed for that purpose.

Information saved by the Butter app

No Butter account is required. Local playback works without an internet connection. Optional radio uses NewTopic’s online service; it does not upload your local library or media files. It saves your library, recent files, queue, folders, saved moments and playback positions on your device, together with file names, locations, saved access information and your playback, subtitle and app preferences.

Artwork and thumbnails are cached locally. Butter keeps a previous library snapshot and may preserve damaged snapshots for recovery. Files selected through iCloud Drive or another provider can involve that provider’s own downloads or synchronization. System backups may include the library and preferences; cached artwork is excluded from backup. System playback controls may display the current title, artwork and playback information.

Optional online radio

Opening Radio contacts NewTopic to load stations. Listening sends a random listener identifier, your station choice, session requests and playback-progress signals. The service also processes your IP address, network information and request details to deliver audio, enforce listening limits, count active listeners and prevent misuse. Station artwork is also loaded from NewTopic.

Radio and security cookies are stored locally until their server-set expiry: up to seven days for the radio listener cookie, one year for the security visitor cookie and twelve hours for verification. Server radio session state is kept for up to seven days after it is refreshed. Active-listener presence expires shortly after playback stops. Verification may use Cloudflare Turnstile.

If verification is needed on Apple TV, complete it on a nearby iPhone or iPad. NewTopic uses a short-lived request and a single-use code to authorize radio on the TV. Your phone’s cookies and account are not transferred to Apple TV.

NewTopic’s security records include IP addresses, request details, approximate country and security decisions. Ordinary retention is up to 90 days; a documented legal hold or security incident may require longer. Cloudflare also processes connection and security information under its own privacy policy. This processing is separate from advertising or cross-app tracking.

Stopping radio ends playback and progress messages. Clearing local history does not delete radio service records. For radio privacy rights and retention details, read NewTopic’s privacy policy or contact privacy@newtopic.com.

NewTopic radio privacy policy: https://newtopic.com/legal/privacy

Optional Device Link

Device Link remains off until you enable it. While enabled, your device name is visible on the local network. Pairing requires your approval, and paired connections are encrypted. Playback control shares media titles, playback state and track information. Playing on another device shares the selected file’s identity and playback choices; streaming sends that file’s media bytes only to the approved paired device.

Pairing identity and trust records are stored in the device’s Keychain without iCloud Keychain synchronization. On devices that offer code scanning, the camera is used only when you choose to scan a pairing invitation; Butter does not save or upload camera footage. Copying an invitation puts it on the system clipboard, whose handling is controlled by the operating system.

Exports and managing local data

Butter does not upload diagnostics automatically. An explicit diagnostic export contains technical playback information without file names, file paths, media content or pairing secrets. You choose where to save or share exported diagnostics and video frames, and those destinations have their own data handling.

Clear recent history removes the recent list and its saved progress; queue items, folders, saved moments and recovery snapshots may remain. Clear artwork and thumbnails removes cached images, not your media. Turning Device Link off disconnects devices; Forget device revokes that device’s access and removes its trust record. These actions do not erase original media, provider copies, backups or exports.

Why we process information

Where the GDPR applies, necessary website delivery, security, fault investigation and ordinary support rely on our legitimate interests in running a reliable service and responding to requests under Article 6(1)(f). Processing needed to fulfil a contract or take steps you request before a contract relies on Article 6(1)(b); processing required by law relies on Article 6(1)(c). We do not use this website to make decisions based solely on automated processing.

Preference storage serves the language or appearance function you expressly request; we rely on the necessary-function exception in Section 25(2)(2) TDDDG for that storage. If we ask for consent for a separate activity, you may withdraw it for the future without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing.

Your rights and choices

Subject to the applicable legal conditions, you can request access, correction, deletion, restriction and data portability. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests for reasons arising from your situation. Contact contact@newtopic.com to exercise these rights; we may need proportionate information to verify the request.

You may complain to a data-protection supervisory authority, including the authority where you live or work. Our local authority is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information: https://www.datenschutz-berlin.de/. You do not have to contact us first. Rights concerning data held solely on your device can also be exercised through the app’s documented controls and your device settings.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page when the website or app’s relevant handling changes and show the publication date. Questions about this policy can be sent to contact@newtopic.com.