At a glance
The app collects no personal dataNo name, email, contacts or photos, and no account. Writing to the developer for help is your choice (see Contact).
iPhone and iPad: ads, or pay to remove themA small banner and an occasional full-screen ad from Google AdMob, until you buy “Remove Ads”, a one-time purchase through Apple. From version 2.3 the app asks your permission before ads may track you, and saying no changes nothing else.
Windows: free, with no adsNo paid version and nothing to buy. An optional PayPal donation supports the developer and changes nothing in the app.
Your progress stays on your deviceScores, test history, your daily goal and which notes you find hard are kept only on your device and never sent anywhere.
InternetWindows needs none. On iPhone and iPad you can practise offline; the free app needs the internet for the ad before every second test. After Remove Ads everything works offline.
What the app does
Playing Against Notes: Piano is a music-reading trainer. It shows notes on a grand staff and you play them on the on-screen piano keys, with a mouse or computer keyboard, or on a real MIDI piano or keyboard connected by USB. You can choose which keys to practise, read sharps and flats, set a daily goal, and take a short Test Skill reaction test with a spoken countdown, on iPhone, iPad and Windows. From version 2.3, on iPhone, iPad and Windows, the app also finds the notes you miss or find slowly so you can practise them, lets you share a picture of a test result, shows a short reading tip while it opens, and is available in Japanese and Korean, with English, Japanese or Korean note names. Everything happens on your device.
iPhone and iPad compared with Windows
This policy covers both versions of the app. They differ in how ads and payments work:
| Topic | iPhone and iPad | Windows |
|---|
| Ads | Yes, from Google AdMob: a small banner at the top and a full-screen ad now and then | None |
| Paying | “Remove Ads”, a one-time in-app purchase | An optional donation of any amount |
| What paying changes | Removes all ads (the banner box then reads “Paid Version”) | Nothing. Every feature is free for everyone. A donation is voluntary support for the developer's work. |
| Who handles the payment | Apple | PayPal, in your web browser |
| Refunds | Ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com | Donations are not refundable |
| Internet | Not needed to practise. The free app needs it for the ad before every second test; not needed at all after Remove Ads | Not needed |
| What the developer keeps | Nothing: no payment details and no Apple ID | Nothing: no donors' details and no donation records |
Information we collect
The app does not collect, send or store any personal information, and the developer has no servers. The app has no account and no analytics of its own. The only personal information the developer ever receives is what you choose to send when you contact support by email (see Contact). If you donate on Windows, PayPal shows the payment in the developer's PayPal account; the developer does not copy, keep or use those details (see Donations).
The iPhone and iPad app shows ads from Google, described in the next section. Google, not the developer, collects the information needed to show those ads. The Windows app has no ads and does not connect to the internet itself.
Advertising on iPhone and iPad
The free iPhone and iPad app shows ads from Google AdMob: a small banner at the top of the screen, which changes by itself every so often, and a full-screen ad after every 60 right or 60 wrong notes and before every second Test Skill run. A new player sees no full-screen ads in their first 10 minutes with the app. From version 2.3 the piano keys no longer wait for the banner, so you can practise offline; a test that has an ad before it needs the internet. To show ads, measure them and prevent fraud, Google may collect:
- an identifier for your device for this app, and Apple's advertising identifier, but only if you allow tracking when the app asks (see “Permission to track” below);
- your IP address, used to estimate your general location (country or city);
- how you interact with the ads, such as views and taps;
- technical, performance and crash information about the ads.
Google uses this information under its own privacy policy. See how Google uses information from apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy. The developer does not receive information that identifies you. Google AdMob is the only third-party service in the iPhone and iPad app. It is bound by Google's privacy policy and AdMob terms to protect this information, and the developer sends it nothing about you.
In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, a Google consent message asks for your choices before ads are personalised. You can change them at any time with the Privacy button in the app. Ads are limited to content rated suitable for a general audience.
Permission to track (from version 2.3)
When you first open version 2.3 or later, Apple's own pop-up asks whether the app may track your activity across other companies' apps and websites. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland it comes right after Google's consent message. The ads only start after you answer.
- Allow: Google may receive Apple's advertising identifier and use it, together with the information listed above, to show ads that are more relevant to you and to measure them. Apple calls this tracking.
- Ask App Not to Track: Google does not receive the advertising identifier and may not use the app's information to track you. You still see ads, but they are less personalised.
The app works exactly the same either way, and the developer never receives the identifier. You can change your answer at any time in Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Tracking on your iPhone or iPad. Versions before 2.3 never asked, and Google did not receive the advertising identifier from them.
Remove Ads purchase (iPhone and iPad only)
The Remove Ads / Restore Purchase button lets you buy a one-time upgrade that removes all ads, or restore it on another device. Afterwards the banner box at the top shows “Paid Version” instead of an ad. Apple handles the payment and any refunds. The developer never receives your payment details or Apple ID. The app only asks Apple whether this purchase has been made, and remembers the answer on your device.
The Windows app has no ads and no paid version, so it has no Remove Ads purchase.
Donations (Windows only)
Donations apply only to the Windows app. The iPhone and iPad app has no Donate button: there, the only payment is the Remove Ads purchase through Apple.
The Windows app has an optional Donate button that opens the developer's PayPal donation page in your web browser. Donations are entirely voluntary, as support for the developer's work. A donation does not unlock, change or affect anything in the app: every feature works the same for everyone, whether or not they donate. Donations are not refundable.
The app itself sends nothing to PayPal or the developer and never sees your payment details. PayPal handles the donation under the PayPal Privacy Statement and keeps its own record of the payment, which, as with any PayPal payment, also appears in the developer's PayPal account. The developer does not copy, keep or use donors' PayPal details, keeps no donation records, and never shares or sells anything about donors.
What stays on your device
To work, the app keeps a few things on your device only. The app never sends them to the developer or anyone else.
| Item | Why | Where it is kept |
|---|
| Settings | Remembers your choices for Sharps, Flats, Key names, note names (EN, JP or KR, from version 2.3), the app sound for a MIDI piano, the last Test Skill choice (number of notes and seconds per note), and which reading tip the loading screen shows next (from version 2.3). | On your device, in the app's own storage, until you uninstall the app. |
| Best Test Skill scores | Shows your best test for each Test Skill choice: right keys, their average time, and the level and keys you used. | On your device, in the app's own storage (on Windows with a backup copy of the same small file), until you uninstall the app. |
| Daily goal and test history (Windows 2.2, iPhone and iPad 2.3) | Your daily goal (25, 50 or 100 right notes), today's count, your streak and the days you met the goal in the last two weeks; your last 10 Test Skill results (date and time, test choice, score and average time) for the history and speed chart; and how many good results you have had, so the app knows when to ask for a rating. On iPhone and iPad also how many minutes you have used the app (for the first 10 minutes without full-screen ads) and the day the Remove Ads offer was last shown. | On your device, in the app's own storage, until you uninstall the app. Never sent anywhere. |
| Note practice statistics (version 2.3) | For each piano key: how often it has come up, how often you missed it, and how hard it seems from wrong and slow answers. This makes the notes you find hard come back more often and fills the Weak notes list. | On your device, in the app's own storage, until you uninstall the app. Never sent anywhere. |
| Purchase status (iPhone, iPad) | Remembers whether “Remove Ads” has been bought, so no ads appear. | On your device, until you uninstall the app. Apple keeps the purchase itself. |
| Your score and last test | Shows correct and missed notes while you practise, and the result of your latest Test Skill run. | In memory only. They are cleared when you close the app. |
| Error log (Windows) | If something unexpected happens, a technical note is written so the app can keep running. | In %LocalAppData%\PianoLearning\errors.log on your PC. It contains no personal information and is never uploaded. |
If you turn on Windows Backup, Windows may include the app's stored data in your own OneDrive backup. That is your choice and is covered by Microsoft's privacy statement.
Sharing a test result
iPhone and iPad: from version 2.3 the results card has a Share button. The app draws a picture of that result on your device (score, average time, test choice and date) and opens Apple's share sheet with a short message and the App Store link. Nothing is sent unless you pick where to share it, and the app and the developer don't see what you share or with whom. If you choose to save the picture to Photos, iOS asks you first, and the app can only add that picture: it can't see your photos.
Windows: from version 2.3 the results card has Share: copy picture and Save picture…. The app draws the same kind of picture on your PC. Copy picture puts it on your clipboard together with a short message and the Microsoft Store link, so you can paste it where you like. Save picture… saves it as a PNG file in the folder you choose. Nothing is sent anywhere by the app, and the developer doesn't see what you share or with whom.
MIDI pianos and keyboards
When you connect a MIDI piano or keyboard, the app reads which keys you press and release so it can check your answers, and it shows the instrument's name (for example "Digital Piano") on screen. This information is used at that moment only. It is not recorded, saved or sent anywhere.
Permissions
- The app does not use your microphone, camera, location or contacts, and it doesn't read your photos or files. On iPhone and iPad it only adds a result picture to Photos when you choose to save one from the share sheet. On Windows it only writes a result picture to the clipboard or to a file in the folder you choose, when you click Share: copy picture or Save picture….
- From version 2.3 the app shows its text in Japanese or Korean when your device is set to that language. It only reads the language setting on your device; nothing is sent.
- The piano sound and the right and wrong sounds you hear are generated by the app itself. The spoken “Ready?” and “3, 2, 1” of Test Skill are made on your device by its built-in speech voice (Windows, or iOS and iPadOS, in English, Japanese or Korean; on Windows in Japanese or Korean only when that Windows voice is installed). No text or audio leaves your device.
- On iPhone and iPad, the app uses the internet only to load ads (the banner and the full-screen ads), show the consent message and check the Remove Ads purchase.
- On iPhone and iPad (from version 2.3), the app asks once for Apple's permission to track, as described under Advertising. You can say no, and change your answer later in Settings.
- On Windows, the app runs as a standard desktop app (the Microsoft Store lists this as "Uses all system resources"). It uses this only to play sound, speak the Test Skill countdown with the Windows speech voice, read a connected MIDI instrument and, when you ask, copy or save a result picture. It doesn't connect to the internet itself: the links in the About card and the Donate button open in your web browser.
The Microsoft Store and the App Store
You download the app from the Microsoft Store or Apple's App Store. Microsoft and Apple handle downloads, purchases (including Remove Ads), ratings and reviews, and updates under their own privacy policies. Now and then the app invites you to rate it: on Windows a “Rate it” link opens the Microsoft Store's review page, and on iPhone and iPad (from version 2.3) Apple shows its own rating prompt. Rating is optional, and the app never sees what you choose. They may give the developer summary statistics, such as how many people installed the app, and crash information if you have agreed to share it with developers in your device settings. This information does not identify you to the developer.
Your choices and your data
- On your device: everything the app keeps (your settings, your best Test Skill scores, your daily goal and test history, your note practice statistics, and the purchase status) is deleted when you uninstall the app. The developer holds none of it.
- Ads on iPhone and iPad: in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland you can change or withdraw your ad choices at any time with the Privacy button in the app. From version 2.3 you can allow or stop tracking at any time in Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Tracking. You can also manage Google's ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com. To ask Google about information it holds, use the contact details in the Google Privacy Policy. Buying Remove Ads stops all ads.
- Emails to the developer: your messages are kept only as long as needed to help you. Ask at any time and the developer will delete them.
- Donations (Windows): the developer keeps no donors' details or donation records, so there is nothing to delete. PayPal's own record of a payment is covered by the PayPal Privacy Statement; ask PayPal about it.
- Your rights: if you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you can ask what the developer holds about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, and complain to your local data protection authority.
Children
The app is suitable for all ages but is not directed specifically at children under 13. The app collects no personal information from anyone. On Windows there are no ads, and donating is never needed to use any feature. On iPhone and iPad, ads are limited to content suitable for a general audience, and buying Remove Ads switches them off completely.
Changes to this policy
If the app changes how it handles information, this page will be updated before the change takes effect, and the date at the top will change.
Contact
For questions about this policy or the app, see the support page for the developer's email address. If you write, the developer receives your email address and your message, uses them only to reply, keeps them only as long as needed, and does not share or sell them.