| 95 | 95 | We ask for and collect the below personal data when you use the Platform. This personal data is necessary for the adequate performance of the platform, to meet the requirements of the contract present between you and us and to comply with our obligations thereunder. |
| 96 | 96 | |
| 97 | 97 | You don't need to register for a SoundCloud account in order to visit or use our Platform. However, certain Services require that you register for an account and, by doing so, you will need to provide us with certain personal data: |
| 98 | 98 | |
| 99 | 99 | - Account Information - When you register with any kind of SoundCloud account, and from time to time thereafter, you will need to provide your email address (except when you sign-up with Facebook, Google or Apple and don't give your permission to share it with SoundCloud), your age or birthdate, postal code, a username (which may be your real name or a pseudonym) and a password. Your email address may also be used to send you one-time passwords as part of two-factor authentication for your account. |
| 100 | 100 | |
| 101 | Depending on the territory, you may also choose to provide and verify a mobile phone number for account authentication and security purposes, including to receive one-time passwords by SMS as part of two-factor authentication, account login, account recovery, password resets, or other critical account actions. Where required, we will obtain your consent before sending authentication messages to your mobile phone number. Message frequency varies and message and data rates may apply. |
| 102 | |
| 101 | 103 | - Profile Information - you may choose, at your discretion, to provide additional personal data for your public profile on SoundCloud - for example: |
| 102 | 104 | |
| 103 | 105 | - your real name |
| 104 | 106 | |
| 105 | 107 | - your gender |
| 106 | 108 | |
| 171 | 173 | - Android Advertising IDs - We collect your Google Android's Advertising ID ("AAID"). You can reset these numbers through the settings of your device's operating system (we do not control this). Such identifiers will only be used for advertising and further analysis subject to your consent, where required by applicable law. |
| 172 | 174 | |
| 173 | 175 | - Apple IDs - We collect your Apple Identifier for Advertising ("IDFA"). You can reset these numbers through the settings of your device's operating system (we do not control this). Such identifiers will only be used for advertising and further analysis subject to your consent, where required by applicable law and in accordance with Apple's settings. |
| 174 | 176 | |
| 175 | 177 | - Cross App Tracking on Apple Devices - Starting with iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, we will need to receive your permission through the AppTrackingTransparency framework to access and track you through your device's advertising identifier (see above "IDFA"). Tracking refers to the act of linking user or device data collected from our app with user or device data collected from other companies' apps, websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes. Tracking also refers to sharing user or device data with data brokers. The use of such tracking is subject to your consent and therefore may only be exercised by us with such consent. Apple allows the ID for Vendors (IDFV) to be used for analytics across apps from the same content provider (us). The IDFV may not be combined with other data to track a user across apps and websites owned by other companies unless we have been granted permission to track by you. For further information on how we use the SKAdNetwork for attribution tracking please refer to the documentation that Apple provides [here](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skadnetwork/). |
| 176 | 178 | |
| 177 | | - Payment Verification Information - We use the services of Adyen (Adyen N.V., Simon Carmiggeltstraat 6-50, 1011 DJ, Netherlands, click [here](https://www.adyen.com/policies-and-disclaimer/privacy-policy) for privacy policy), Recurly (Recurly, Inc., San Francisco, CA (HQ), 400 Alabama Street, Suite 202 San Francisco, CA 94110, United States, click [here](https://recurly.com/legal/privacy/) for privacy policy) and Apple Pay (only via in app purchase and subject to the [privacy policy](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203027) of Apple, Inc., and the terms and conditions of the payment provider you are using Apple Pay with) for processing your payments. We will get a verification including information on the respective payment method and your name as well as other non-personally identifiable payment information (for example the expiry date of a credit card) as well as information hashed by the respective payment provider (for example a hashed credit card number). |
| 179 | - Payment Verification Information - We use the services of Adyen (Adyen N.V., Simon Carmiggeltstraat 6-50, 1011 DJ, Netherlands, click [here](https://www.adyen.com/policies-and-disclaimer/privacy-policy) for privacy policy), Recurly (Recurly, Inc., San Francisco, CA (HQ), 400 Alabama Street, Suite 202 San Francisco, CA 94110, United States, click [here](https://recurly.com/legal/privacy/) for privacy policy) and Apple Pay (only via in app purchase and subject to the [privacy policy](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203027) of Apple, Inc., and the terms and conditions of the payment provider you are using Apple Pay with) for processing your payments. We will get a verification including information on the respective payment method and your name as well as other non-personally identifiable payment information (for example the expiry date of a credit card) as well as information hashed by the respective payment provider (for example a hashed credit card number). We also utilize specialized service providers, specifically Justt Fintech UK Ltd., to automatically compile, optimize, and submit evidence packages to financial institutions to defend against unjustified payment reversals (chargebacks). For this purpose, we process and share transaction and subscription metadata (such as transaction IDs, cardholder names, email addresses, billing history, and subscription status) based on our legitimate interest in fraud prevention and maintaining economic stability (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) as well as the performance of our contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Data transfers to the United Kingdom or other jurisdictions outside the EEA are fully secured via adequacy decisions or Standard Contractual Clauses. |
| 178 | 180 | |
| 179 | 181 | - Payment Processing In the Apple App and Google Play Store - Payment processing services within the relevant Apps and App Stores enable SoundCloud to process payments. SoundCloud does not process or store credit card details, and uses only the information necessary to execute the transaction with the financial intermediaries handling the transaction. Even though we do not access raw unencrypted card details of a card holder, some of these services may also enable the sending of timed messages to you, such as emails containing invoices or notifications concerning your payment. |
| 180 | 182 | |
| 181 | 183 | - External Payment Providers - The payment provider you use for your payment is solely responsible for the payment. Please refer to the terms of service and privacy policy of your payment provider for further information. |
| 182 | 184 | |
| 183 | 185 | ## How We Use Your Personal Data |
| 184 | 186 | |
| 185 | 187 | We use the personal data we collect from you for a range of different business purposes according to different legal bases of processing and subject to the choices you make in your [Settings](https://soundcloud.com/settings). We do this with the help of automated systems and decision making. Please be aware that when we refer to automated decision making, we will not use any profiling that produces legal effects concerning you or, similarly, significantly affects you. Automated decisions are concerned with content that may be more relevant for you than other content. We use your personal data to: |
| 186 | 188 | |
| 187 | 189 | - Provide, Improve, and Develop the Platform - We process your personal data primarily for the adequate performance of our contract with you (e.g. [Terms of Use](https://soundcloud.com/terms-of-use)). We may also process your personal data in light of our legitimate interest in improving the Platform and giving our users the best experience. We do this to: |
| 188 | 190 | |
| 189 | | - Operate and maintain your SoundCloud account, and to provide you with access to and use of the Platform. Your email address and password are used to identify you when you log into the Platform. Where two-factor authentication is enabled for your account, your email address may also be used to deliver one-time passwords for login verification. You can manage your preferred two-factor authentication method in your Settings. Your device-IDs are used to help ensure that you are in control of the devices that have access to your Subscription. |
| 191 | - Operate and maintain your SoundCloud account, and to provide you with access to and use of the Platform. Your email address and password are used to identify you when you log into the Platform. Where two-factor authentication is enabled for your account, your email address may also be used to deliver one-time passwords for login verification. Where you choose to provide and verify a mobile phone number, we may use that number to verify your identity and secure your account, including by sending one-time passwords by SMS for two-factor authentication, login verification, account recovery, password resets, and other critical account actions. You can manage your preferred two-factor authentication method in your Settings. Your device-IDs are used to help ensure that you are in control of the devices that have access to your Subscription. |
| 190 | 192 | |
| 191 | 193 | - Identify you as the creator of the Tracks that you upload, the comments that you post and/or the other contributions that you make to the Platform. |
| 192 | 194 | |
| 193 | 195 | - Provide creators with stats and insights about users' listening behavior of their Tracks, (i.e. streaming and downloading their Tracks or following their profiles). |
| 194 | 196 | |
| 195 | 197 | - Conduct surveys and research, test features in development, and analyze the information we have to evaluate and improve products and services, develop new features, and conduct audits and troubleshooting activities. |
| 203 | 205 | - Enable age restrictions. |
| 204 | 206 | |
| 205 | 207 | - Maintain a Safe and Secure Environment - We also process your personal data in light of our legitimate interest in improving the security of the Platform (including the security of your personal data) in order to give our users the best experience, and where it is necessary for the adequate performance of our contract with you (e.g. [Terms of Use](https://soundcloud.com/terms-of-use)) or to comply with our legal obligations. As part of our security measures, we may use automated tools to help detect and prevent the distribution of malicious URLs through private messages. For example, we may automatically identify URLs included in messages and assess whether a link appears to be associated with phishing, malware, fraud, or similar security threats, in order to protect users and the Platform. This processing is carried out for security and fraud-prevention purposes and is limited to what is necessary to identify and evaluate URLs and respond to suspected malicious activity. Other measures include: |
| 206 | 208 | |
| 207 | 209 | - The detection and prevention of fraud, spam, abuse, security incidents, and other suspicious activity. |
| 208 | 210 | |
| 209 | | - The verification and authentication of your identity to prevent unauthorized or illegal activity, including through the use of two-factor authentication methods such as email-based one-time passwords. |
| 211 | - The verification and authentication of your identity to prevent unauthorized or illegal activity, including through the use of two-factor authentication methods such as email-based one-time passwords and SMS-based one-time passwords sent to a verified mobile phone number. |
| 210 | 212 | |
| 211 | 213 | - The enhancement of the safety and security of our products and services. |
| 212 | 214 | |
| 213 | 215 | - The conducting of security investigations and risk assessments. |
| 214 | 216 | |
| 215 | 217 | - The prevention or action against activities that are, or may be, in breach of our Terms of Use, Community Guidelines or applicable law. |
| 251 | 253 | - With Artists - When you listen to Artists, you are providing your public profile and information about your listening behavior to those Artists. Artists are able to see in their statistics that you have listened to the Tracks they uploaded along with a ranking of who listened to their Tracks the most. They will also be able to see how many times you have listened to any of their Tracks, and that you are following them. This is to allow Artists to Artists better understand their fanbase. More information is available in the SoundCloud Fan Insights document [here](https://soundcloud.com/pages/fan-insights). |
| 252 | 254 | |
| 253 | 255 | - With Other SoundCloud Users - Based on our legitimate interest in fostering connections among fans and artists, when you perform an activity (e.g., when you listen to, like, or follow) with respect to a particular Track or Artist, we may identify you to other SoundCloud users as (i) a listener who has engaged in that way with the Track or Artist and (ii) one of the listeners with the most, or first, such activities with respect to that Track or Artist. This may also include SoundCloud Monetization features where supporters of an Artist are displayed with their public profile in corresponding presentations (e.g., leaderboards). In your Settings ("Privacy" tab), you may opt out of being identified with respect to certain of your activities on the Platform. For example, we may provide you certain insights and reports about your musical tastes and listening behavior; we may also provide certain collaborative listening and curation features, such as listening parties or enabling other individual SoundCloud users to see or join your live listening session. You can control these features and how your information is shared in your Settings. |
| 254 | 256 | |
| 255 | 257 | - Service Providers - We use a variety of service providers, some of whom may be located outside of the European Economic Area ("EEA"), to provide services to us or to our users on our behalf. These service providers have access to your personal data solely to perform these tasks on our behalf, and are contractually bound to implement appropriate organizational and technical security measures to protect against unauthorized disclosure of personal data, and only to process personal data in accordance with our instructions and to the extent necessary to provide their services to us. We need to share your personal data in order to ensure the adequate performance of our contract with you. For instance, we work closely with service providers in the area of customer service (i.e. help center, content moderation), including Decagon AI, Inc., which provides an AI-powered customer support platform that uses large language models provided by OpenAI to assist in processing and responding to your support inquiries, with technical service providers (e.g. running computer centers) or music service providers (i.e. rights administration) and payment service providers. These service providers may generally only process your personal data on our behalf under special conditions. Decagon AI, Inc. and OpenAI are located in the United States; the applicable international data transfer safeguards are described in the "International Data Transfers" section below. |
| 256 | 258 | |
| 259 | - Mobile Information and SMS Consent Data - No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. |
| 260 | |
| 257 | 261 | - Rightsholders - The Platform allows you to listen to a variety of Tracks, including licensed streaming content. To help rightsholders that license Tracks to us understand how the Tracks that they provide are performing, including insights about general or individual user listening trends and preferences, rightsholders are able to view information like your public profile details as well as basic usage data (for example interactions with Tracks). If you live in the EU/EEA/U.K., we share this personal data based on our legitimate interest, as our contracts with these rightsholders state that they will be granted these insights. Their interest prevails over your legitimate interest in the safekeeping of your public profile information and basic usage data. |
| 258 | 262 | |
| 259 | 263 | - Collecting Societies - Due to legal obligations, we are obliged in many countries around the world to transmit pseudonymized or anonymized usage data to copyright collecting societies that help manage payment and royalty information for Rightsholders. |
| 260 | 264 | |
| 261 | 265 | - Advertising on the Platform - We share the personal data collected about you in hashed, aggregated, or de-identified forms with advertisers and business partners in order to serve ads on our Platform that we think will interest you and to measure the reach and effectiveness of those ads, including whether you took an action (e.g. purchased a product). We may also share cookie data and device identifiers with our partners for data matching purposes, in order to improve ad targeting. If you live in the EU/EEA/U.K., You can find a detailed overview of our advertisers [here](https://soundcloud.com/settings/advertising). Please be aware that where such personal data of yours is identifiable, we will only use it with your consent. For users outside of the EU/EEA/U.K., you can turn off our use of third-party data to inform the ads you see on SoundCloud by adjusting your settings [here](https://soundcloud.com/settings/advertising). |
| 262 | 266 | |
| 402 | 406 | ## Collection, Disclosure, Sale and Sharing of Personal Data |
| 403 | 407 | |
| 404 | 408 | Above, we explain how SoundCloud collects, uses, and discloses information about you. Below we use two charts to communicate the same information, in accordance with requirements under certain state privacy laws. In addition to the information below, as we explain above, we also share your public profile information and information about your interactions with Artists' content (such as what you listen to and how often you listen) with those Artists. |
| 405 | 409 | |
| 406 | 410 | | Categories of Personal Data that we plan to collect and have collected and disclosed within the preceding 12 months | Disclosed to Which Categories of Recipients for Operational Business Purposes | How We Use Personal Data | |
| 407 | 411 | | --- | --- | --- | |
| 408 | | | Identifiers, such as your name, email address, residential address, date of birth, profile picture, social security number, as well as IP addresses, device IDs, anonymous Repost user IDs, and other similar identifiers | Affiliates; service providers; business partners; joint marketing partners; content partners; social networks; contest sponsors; legal authorities; other SoundCloud users | We may use this personal data to operate, manage, and maintain our business, to provide our products and services, and to accomplish our business purposes and objectives, including, for example, to: |
| 412 | | Identifiers, such as your name, email address, mobile phone number (depending on the territory), residential address, date of birth, profile picture, social security number, as well as IP addresses, device IDs, anonymous Repost user IDs, and other similar identifiers | Affiliates; service providers; business partners; joint marketing partners; content partners; social networks; contest sponsors; legal authorities; other SoundCloud users | We may use this personal data to operate, manage, and maintain our business, to provide our products and services, and to accomplish our business purposes and objectives, including, for example, to: |
| 409 | 413 | - To operate and maintain the Platform and your SoundCloud account and to provide you with access to and use of the Platform |
| 410 | 414 | - To identify you as the creator of the Tracks that you upload and the comments that you post |
| 411 | 415 | - To provide our newsletter to subscribers |
| 412 | 416 | - To market and sell our products and services |
| 413 | 417 | - To provide personalized content, ads, recommendations, and experiences for you and to other SoundCloud users |
| 414 | 418 | - To enable collaborative listening, curation, and other social features for SoundCloud users |
| 415 | 419 | - To perform market research studies and development |
| 416 | 420 | - To perform data and business analytics |
| 417 | 421 | - To detect and prevent fraud, spam, abuse, security incidents, or other suspicious activity |
| 418 | | - To perform identity verification and authentication and prevent unauthorized or illegal activity, including through the use of two-factor authentication methods such as email-based one-time passwords |
| 422 | - To perform identity verification and authentication and prevent unauthorized or illegal activity, including through the use of two-factor authentication methods such as email-based one-time passwords or SMS-based one-time passwords sent to a verified mobile phone number |
| 419 | 423 | - To process Subscription payments |
| 420 | 424 | - To operate and maintain SoundCloud Monetization |
| 421 | 425 | - To process user inquiries and requests |
| 422 | 426 | - To perform security investigations and other risk assessments |
| 423 | 427 | - To undertake quality assurance measures |
| 424 | 428 | - To maintain our systems and infrastructure |
| 435 | 439 | | Internet or network activity information, such as (browsing history, search history and interactions with our online properties or ads) | Affiliates; service providers | |
| 436 | 440 | | General location data, such as approximate location derived from IP address | Affiliates; service providers; contest sponsors | |
| 437 | 441 | | Audio, images, text, and other electronic information, such as the content you distribute through the Platform | Affiliates; service providers; operating systems and platforms | |
| 438 | 442 | | Information about your activities on the Platform, such as tracks you engage with, and listening sessions and behavior | Affiliates; service providers; depending upon your Settings, other SoundCloud users | |
| 439 | 443 | | Inferences drawn from any of the personal data listed above, such as about your musical tastes and listening patterns | Affiliates; service providers; depending upon your settings, other SoundCloud users | |
| 440 | 444 | |
| 445 | Mobile Information and SMS Consent Data - No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties. |
| 446 | |
| 441 | 447 | We disclose the following categories of personal information to third parties for the purpose of advertising to you on non-affiliated sites and services and to inform the ads we show you on our Platform, including to measure and improve the effectiveness of advertising (see the "[Advertising on the Platform](https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy)" and "[Ads about SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy)" section above for more information). These activities may be considered "sales" or "sharing" or use of personal information for "targeted advertising" under certain State Laws. |
| 442 | 448 | |
| 443 | 449 | | Category of Personal Data | Categories of Third Parties | |
| 444 | 450 | | --- | --- | |
| 445 | 451 | | Identifiers | Advertising partners | |
| 446 | 452 | | Internet or network activity information, such as (browsing history, search history and interactions with our online properties or ads) | Advertising partners | |
| 505 | 511 | If you have questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or our practices, please contact our Data Protection Officer by email at dataprotection@soundcloud.com or write to our Data Protection Officer at SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG, Karl-Marx-Strasse 101, 12043 Berlin, Germany Attention: Data Protection Officer. |
| 506 | 512 | |
| 507 | 513 | ## Changes to this Privacy Policy |
| 508 | 514 | |
| 509 | 515 | We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the revised Privacy Policy on the Platform and update the "Last Amended" date below. Please be sure to periodically check this page to ensure that you are aware of any changes to this Privacy Policy. Any material changes to this Privacy Policy will be communicated to registered users by a notification to their account and/or by posting a notice of the change on the Website. Your continued access to or use of the Platform after the effective date of such changes will be subject to the revised Privacy Policy. |
| 510 | 516 | |
| 511 | | Last Amended: May 22, 2026 |
| 517 | Last Amended: August 17, 2026 |
| 512 | 518 | |
| 513 | 519 | Link to prior versions |
| 514 | 520 | You will find a link to prior versions of our Privacy Policy below. |
| 515 | 521 | |
| 522 | - [May 2026](https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy/05-2026) |
| 523 | |
| 516 | 524 | - [April 2026](https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy/04-2026) |
| 517 | 525 | |
| 518 | 526 | - [February 2026](https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy/02-2026) |
| 519 | 527 | |
| 520 | 528 | - [January 2026](https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy/01-2026) |
| 521 | 529 | |