Privacy Policy

DrumSkills is a practice tracker for drum students and their teachers. This policy explains what information the app collects, how it is used, who can see it, and the choices you and your parents have. Questions can be sent to practice-masters@gmail.com.

DrumSkills is run by David Gonzalez Arnesto in the Netherlands. He is the person responsible for the information described here (the "controller" under the European privacy law, the GDPR).

1. Information we collect

• Account details: your email address, a password (stored in scrambled form by our login provider, so we cannot read it) and the name you choose. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name and email address from Google.
• Practice information you enter: practice days and minutes, whether you used a drum set or a practice pad, what you practiced, notes you write, Skill Trainer sessions (exercise, tempo, how it felt, optional notes and tags), pinned exercises, personal challenges, and your settings (language, daily goal, metronome sound).
• Group information: groups you create or join, your calendar color, group challenges, and challenges the administrator gives you.
• Date of birth and practice difficulty: when you set up your account we ask for your date of birth. It is stored privately, separate from your other information, and no other user can ever see it (you can see your own in Settings). It is used only to work out your age group (up to 10, 11 to 14, 15 to 17, or 18 and older) so the app can choose your leaderboard group and starting settings, such as how simple the rhythm exercises start. Your age group never limits what you can practise. You can also choose a practice difficulty, which you can change any time in Settings, and the administrator can adjust it. If you gave a wrong date of birth, contact support and the administrator can correct it. Your date of birth is also used only to decide whether Drum Points (see below) are offered to you: they are for players aged 16 and younger.
• Cheers: short ready-made messages (for example "Go practice!") and hearts that group members send each other. There is no free-text chat. Cheers are deleted automatically after 14 days.
• Drum Points (optional, for players aged 16 and younger): if you switch Drum Points on (the app asks once, and you can change your mind at any time in Settings), you earn 1 point for each full minute you practise a tempo in the Skill Trainer, up to 60 points a day. We keep your points with the date you earned them. Players aged 17 and older cannot use Drum Points.
• Points from the administrator: if the administrator turns on the points game for you, the points and short reasons you are given.
• Last opened: the date and time you last opened the app. Only the administrator can see it, to know whether a student is still using the app. It is deleted with your account.
• Notifications (optional): if you turn on notifications in Settings, the app stores a device address that Apple or Google gives your phone (a push token), your phone's time zone and your chosen language, so that we can send you a notification when someone in your group sends you a cheer. We use it for nothing else. You can turn notifications off at any time.
• Worldwide leaderboard (optional): only if you choose to join, the app ranks you by practice days, newly unlocked Skill Trainer tempos and teacher-awarded points, using your first name, last initial and skill level. It is off by default. There are three separate boards (up to 10, 11 to 17, and 18 and older), chosen automatically from your date of birth, and each board only shows people in the same group. Players under 18 appear with their first name only.
• On your device: the app keeps your login session, a few preferences and the state of a running Session Timer in your browser or app storage. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

2. How we use it

We use this information only to run the app: to save your practice, show your progress and streaks, run groups and challenges, keep accounts secure, and answer support requests. We do not sell it, we do not show ads, we do not use analytics or tracking tools, and we do not build advertising profiles.

3. Who can see your information

• You can see all of your own information.
• Members of the same group can see your practice days, time practiced, what you practiced, and your Skill Trainer progress. Your notes are private: group members cannot see them. Only you and the app administrator can.
• The app administrator (David Gonzalez Arnesto, who runs DrumSkills and teaches drums) can see the practice information of all users, including notes, so that he can follow students' progress and help with support questions. He can also give points and assign challenges.
• Other players on the worldwide leaderboard, but only if you have joined it: they can see your first name and the first letter of your last name, your skill level and your leaderboard score, nothing else. You can leave at any time under Progress, Leaderboard, and you then disappear from the list. Your practice history is not deleted.
• Other Drum Points players, but only if you have switched Drum Points on: they can see your first name, your points and your place in the yearly and all-time ranking. The ranking only includes players who also switched it on, in the same age group as you. Adults never see it.
• A group's creator manages the group and its challenges, and sees the same group information as every other member.
• Service providers that run the app for us: our database and login provider (Supabase), our web hosting provider and, only if you turn on notifications, Apple (Apple Push Notification service) and Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging), which deliver the notification to your phone. They only handle data to provide the service. If you choose Google sign-in, Google handles that login. The app's fonts are served from our own site, so no font provider sees your visit.
• Anyone else only if the law requires us to share it.

4. Children

DrumSkills is used by drum students of all ages, including children, who practice with a teacher or a parent. In many countries a parent or guardian must give permission for a child to have an account (for example under 13 in the United States, and under 16 in the Netherlands and much of Europe). Accounts for children below that age must be created by a parent or guardian, or by the child's teacher with the parent's permission, and whoever creates the account confirms this when signing up. We keep the information we collect from children to what the app needs: a name (a first name or nickname is enough), an email address and their practice information. We never use children's information for advertising, tracking or profiling, and we never sell it. Drum Points are optional, are only offered to players aged 16 and younger, show only a first name to other players in the same age group, and can be switched off at any time in Settings.

A parent or guardian can ask us at any time to show, correct or delete their child's information by writing to practice-masters@gmail.com, or can delete the account directly in the app. The app has no chat. Parents and teachers should be aware that group names, challenges and the names and practice of group members are visible to the other members of the group.

5. Why we may use your information, and your rights

We use your information because it is needed to provide the app you signed up for (the "performance of a contract"), and, for keeping the service safe and working, because of our legitimate interest in doing so. Where a parent or guardian gives permission for a child's account, we rely on that permission.

You have the right to ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, to delete it, to limit or object to how we use it, and to receive it in a portable form. Write to practice-masters@gmail.com and we will answer within one month. If you believe we handle your information wrongly, you can also complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl), or to the authority in your own country.

6. Keeping and deleting your information

We keep your information while your account exists. You can permanently delete your account and all of your practice information at any time in the app under Settings, Delete account, or by writing to us. Your notification address is removed when you log out, turn notifications off or delete your account.

7. Security

Information travels over encrypted connections, and the database is set up so that each person can only read what is described in section 3. No system is perfectly secure, so please choose a strong password and do not share it.

8. Where information is processed

Our providers may store and process information in countries other than your own. When information leaves the European Economic Area, it is protected by the safeguards the GDPR requires, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

9. Changes

If we change this policy in a meaningful way we will update the date above and, where it matters, tell you in the app.

10. Contact

DrumSkills (David Gonzalez Arnesto, the Netherlands), practice-masters@gmail.com