Last updated: 3 October 2026
Tobar collects nothing.
There is no Tobar account, no Tobar server and no sign-in. Nobody, including the developer, can see what you save or write in the app.
Your bookmarks (links to recordings and pages), your folders, tags, star ratings, playlists, notes and lyrics are kept in a database inside the app on your device. So are the descriptions of any contributions you prepare: titles, the names of performers and collectors, places, summaries, consent details and similar information you type in.
This information also goes to your own iCloud account, so the same library is on your iPhone, iPad and Mac. This happens automatically when you are signed in to iCloud on the device. It goes into your account’s private database, which Apple encrypts, which the developer cannot see or ask for, and which no other user of Tobar can reach.
If you are not signed in to iCloud, or you turn iCloud off for Tobar in your device’s Settings, the app keeps working and everything stays on that device. If you have iCloud Backup switched on, your device may include the app’s data in your own backup. Both are Apple’s services under your own Apple Account, covered by Apple’s privacy policy rather than this one.
If you record a contribution, or import audio, the sound file is kept only on the device that made it. It is not uploaded to iCloud or anywhere else by the app. The same goes for photos or scans of signed consent forms.
Tobar asks for the microphone only when you start to record, and for the camera only when you choose to scan a signed form (iPhone and iPad). Neither is used at any other time. If you pick a photo from your library, only the photo you choose is shared with the app.
When you prepare a contribution to offer to an archive, Tobar assembles a folder of files on your device. The app sends nothing anywhere itself: you choose whether to share it, and where, through the standard share sheet or by saving it to a folder.
Tobar shows pages from tobarandualchais.co.uk and raretunes.org in a web view inside the app, unmodified, and plays recordings on those pages. It does not download or copy any audio. When you browse, your device connects to those websites in the ordinary way, as it would in a browser. What those sites collect, including through cookies, is for them to describe. Nothing about you is added to the request by Tobar.
A bookmark stores the address of a page, its title, and what you add yourself. Tobar has no access to the other information on those sites beyond what is shown on the page in front of you.
Links on those pages to other websites open in your browser. At that point you have left Tobar.
Tobar has no accounts, no messaging, no content visible to anyone else, and no purchases. It collects nothing from anyone of any age. If you collect recordings from a child or young person, the consent form includes a line for a parent or guardian to sign.
If this ever stops being true, the policy will be updated before the change ships, and the date at the top will say when.
Questions about privacy, or about the app: 88_intake.troupes@icloud.com