Phosphor was built so the privacy policy could be short. Here it is.
Phosphor is a desktop application that visualizes the audio your Mac is already playing. It runs entirely on your machine.
We don't have user accounts. We don't have analytics. We don't have a server. We don't track installs, scenes used, time spent, songs played, or anything else. The first time you launch the app and the thousandth time look the same to us — invisible.
Your audio is read from Core Audio in-memory, analyzed for visualization, and immediately discarded. No buffering, no recording (unless you press ⌘R to export an MP4 — and that file is saved locally to your Movies folder, never uploaded).
The app itself makes none. macOS and the Mac App Store may check for updates and validate your purchase receipt — those calls are made by Apple, not us, and are governed by Apple's privacy policy.
Only if you have macOS's "Share with App Developers" setting enabled — in which case Apple sends us anonymized crash logs through App Store Connect. These contain stack traces, OS version, and device model, but no audio data, no personal information, and no identifiers we can link back to you. You can disable this anytime in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.
No by default. Phosphor uses Apple's Core Audio Process Tap API to read system audio output — what your speakers and headphones already hear. If you opt into the optional MIC input mode, Phosphor will request microphone permission via the standard macOS prompt; you can revoke it any time.
No. Phosphor only sees the PCM audio samples flowing to your speakers. It doesn't know what app produced them, what track is playing, or who you are logged in as. The optional Now Playing widget reads track metadata from macOS's public Now Playing API, locally — that data never leaves your Mac.
This site (getphosphor.com) sets one local-storage key (phosphor-theme) to remember your light/dark preference. That's it.
Phosphor is not directed to children under 13 and we don't knowingly collect any data — from anyone, of any age.
If we ever change anything material, we'll post an update here with a new effective date.
Questions about privacy: [email protected].
Effective May 7, 2026 · Little Knife Labs LLC
macOS 14.4 or later. Apple Silicon. No subscription, ever.
Download on the App Store →