Chelys
Privacy policy
Chelys plays music files stored on your own device. It has no accounts, no ads and no analytics. Your library, playlists, likes and settings stay on your device. The only thing Chelys sends over the internet is a lyrics lookup: the title, artist, album and length of the track you are playing, sent to LRCLIB.
Who makes Chelys
Chelys is made by an individual developer resident in India, not by a company. That developer is responsible for this policy and for Chelys on Android and Mac. Questions about privacy go to privacy@shutbox.im.
What stays on your device
Chelys keeps all of this in its own storage on your phone or Mac. None of it is uploaded, and the developer has no access to it.
- Your music library: the folders you choose, and the tags, artwork and length of each track.
- A fingerprint of each track, computed from its audio, so your likes and lyrics stay with a track after you retag or move it.
- Your likes, playlists, hidden albums, equalizer profiles and settings.
- Lyrics Chelys has already downloaded.
- Details of your audio output, such as your USB DAC's name, sample rates and volume range, read so Chelys can play through it.
What leaves your device: lyrics
When a track starts, Chelys looks up its lyrics on LRCLIB, a free, open lyrics database. It also looks up the next track in your queue, so its lyrics are ready when it starts. Each lookup sends:
- the track's title, artist, album and length, taken from the file's tags
- the app's name and version, such as
Chelys/0.1.0 (Android music player)
Lookups use HTTPS. Like any server, LRCLIB sees your device's IP address. Chelys sends no account, advertising ID, device ID or anything else that identifies you. Lyrics that are found are saved on your device, so each track is looked up once. LRCLIB is run independently of Chelys; see lrclib.net for how it handles requests.
Chelys has no setting to turn lookups off. To stop them, use Chelys offline or turn off its network access in your device's settings, where your device offers that. Playback never needs the internet.
Links that open your browser
The equalizer links to autoeq.app, where you can find profiles for your headphones. It opens in your browser, and that site's own policy applies. Chelys sends it nothing.
Permissions on Android
- Internet: used only for the lyrics lookups above.
- Folder access: Chelys reads only the folders you pick with Android's folder picker. You can remove that access at any time in Android's settings.
- USB: Android asks you before Chelys can use a DAC you connect.
- Notifications: playback controls and your DAC's volume.
- Foreground service and wake lock: to keep playing while the screen is off.
What Chelys does not do
- No accounts or sign-in.
- No ads, analytics or tracking.
- No crash reporting or other third-party code that collects data.
- Your data is never sold or shared.
Google Play and backups
If you install Chelys from Google Play, Google may collect crash and performance data under Google's privacy policy, and shows the developer crash reports that do not identify you.
If backup is turned on for your Android device, Android may include Chelys's settings and library data in your Google account backup. Google handles that backup under your account; the developer cannot see it. Backups you make of your Mac, such as Time Machine, may include Chelys's data in the same way.
Deleting your data
Everything Chelys stores is on your device. On Android, clear Chelys's storage in the app's settings, or uninstall it. On Mac, Chelys's settings can clear downloaded lyrics, and removing Chelys and its data from your Mac deletes the rest. There is nothing to delete on any server, because Chelys keeps nothing there.
Children
Chelys collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.