BranchOut Audio privacy policy
Last updated: 20 October 2026
No audio is ever recorded or sent. BranchOut Audio only passes sound from your PC to your speakers. There is no account to sign in to. The app does contact LTC Labs for version checks, crash reports, and basic stability signals — not only when you file a support ticket.
What never leaves this PC
- Audio of any kind — BranchOut plays it, it never records or uploads it
- Your speaker setup, custom device names, and volume levels
- Your name, email, or Windows account — except in a support ticket you choose to send
What BranchOut Audio stores on your computer
| Data | Where it lives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Settings | %APPDATA%\BranchoutAudio\settings.json | Device selections, custom names, volumes, window size and position |
| Logs | %APPDATA%\BranchoutAudio\debug.log, debug.previous.log | Diagnosing audio problems (they name your audio devices) |
| Telemetry queue | %APPDATA%\BranchoutAudio\telemetry_queue.json | Offline buffer for launch/close events that could not be sent yet |
| Last update check | %LOCALAPPDATA%\BranchoutAudio | Keeps the update check to once a day |
Microsoft Store installs keep the %APPDATA% files under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\LTCLabs.BranchoutAudio_…\LocalCache\Roaming\BranchoutAudio instead.
Uninstalling, or deleting those folders, removes everything.
What BranchOut Audio sends to LTC Labs
- A version check to
https://www.ltclabs.dev/api/app/update-checkwhen the app starts, plus a once-a-day update check on installs that didn't come from the Microsoft Store (the Store updates those itself). Carries app name and version, Windows version, and an anonymous machine identifier. - Launch and close (
app_launched,app_closed), with the time and a random per-session ID. - A "still running" heartbeat every 5 minutes while the app is open, with the session ID and how much memory BranchOut itself is using.
- Crash reports, only if the app hits an unhandled error: error type, message, stack trace (including any underlying error), and BranchOut's own memory use and uptime. Your Windows user folder and account name are removed from any file path in them before they are sent.
- Support tickets, only when you file one with the ? button: the name, email, and message you type, your app and Windows version, and — if you leave Include system logs ticked — the last lines of the current and previous log. Those logs name your audio devices. Untick the box and no logs are sent.
Version checks, launch/close, heartbeats, and crash reports are always on. There is no usage tracking beyond them: BranchOut does not report which features you use or how you set up your speakers.
What our server records
Like any website, our server sees the IP address a request comes from. With version checks, launch/close events, heartbeats, and crash reports it keeps a one-way hash of that address, not the address itself. For version checks it also keeps a coarse location (country, region, city) looked up from the address. We use this to count installs and spot problems with a particular release or region.
The anonymous machine identifier
BranchOut Audio hashes Windows' machine GUID with SHA-256. The original GUID never leaves the PC. It is not linked to your name or email unless you file a support ticket, in which case it is attached so we can match crash reports.
Your choices
- Leave logs off a ticket — untick Include system logs before sending.
- Don't file tickets — email [email protected] and you control exactly what you send.
- Ask us to delete your data — email support. Tickets we can find by email. Crash reports and launch data need a previous ticket number so we can locate the matching machine identifier.
Contact
Questions about privacy: [email protected]