Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 15, 2026
This policy covers two iPhone apps: Game On Now and Game On Now Lite. Game On Now Lite is covered in its own section; everything before that is about Game On Now.
Game On Now
In short: Game On Now listens to your TV to turn the sound down during commercials. Sound is analyzed on your iPhone and raw audio is never uploaded to us. To tell commercials from the program, short text transcripts of what the TV says are sent to our server and to Anthropic's Claude. We don't ask for your name, email or location, there are no accounts, no ads and no tracking, and we don't sell data.
What stays on your iPhone
- Microphone audio. The app measures loudness and crowd noise, recognizes words, and matches commercials it has heard before — all on the phone. Audio is held in memory for a few seconds and is not saved or uploaded to us.
- Your voice profile. If you turn on "Only respond to my voice", a small set of numbers describing your voice is stored on the phone only and never sent anywhere.
- Your TV's details (brand, address on your home network, pairing token) and your settings.
- The app's log of what it decided, visible in the Files app (On My iPhone → Game On Now).
Speech recognition (Apple)
To turn the TV's speech and your spoken commands ("game on", "mute it") into text, Game On Now uses Apple's speech recognition. It runs on the iPhone when your phone supports that. If it doesn't, or on-device recognition keeps failing, iOS sends the audio to Apple's speech service, under Apple's privacy policy. We never receive that audio.
What is sent to us, and why
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Transcript text of the last ~30 seconds of TV speech, what we think you're watching, and the last few answers | About every 15 seconds while listening and the sound is up, plus a quick double-check before turning the sound down. Only when "Use Claude to spot commercials" is on (the default). | Our server forwards it to Anthropic's Claude, which answers "commercial" or "program" and what kind of program it is. Room conversation picked up by the microphone can be part of the transcript; Claude is told to ignore it and the app doesn't keep Claude's description of it. |
| Audio fingerprints of commercials (ShazamKit signatures) with their length and a random install ID | When the phone has heard the same commercial in two different breaks | To build the shared library of commercials. A fingerprint is a compact summary that can't be turned back into sound. |
| "That wasn't a commercial" flags (commercial ID + random install ID) | When you bring the sound back right after the app muted a known commercial | Commercials that two or more phones flag are removed from everyone's library. |
| Diagnostic reports: the app's decision log (when and why it turned the sound down or up, short snippets of the TV transcript, what was being watched, settings, sound-level numbers, your TV's local network address), session counts, app version and the random install ID | Every ~20 minutes while listening, and when listening stops | So the nightly tuning job can measure how well the app did and adjust its settings for everyone. |
Device identifier: Apple's "identifier for vendor" (X-Device-Id) and your IP address, as part of each request |
With every request to our server | To limit how often a single phone can call our server (abuse and cost protection). Our rate limiter stores only a one-way hash of these, for up to two days. The random install ID is created by the app and isn't linked to you. |
We download from our server: the shared commercial library, the tuned settings, and the nightly review shown in the app.
Nightly tuning
Once a day an automated job reads the last day's reports, sends Claude a summary of the numbers and the decision log (without the transcript snippets), and saves small setting changes and a plain-English review that every phone downloads. A home "station" run by the developer records local broadcast TV to build the commercial library; it sends the same kind of transcripts and fingerprints and no data about you.
Service providers
- Supabase (database and server functions) stores the fingerprints, flags, reports and settings, and runs the functions that call Claude. Supabase privacy policy.
- Anthropic (Claude) receives the transcripts and the nightly summaries to classify them. Under Anthropic's commercial API terms, API inputs and outputs are not used to train its models. Anthropic privacy policy.
- Apple provides speech recognition (see above) and ShazamKit fingerprinting, which runs on the device.
Commands to your TV go directly from your phone to the TV over your home network.
How long we keep it
- Commercial fingerprints and flags: as long as the library is in use.
- Diagnostic reports: 90 days, then deleted. We also delete them earlier on request.
- Rate-limit records: up to 2 days.
- Anthropic retains API data only as described in its policy.
Your choices
- Turn off Use Claude to spot commercials in Settings: no transcripts are sent (detection then relies on sound and known commercials only).
- Deny microphone or speech recognition access in iOS Settings (the app can't detect commercials without the microphone).
- Stop listening any time; nothing is captured or sent while the app isn't listening.
- Deleting the app removes everything stored on the phone. To ask us to delete reports linked to your phone, contact us and tell us roughly when you used the app — reports aren't linked to your name or Apple ID.
Game On Now Lite
In short: Game On Now Lite collects nothing. It has no accounts, no analytics, no ads and no tracking, and it makes no network connections except to your own TV or speaker on your home Wi-Fi.
- Speech. Your voice commands are recognized on your iPhone and are never sent to us or anyone else. The app listens only while it is open on screen.
- Your TV's details (brand, home-network address, pairing token) and settings stay on your iPhone.
- Network. The only connections are local ones from your phone to your TV or Sonos device to send volume and mute commands. Nothing is sent to our servers or any third party.
- Deleting the app removes everything it stored.
Children
Neither app is directed at children under 13 and we don't knowingly collect their personal information.
Changes
If we change how data is used, we'll update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Contact
Questions or deletion requests: mattwirig+gameonnow@mail.grokbot.com