What we do with your data — and what we don't.

HowlVault is a product of Apex Global LLC, a Nevada company.

HowlVault (“HowlVault,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is operated by Apex Global LLC, a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Nevada, USA. HowlVault is the online service available at howlvault.com and app.howlvault.com, together with the HowlBridge desktop application.

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, share, and protect information when you use HowlVault. By using HowlVault, you agree to the practices described here.

Account info, the sounds you upload, basic usage logs, and billing data. Nothing we don’t need to run the service.

Account information. When you create an account, we collect your email address and, if you sign in with a third-party provider (Google, Apple, etc.), the basic profile information that provider returns to us (typically name and email). We use Clerk as our authentication provider; Clerk handles passwords and session tokens — we never see your password directly.

Uploaded content. We store the sound files, sequences, loadouts, and related metadata (names, categories, favorites, step configurations) you upload or create.

Device information. When HowlBridge connects to our servers, we collect a device identifier, operating system name and version, and the HowlBridge version number. This is used to enforce per-plan machine limits and to deliver the right installer updates.

Usage information. We log basic service-operations data: the time and type of requests you make to our servers, approximate storage usage, and error events. This data is used to operate and debug the service.

Billing information. For paid plans, we use Stripe to process payments. Stripe collects your payment method, billing address, and transaction history. We never see or store your full card number. We receive from Stripe only what we need to run your account: subscription status, plan tier, and billing events.

Communications. When you email us at support@howlvault.com or fill out the contact form, we keep that correspondence so we can help you and follow up.

To run the service, bill you correctly, keep things secure, and answer you when you ask for help.

We use your information for the following purposes:

• To provide the service. Sign you in, store and serve your uploaded sounds, sync your library across your authorized machines, push sounds to your caller.
• To bill you. Process subscription payments, send receipts, enforce plan limits, handle upgrades and downgrades.
• To keep things working. Debug errors, detect abuse, track down problems you report, deliver software updates.
• To communicate. Reply to your support messages, send account-critical notifications (receipts, plan changes, security alerts). We don’t send marketing emails without your consent.
• To protect the service. Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and violations of our Terms of Service.

Only the service providers we need to run HowlVault. We don’t sell, rent, or license your data to anyone.

We share information with the following service providers (“subprocessors”), each of which has contractual obligations to protect your data and use it only to provide their service to us:

• Clerk — user authentication and session management (United States)
• Stripe — subscription billing and payment processing (United States)
• Cloudflare R2 — storage of your uploaded sound files (United States)
• Cloudflare CDN — delivery of our website and downloads (global edge network)
• Vercel — hosting for howlvault.com and app.howlvault.com (United States)
• Resend — transactional email (receipts, password resets, contact form) (United States)
• Google Workspace — our internal support inbox for support@howlvault.com (United States)

We may also share information when required by law — for example, to respond to a valid court order or subpoena, to protect the safety of our users, or to investigate fraud. If we are required to disclose your data, we’ll tell you unless legally prohibited from doing so.

We do not sell your personal information. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), we confirm that we have not sold personal information in the preceding 12 months and will not do so going forward.

In United States data centers operated by our service providers.

All data we collect is stored in the United States by the subprocessors listed in §4. Some subprocessors (notably Cloudflare’s CDN) deliver our public website from edge servers worldwide, which may involve temporary caching of public page content outside the US. Your account data, uploaded sounds, and billing information are stored only in US-based systems.

As long as your account is active. After deletion, we hold your data for 30 days in a frozen state, then permanently erase it.

While your account is active, we keep your data for as long as we need it to provide the service. When you delete your account:

• Your account enters a 30-day grace period during which it’s inaccessible to you (you can’t sign in or push sounds to your caller) but recoverable if you contact us.
• After 30 days, we permanently delete your account, your uploaded sounds, your sequences and loadouts, and your associated account records from our systems and our subprocessors’ systems.
• Billing records required for tax, accounting, or legal purposes may be retained by Stripe and in our accounting records for up to 7 years, as required by law.
• Support correspondence (emails you sent us, tickets you filed) may be retained for up to 3 years for reference.

Before you delete, download your sounds. HowlVault provides a bulk-export feature inside your account settings that packages your entire vault as a downloadable ZIP. Once your 30-day grace period ends, your sounds are gone.

You can access, export, correct, and delete your data. No fees, no forms.

Regardless of where you live, HowlVault gives every user the following rights:

• Access. See what we hold about you — visible in your account settings.
• Export. Download your uploaded sounds and associated metadata as a single ZIP archive, anytime, free of charge.
• Correct. Update your email and account details in your account settings. For anything we hold that you can’t edit yourself, email us.
• Delete. Delete your account and all associated data, as described in §6.
• Opt out. Unsubscribe from any non-essential email at any time. Account-critical emails (receipts, security alerts) can’t be opted out of while you have an active account.

Canadian residents (PIPEDA): you have the right to access your personal information, to challenge its accuracy, and to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada if you believe we’ve mishandled your data.

California residents (CCPA): you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to delete it, to opt out of its sale (we don’t sell it), and to not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@howlvault.com. We’ll respond within 30 days.

Encryption in transit and at rest. Industry-standard practices. No system is 100% secure.

We take reasonable steps to protect your information:

• All traffic between you, HowlBridge, and our servers is encrypted using TLS.
• Uploaded files are stored encrypted at rest in Cloudflare R2.
• Passwords are never stored in plaintext; authentication is handled by Clerk using industry-standard hashing.
• Access to production data is restricted to a small number of Apex Global LLC employees on a need-to-know basis.

No internet service is 100% secure. We can’t promise your data will never be subject to unauthorized access. In the event of a breach that affects your personal information, we’ll notify you by email without undue delay.

We use only essential cookies — authentication and session. No third-party analytics, no ad trackers.

HowlVault uses cookies only for essential functions:

• Authentication. To keep you signed in across page loads (via Clerk).
• Preferences. To remember basic preferences (theme, OS detection, etc.).
• Security. To detect and prevent abuse (via Cloudflare).

We do not run Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Hotjar, or any other third-party analytics or advertising trackers on howlvault.com or app.howlvault.com. If we ever add analytics, we’ll update this policy first and use a privacy-respecting option (like Plausible or PostHog self-hosted) with anonymized data.

HowlVault is for adults. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

HowlVault is not intended for or directed at children or minors. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the service.

If we learn that we’ve collected personal information from someone under 18, we’ll delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe a minor has created an account, please email support@howlvault.com.

United States and Canada only.

HowlVault is offered only to users located in the United States and Canada. If you’re outside those countries, we can’t accept your signup, and any account created from outside those countries may be terminated.

We may expand to additional countries in the future. When we do, we’ll update this policy with the new jurisdictions and any additional privacy commitments required by law.

We’ll tell you before we change anything material.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make significant changes (for example, changes to what we collect, how we use it, or who we share it with), we’ll notify you by email at the address on file and update the “Effective” date at the top of this page.

Minor changes (fixing typos, clarifying wording without changing meaning, adding a new subprocessor of the same type) will simply be reflected here without notice.

For anything privacy-related, support@howlvault.com.

Questions, concerns, or requests about this Privacy Policy? Email support@howlvault.com or write to:

We’ll respond within 30 days of receiving a valid privacy request.