Audiout sends very little off your Mac, and this article lists all of it. Three things are worth separating: the optional usage statistics, the license check-in, and the audio itself.
Usage statistics: when they are on
During the free trial, and on a copy with no license key, anonymous usage statistics are on from the first launch. Builds you compile from source count as a copy with no key, so they send them too. If you buy Audiout without starting a trial, the last card of first-run Setup asks first, and nothing is sent until you answer. If you buy after a trial, Audiout asks you once, right after it thanks you for buying. You can turn them off at any time in Settings › General, and once off they stay off.
Here is what it collects, in the app’s own words: “No account, no name. Just a random ID for this copy of Audiout. It counts which features get used, reports crashes and failures like audio stopping, and notes your Mac, macOS version, city, and whether Audiout is licensed. What you play, and what your speakers are called, never leave this Mac.”
Spelled out in full, every event carries: the event name, the app version, the bundle id that names the app to macOS, your Mac model, your macOS version, your language and region, your time zone, whether you are on Wi-Fi or Ethernet, whether Audiout is licensed (the state, never the key), whether this is the official build or one compiled from source, and the random ID for this copy. Your city is added to one event per launch and to nothing else.
Connecting a Bluetooth speaker adds one more event, sent once per connection: how long the speaker took to settle and how far out its timing was, both as coarse ranges rather than exact numbers, which audio codec the connection uses, how many times the speaker’s clock jumped, and a stand-in number for that speaker that means nothing outside your copy of Audiout. Its Bluetooth address and its name stay on your Mac. When Audiout corrects a Bluetooth speaker’s timing during playback, it sends one more event with the size of the correction as a coarse range, again with no name or address.
It also reports crashes, and failures the app catches: audio stopping, a speaker refusing to connect, a settings file that can’t be saved or read. Each one is sent under a fixed name with the same short set of properties every time. Those properties are counts, fixed labels and yes/no answers, never free text. The app’s own diagnostic log stays on the Mac, and leaves only if you save it yourself and attach it to an email. To save it, open Settings › General, click “About Audiout…”, then click “Save diagnostics…”.
That’s the whole list. Feature counts tell us what to improve; the Mac and macOS details tell us what to test on.
Turning it on or off later
Settings › General › “Share anonymous usage statistics”. Flip it either way, any time. Nothing else in the app changes.
The license check-in: separate, and not optional
Paid builds check in with the license server once per launch. This is not part of usage statistics and doesn’t follow the toggle.
The check-in sends three things: your license key, a random per-Mac id, and the app version. Nothing else. Its only job is to spot a key being shared across many machines. If the server can’t be reached, the launch proceeds anyway and the check happens another time.
The audio
Your audio goes from your Mac to your speakers over the local network, and nowhere else. There is no cloud in the audio path. What you play is never part of usage statistics or the license check-in.
The short version
| What | When | Optional? |
|---|---|---|
| Usage statistics | On during the trial and without a key. A paid copy asks first | Yes, switch in Settings › General |
| License check-in | Once per launch (paid builds) | No |
| Your audio | Mac to speakers, local network only | Never sent anywhere else |
If you have a question this page doesn’t answer, or you want your usage data deleted, write to support@audiout.app. Since the ID is random and tied to nothing about you, include it if you can find it. Without it we can’t tell which data is yours.