Privacy Policy — Gamer's EarSwitch PC app (ES005)

Effective date: 13 August 2026 Last updated: 26 August 2026

This policy explains how EarSwitch Ltd ("EarSwitch", "we", "us", "our") handles information in connection with the Gamer's EarSwitch PC application (ES005) for Windows ("the app").

It is written around one question: what does this software do to your PC, and what do you need to know before you allow it?

The short answer: the app runs entirely on your machine. We have no server and no account system, so there is no route by which your data reaches us — with a single exception, which needs you to act. The only information we can ever receive is a problem report you choose to email us. That is described in section 5, including exactly what such a report contains.

1. About EarSwitch

EarSwitch Ltd is registered in England and Wales.

• Company number: 12358776

• Registered office: 111 Piccadilly, Manchester, M1 2HY

• Privacy queries: developer@earswitch.co.uk

2. What the app is

A Windows desktop application for the EarSwitch earbud, which connects over USB. It detects an EarClick™ — a deliberate movement of a muscle inside your ear — and turns it into an input on your PC.

The app is only useful with the hardware connected. Without the earbud, it detects nothing and does nothing as an EarClick™. It is intended as a hands-free extra input for gamers, streamers, and anyone who finds one useful.

3. What the app does, and why it needs each permission

By using the app you are asking it to do four things. That is the whole point of the software, but you should understand each one before you accept.

It reads the earbud sensor. The earbud appears to Windows as a camera. The app reads frames from it continuously while running and measures brightness changes to spot an EarClick™. Without camera access it cannot detect anything at all. Frames are analysed in memory and discarded immediately — no image is ever stored, saved, or sent. You can revoke camera access in Windows Settings → Privacy & security → Camera.

It controls your microphone's mute switch. If you choose the mute action, the app switches your selected microphone between muted and unmuted. A hands-free mute button is not possible without control of that switch. It changes the mute state only — it never records, listens to, samples, or analyses audio. You can revoke microphone access in Windows Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone.

It sends keyboard and mouse input. If you choose the keyboard or mouse action, the app presses the combination or button you configured, through the standard Windows input API — the same mechanism any macro tool uses. It sends only what you set up: it cannot type anything else, and it never reads what you type. Change or clear the action in the app at any time.

It checks which program is in front. While running, the app checks a couple of times a second which program has focus. This is only for the optional "act in this program only" filter, so a click in your game does not fire while you are in your browser. It reads the program's name (for example chrome) and never the window title, which is where document names, web addresses and message subjects would appear. If you set no target program, nothing is filtered. Clear the target program in the app to stop it mattering.

The app also checks whether an optional EarSwitch accessory is still plugged in, over USB serial. It reads nothing from it beyond presence.

Turning off a permission never breaks the rest of the app. Without camera access it cannot detect clicks; without microphone access the mute action stops but keyboard and mouse actions carry on.

4. What is stored on your PC

Everything below is held locally in your own Windows user profile. All of it is yours to read and delete — the app will open the folder for you.

Your settings. Detection threshold and debounce, your chosen action, your keyboard shortcut or mouse button, hold duration, your selected camera and microphone, the name of your target program if you set one, any presets you saved, and which version of this policy you accepted.

An activity log. What the app is doing: services starting and stopping, the earbud connecting or disconnecting, and errors — so a fault that only happens occasionally can still be diagnosed.

Crash reports, written when the app hits an unexpected fault. Each holds the time, the app version and its update channel, your Windows and .NET version, how long the app had been running, the technical detail of the fault, and a recent extract of the activity log.

Report bundles, created only when you ask for one (section 5).

What is deliberately kept out of the logs

A filter decides what may be written, rather than leaving it to chance. Excluded:

• the name or window title of any program you use

• your configured keyboard shortcut or mouse button

• the friendly names of your microphone or other audio devices

• anything from the earbud sensor — no images, ever

• audio of any kind, which the app never captures in the first place

Every line is also scrubbed before it reaches the disk: your user folder path is replaced with %USERPROFILE%, so your Windows user name does not appear even inside a crash trace.

5. The one thing we can receive: a problem report you send

The app has no telemetry, no analytics, and no automatic crash upload. When it crashes, nothing reaches us. We do not find out unless you tell us.

Instead, the fault is written to your own log folder and the app offers you a Report a problem window — after a crash, or any time you open it yourself. That window:

1. Bundles your log files into a single zip.

2. Opens the folder with the zip highlighted, so you can read exactly what would be sent.

3. Opens a pre-filled email to developer@earswitch.co.uk in your own mail app, containing only the app version, its update channel, and where the zip is.

4. Stops there. Attaching the file and pressing send are yours to do. The app never sends the email and never uploads the zip.

So if you send us a report, we receive what is in that zip: your app and Windows versions, how long the app had been running, technical fault details, and activity log lines — with the exclusions and scrubbing in section 4 already applied. You can read it first, send it with nothing attached, or send nothing at all.

Anything you email us is handled as ordinary business correspondence. We use it to diagnose the fault you reported, we do not add it to any profile, and we do not share it. Ask us to delete it once the issue is resolved and we will.

6. Updates

If you installed from the Microsoft Store, Windows handles updates as it does for any other Store app. The app does not check for updates itself and makes no network connection of its own.

If you installed from our website, the app checks whether a newer version exists: shortly after starting, then periodically while it runs, it asks GitHub — where our installers are published — for the newest version number and compares it with yours. If a newer one exists, it tells you. That is the whole check: a few kilobytes of version information.

It never downloads or installs anything on its own. If you want the update you choose to download it and choose to install it, and installing restarts the app. If you ignore the message, nothing changes. Offline, the check simply does not happen.

That check means your PC connects to GitHub's servers, and GitHub — like any web server — sees your IP address each time. That connection is between you and GitHub under their own privacy terms. It carries nothing about you, your settings, or how you use the app. EarSwitch does not receive your IP address or anything else from it, and we cannot tell who checked or how often.

For a website install, this check and a download you ask for are the only outbound connections the app makes. A Store install makes none.

7. Your consent, and what stays in your control

Before the app runs for the first time, it shows you this policy and asks you to accept it. If you decline, the app does not run — no camera, microphone, input, or focus-checking service starts, and it closes without having read anything from your PC.

At any point afterwards, without asking us:

• Pause it from the tray icon, so clicks are detected but nothing is triggered.

• Narrow it — change the action, or set a target program so it only acts in one place.

• Revoke hardware access in Windows Settings → Privacy & security.

• Read and delete everything it stored — open the folder from inside the app.

• Remove it through Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps. You can delete its settings and logs yourself at any point, before or after.

8. Children

The app is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children.

9. Your rights under UK GDPR

Under UK GDPR you have rights including access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection regarding personal data we hold about you.

Because the app neither collects nor transmits personal data, EarSwitch holds no personal data about app users. There is nothing for us to access, rectify or delete on your behalf — it all lives on your PC, under your control.

The one exception is a problem report you email us (section 5). We hold whatever you chose to send for as long as it takes to resolve the issue, and you can ask us to delete it at any time.

If you think any of this is wrong, or have a concern about how the app handles your information, contact developer@earswitch.co.uk and we will respond promptly. You may also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example if we add a feature that changes what the app accesses. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date above. For changes that meaningfully affect what the app reads, controls, or transmits, the app will ask you to accept the updated policy before the change takes effect. Clarifications that do not change what the app does will not re-prompt you.

The current version is always at https://www.earswitch.co.uk/privacy/es005-pc

11. Contact

developer@earswitch.co.uk

This policy applies to the Gamer's EarSwitch PC application (ES005) for Windows, published by EarSwitch Ltd. It does not apply to the EarSwitch website, the Gamer's EarSwitch Android app, or any other product.