Thanks for all your feedback. The beta is at capacity and closed to new users until the official release. Read James's letter to the beta on what it was here to test and what comes next.
Box Of Synths

Policy

Privacy, cookies and terms

The short, plain version for the free beta of Box Of Synths. Last updated 21 September 2026.

1. Who we are

Box Of Synths is made by Box Of Rules (James H. Gordy, Brighton, United Kingdom), who is the data controller for everything on this page. Reach us through the contact page or at .

2. What this site stores

When you download: the email you give, the platform you picked, the plugin version, the time, a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address to stop abuse, and whether you left the release updates box ticked. We ask for the email because the plugin verifies that same address before the database answers.

When you contact us: your message, your email, your name if you give it, and the platform and version if you give them, so we can reply and fix the problem.

We do not sell any of it, and nobody else gets to email you.

3. What the plugin sends

Email verification: on first run the plugin sends your email and a random install ID to us, and we email you a six-digit code. There is no account and no password.

Database requests: when you ask the database for a sound, the words you typed are sent to us and recorded with your email and install ID, for running the service, keeping it secure and improving the results. We keep these records for up to 12 months.

Ratings: when you press a thumb on a sound, the plugin sends that sound, the request that made it, the designer's reply and your rating, with your install ID, whatever sharing choice you made. That is what the thumbs are for, and they say so before you press them. Nothing is sent until you do.

Ollama: designs made through Ollama are generated by a model on your own computer. When database-assisted Ollama is switched on in Settings, each new request is also sent to our database so the model can start from a close match, and it is recorded like any other database request.

Usage sharing: asked on first run, and you can change it in Settings at any time. Essential only sends nothing beyond what the service needs to run. Share usage adds counts of what you use, with none of your words. Share everything also sends the requests you type and the replies you get, including those made through Ollama. This is a beta, and that is the choice that helps us most, but it is yours to make.

4. Release update emails

If you left the box ticked when downloading, we email you only about critical Box Of Synths release news during the launch weeks: a fix you need, a build that replaces yours, the beta ending. It is not the newsletter. To stop, reply to any of those emails or use the contact page.

The newsletter is separate and only yours if you asked for it: the box on the home page adds your address to the Box Of Rules newsletter list, which tells you the day the official free release lands and what we make after it. Every newsletter carries a one-click unsubscribe. If you ask the plugin for a beta code with an address that holds no beta place after the beta closed, we send that address one email saying the beta is closed, and keep a note that we did so we never send it twice.

Separately, if the database beta is ever retired we give database users at least seven days' notice by email, because the service they verified for is changing.

5. Cookies

This site sets the cookies it needs to work and to protect its forms; those need no consent. We also count visits with our own cookieless statistics. The cookie notice gives three choices. Essential only keeps just the necessary ones. Analytics only adds Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity. Accept all also allows the advertising cookies of Google Ads and Meta where we use them, which exist so that we can advertise our own products to people who have visited. We sell no advertising space.

6. Who helps us run it

Postmark delivers our email. Cloudflare sits in front of the site. DigitalOcean hosts it, in the European Union. Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity measure visits only if you allow analytics. Each works under its own terms as our processor.

7. Your rights

You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, have it corrected or have it deleted: use the contact page from the email address concerned. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), although we would like the chance to put it right first.

8. The terms, in short

Box Of Synths is free to download and use during the beta, for your own music, commercial or not. The sounds you design with it are yours. It is a beta: features will change, things will break, and the database beta may be retired with notice. Do not resell the plugin, take the database out of it, or use the service to harm it or other people. Nothing here limits the rights the law gives you as a consumer.

The full documents that apply across Box Of Rules are the terms of use and the privacy policy. Where this page and those differ about Box Of Synths, this page describes the free beta.

9. Changes

When this page changes we update the date at the top. If a change affects what we do with your email, we tell you by email first.