ÆRAS Privacy Policy

ÆRAS, operated by Scott Petrowski (a sole proprietor based in Manitoba, Canada), runs this station. This page explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and how you can see, fix or delete it. You don’t need an account to listen. The only sign-in on ÆRAS is the optional account-key sign-in for ÆRAS accounts (fan and Star accounts, made in Star Maker; see section 13).

1. Who is responsible

ÆRAS’s owner is responsible for privacy and acts as our privacy officer (the person in charge of protecting personal information). To reach the privacy officer, use the Contact page and choose Privacy request.

2. What we collect and why

We don’t sell personal information. We don’t use advertising trackers, analytics cookies or cross-site tracking. We don’t build advertising profiles.

ÆRAS counts anonymous listening stats (station, time, device type, region) to improve the radio. No personal details are collected.

3. Who we share it with

We share only what each provider needs to do its job:

• Stripe: card payments and refunds (Stripe’s privacy policy).
• Your bank and Interac: if you pay by Interac e-Transfer.
• Our app platform and hosting provider: they run the website, store data and keep server logs.
• Google Fonts: the site loads its font from Google’s servers, so your browser’s IP address is sent to Google when a page loads.
• Email: if we reply to you or forward contact messages to ourselves, the message passes through our email provider.
• Our AI image-generation service: if you make a Star avatar, we send your outfit and style picks, and your selfie if you choose that option, to an AI image-generation service that makes the avatar for us. It processes the request in the United States. We use it under terms where it acts only on our instructions, doesn’t use your photo to train its models, and doesn’t keep your photo after it returns the avatar.
• Our AI voice and text services: for a Star Interview or a Fan Shout-out, we send the script (your words and the host’s lines) to an AI text service that checks it for safety, and to an AI voice service that turns it into audio with stock voices. No photo or voice recording of you is used, and we never clone anyone’s voice. These services process the request in the United States.
• Star Maker sign-in: you sign in with a private account key that’s shown to you once. We store only a scrambled (hashed) copy, so we can’t see or resend it. We don’t send sign-in emails at this time.
• The public: if your track airs, your track title, artist name, link and cover art are shown on the station, charts and Awards. DJ Reads ads air publicly. If your Star page is approved and set to public, your stage name, avatar, genres, bio, links and linked songs are shown on your Star page, and your avatar can appear next to your songs while they play. Fan accounts are private: your nickname and fan avatar aren’t shown to the public.
• The law: if the law requires it, or to protect the station, listeners or others from fraud or harm.

Outside Canada: some of these providers store or process information outside Canada, including in the United States. While it’s there, the courts, law enforcement and national-security authorities of that country may be able to access it under their laws. We choose providers that protect information to a standard comparable to Canadian law.

4. How long we keep it

• Device-linked likes and requests: up to 2 years. After that, chart totals stay but the device link is removed.
• Submissions: while your track is on ÆRAS and for 12 months after it is removed. Tracks that are rejected or never approved are kept for 90 days.
• DJ Reads orders and the ad audio: for the run of the order, then 12 months. Payment records are kept longer, as below.
• Pro Audio uploads and masters: 12 months after the order. Air copies are kept while the track is in rotation.
• Payment and tax records: 6 years, as Canadian tax law requires.
• Contact messages: up to 2 years after the request is closed, unless we need them longer for a legal claim.
• Selfies (Star Maker): never stored. Your photo is held only in memory while your avatar is made (usually under two minutes), then thrown away whether or not it works. It isn’t saved in our database, file storage or logs. Our image-generation service deletes it as soon as it returns the avatar.
• Avatar options you don’t pick: deleted as soon as you pick one, and always within 24 hours.
• Fan accounts, Star pages and avatars: until you delete them, or 24 months after your last sign-in (12 months for accounts of people under 18), whichever comes first. Avatars or edits the booth turns down are deleted within 30 days.
• Star Maker sign-in: an account key stops working after five wrong tries, and the booth can issue a new one. Sign-ins last up to 30 days.
• Star Maker consent records: kept as proof of what you agreed to for 3 years after you delete your account, then deleted. They hold no photo and no email, only what you agreed to, when, and a scrambled (hashed) key.
• Star page reports: while the booth reviews them, then 12 months after the report is closed.
• Star Interviews: the script, the chosen voice and the audio are kept while the interview is on your Star page, and for 12 months after it’s removed or your Star page is deleted (so we can handle complaints and refunds). Scripts our booth turns down are deleted after 90 days. Payment records follow the 6-year rule above.
• Spotlight and Fan Wall orders: kept with the payment records (6 years). The placement itself ends on its end date.
• Fan Shout-outs: the text and audio are kept for 12 months after they air (for complaints and refunds), then deleted. Payment records follow the 6-year rule.
• Server logs: as kept by our hosting provider, usually a short period.
• Information on your device: until you clear your browser’s site data.

5. Information stored on your device (local storage)

ÆRAS doesn’t use advertising cookies. It uses your browser’s local storage for:

• a random device id (aeras.device.v1)
• your listening settings, likes and requests on this device (aeras.listener.v1)
• whether you’ve dismissed the Listener Plus note today (aeras.plus.skip.*)
• whether you’ve answered the Star Maker age question on this device (aeras.star.age.v1)

The app framework may also use short-lived session storage to reload a page cleanly after an update. You can clear all of this in your browser settings. If you do, the station still works, but your device will count as new.

If you sign in to an ÆRAS account, we set one sign-in cookie (aeras_star) that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. It’s needed for accounts to work and isn’t used for tracking or ads. Signing out or deleting your account removes it.

Shake to like uses your phone’s motion sensors, and only after you tap Enable shake to like. ÆRAS doesn’t use your microphone, contacts or location. The camera is used only if you choose to take a selfie in Star Maker (18+ only). It opens through your phone’s own camera or photo picker, and only the one photo you choose is used.

6. Consent and choices

• By using a feature, you agree to the collection described for it. Optional fields (email on Submit, links, cover photos, order id on Contact) are your choice.
• You can withdraw consent at any time, for example by asking us to remove a track or delete your contact messages. Some records (like payment records) must be kept by law.
• We don’t send marketing email unless you’ve agreed to it. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe option.

7. Your rights: see, correct, delete

You can ask to:

• see the personal information we hold about you and how it’s been used and shared
• correct anything that’s wrong
• delete information we don’t need to keep by law
• withdraw consent

Use the Contact page, choose Privacy request, and tell us what you used (for example the email on a submission or order) so we can find it. We may ask you to confirm it’s really you. We’ll reply within 30 days. There’s no charge.

8. Keeping it safe

We use the security built into our hosting and payment providers. Private areas (like the booth and support inbox) sit behind access controls, and we limit who can see personal information. No system is perfect. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will:

• notify the people affected and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as the law requires (and Quebec’s Commission d’accès à l’information where it applies)
• keep a record of all breaches

9. Children

ÆRAS is for people 13 and older. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you think a child has sent us information, tell us through the Contact page and we’ll delete it. Anyone who can use ÆRAS can browse ÆRAS Stars and Star pages. Fan accounts are for people 13 or older (14 or older in Quebec). For fans under 18 we turn on extra protections: the account is private, the avatar can only be built without a photo, there’s no public profile and no messaging, and paid extras aren’t available to under-18s for now. Star accounts (a public Star page, the selfie option, interviews and Star ads) are only for people 18 or older. We ask for your birth month and year, not your full birth date. If we learn that an account belongs to someone younger than allowed, we delete it. A parent or guardian can ask us, through the Contact page, to see or delete their child’s account.

10. Complaints

Please contact us first. If you’re not satisfied, you can complain to:

• the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
• in Quebec, the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec
• in British Columbia, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC
• in Alberta, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta

11. Changes

We’ll post any changes here and update the date at the top. For important changes, we’ll also show a notice on the site.

12. Contact

ÆRAS privacy officer · Contact page (topic: Privacy request)

Use our Contact page or write to PO Box 1627, Gimli, MB, Canada.

13. Star Maker: ÆRAS accounts, Star pages, selfies and avatars

Star Maker lets you make a free ÆRAS account with an avatar drawn in the ÆRAS animated style. A fan account (13+, or 14+ in Quebec) gives you a private fan profile and a fan avatar. A Star account (18+) adds a public ÆRAS Star page. You make a Star account by sending your first song with it, and our booth reviews your page and that song together. It’s all optional, and you can delete your account and avatar at any time.

Two ways to make an avatar. You can build your look by picking features like hair, skin tone and glasses, with no photo at all. Or, where available, you can use a selfie. Both work the same way after that.

If you use a selfie (18+ only):

• We ask for your express consent first, every time, and you confirm the photo is of you only.
• Your phone shrinks the photo and removes hidden location and camera data before it’s sent.
• We use the photo for one purpose only: to make your stylised avatar. We don’t use it to identify you, verify you, guess your age, gender, ethnicity, health or mood, or for advertising.
• The photo is sent once to our AI image-generation service, which makes the avatar and returns it. That service doesn’t use it for training and deletes it as soon as it returns the avatar. We never save the photo, and we don’t keep copies, thumbnails or backups of it.
• No biometric identifiers. We don’t create, collect, keep, sell or share face templates, “faceprints”, face geometry or any other biometric identifier, and we don’t build any face database.
• Only the avatar you choose is kept. It’s a drawing, not a photo, and it’s reviewed by our booth before anyone else can see it.

Biometric retention and destruction policy. This applies wherever a law treats anything from your selfie as biometric information or a biometric identifier (for example in Illinois, Texas, Washington or Colorado). We keep it only as long as it takes to make your avatar, then permanently destroy it, and never later than 24 hours after you send the photo. We don’t sell, lease, trade or otherwise profit from it, and we share it only with the image-generation service that makes your avatar. If we ever learn that a copy was kept by mistake, we delete it and treat it as a privacy incident under section 8.

Where Star Maker is offered. ÆRAS accounts are for people in Canada and the United States: fan accounts from 13 (14 in Quebec), Star accounts and the selfie option from 18. Anyone can browse Star pages. Right now the selfie option isn’t offered in Quebec, Illinois, Texas, Washington or Colorado, but you can still build your look without a photo there. We use the location you tell us. If we expand, we’ll update this section first.

Under-18 fans. Fan accounts of people under 18 are always private: no public profile, no public nickname or avatar, and no messaging. The avatar can only be built without a photo. Paid extras aren’t available to under-18s for now (see Terms section 16.18). Please don’t use your full real name as your nickname.

Your choices. You can edit your account, switch your Star page between public and hidden (Star page edits are reviewed before they show), switch a Star account to a fan account, delete your avatar, download a copy of your Star Maker information, or delete your whole account from the Star Maker screen. Deleting a Star page removes your stage name, bio, links, avatar and song links. It doesn’t remove your tracks, which keep airing under the artist name on them unless you ask us through the Contact page to take them down.

Withdrawing consent. You can withdraw consent at any time. Because we never keep your selfie, there’s nothing more to delete from it. Deleting your avatar removes the drawing.