Who is responsible
The Sound Lab is operated by TSL Holdings FZCO, United Arab Emirates. Its legal address is Palm Jumeirah Road, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai. Its legal representative is Konstantinos Dimitrakopoulos.
For privacy requests or questions about these notices, contact hi@the-soundlab.com.
What the service holds
You can read editorial content without joining. If you use an account, the service holds your email, display name, password hash, role and account creation date. Your profile can also contain your listening system and saved or followed content.
Questions can include your name, question, system details, topic choices and an optional private email. Forum topics and replies include the contribution, display name, any system or experience details you add, and timestamps. Moderation records can include a reason, status and answer drafts.
A newsletter request records your email, optional name, selected subjects, consent time and version, and a protected management-token reference. The address is used to send a confirmation message and, after you confirm, the editions and updates you selected, each carrying an unsubscribe link. Account messages (email confirmation, password reset, security notices) and enquiry receipts are sent to the address concerned regardless of newsletter choices.
A TSL Apps sign-up records your email, optional first name, the applications you chose, the consent time and wording version, whether you were signed in, and its review status. The address receives one message confirming your choices and, when an application you chose becomes available, a launch email carrying an unsubscribe link.
The server keeps IP addresses temporarily in memory to limit repeated requests. Cloudflare and the server’s web proxy keep standard connection logs (IP address, request path, time and status) for security and operations, retained for up to 30 days; request content is not logged. The site uses Ahrefs Web Analytics (cookie-free) and Google Analytics, whose measurement cookie is set only if you allow analytics in the cookie choice. Neither builds advertising profiles. There is no advertising SDK. The site also retrieves public video details and view counts for The Sound Lab’s own channel from YouTube on the server; this involves no visitor data. Content administrators can upload images; original image files are stored on the same server, and embedded metadata is not automatically removed.
Why information is used
Account information supports sign-in and member features. Contributions are used to run TSL answers! and the forum, organise discussions, prepare replies and moderate the community. Saved items and follows support your selected reading preferences. Security checks help protect these functions from misuse.
Newsletter details are used for the newsletter choices you make. Joining the community does not, by itself, subscribe you. Optional YouTube players load only after you allow them. These are separate choices: accepting community terms is not consent to newsletters or optional media.
Personal data is handled in accordance with UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data. Account, contribution, enquiry and security information is processed to provide the service you use; newsletter and optional-media processing rests on the choice you record.
Private enquiries
The Contact us form records your chosen enquiry category, name, email address, optional organisation, subject, message and submission time. It is separate from the public question board and the newsletter.
Messages are stored in a private inbox accessible to the site owner for review and follow-up. The team can add an internal note and record the enquiry’s status. Contact details are used to handle your enquiry; submitting a message does not subscribe you to marketing or publish it to the community.
Submitting an enquiry sends you a short receipt by email. Replies are sent from the team’s email application, and that message is handled by the email service the team uses. Archiving an enquiry changes its inbox status and keeps the enquiry until it is deleted on request. For access, correction or deletion requests, contact hi@the-soundlab.com.
Your newsletter choice
Newsletter enrollment is separate from membership. You choose which updates you want: the Daily, articles or YouTube. The request records your email, optional name, those choices, the consent time and the version of the enrollment wording.
A confirmation message is sent first; editions begin only after you confirm. Every edition carries unsubscribe and preference links. Unsubscribing from a message stops the sending immediately and keeps the request inactive with its consent record; removing the request through the site’s management control deletes it.
For help with a request, contact hi@the-soundlab.com. Newsletter permission does not permit unrelated messages or disclosure of your address for another organisation’s marketing.
TSL Apps updates are a separate choice from the newsletter and from community membership. Signing up does not subscribe you to the newsletter; the confirmation message only invites you to choose it yourself. Every TSL Apps message lets you stop these updates; stopping keeps the sign-up inactive with its consent record.
What other readers can see
Public questions, replies and forum topics can show your chosen display name and the system or experience details you include. Your account email and an optional question email are not included in those public displays.
Only submit material you are comfortable sharing. Avoid addresses, serial numbers, private correspondence and other people’s personal information. On a public service, readers may copy or share posts outside the site; removing the original cannot necessarily remove those copies.
Storage and retention
The service runs on a server controlled by the operator in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and stores its records in a SQLite database on that server. Uploaded images are stored on the same server. Traffic is delivered through Cloudflare, Inc., which provides network, TLS and protection services and processes connection data such as your IP address and request metadata under its own Cloudflare Privacy Policy (opens in a new tab). Page views are measured with Ahrefs Web Analytics (Ahrefs Pte. Ltd., Singapore), a cookie-free script that does not identify visitors or build profiles, and with Google Analytics (Google Ireland Ltd.). Google Analytics sets its measurement cookie only when you allow analytics in the cookie choice; otherwise it receives anonymous, cookieless page-view signals only. No other subprocessor is used, and there is no advertising SDK.
Account, profile, contribution, enquiry and upload records are kept while the account or content exists and until deleted on request. Server backups are kept for 30 days. Withdrawing a question hides it from the public site; its stored record is erased on request. Deleting a CMS article does not automatically delete its uploaded image. A newsletter removal request through its management control deletes the newsletter record. TSL Apps sign-ups are kept while the updates are active and are deleted on request.
The sign-in cookie expires after seven days unless cleared earlier by signing out. Expired server session records are cleared during a later sign-in. Rate-limit entries remain in server memory until restart, even after their active counting window has elapsed.
Browser preferences, drafts and interaction records have their own storage behaviour, explained in Cookies & YouTube.
YouTube and external destinations
The site uses YouTube’s embedded player, part of YouTube API Services. When you allow and load a player, your browser connects to Google/YouTube, which can receive information such as your IP address, browser details and viewing interactions, and can use cookies or similar storage. YouTube may also serve advertisements within its player.
Privacy-enhanced embeds reduce certain uses of viewing activity for personalisation; they are not a guarantee of anonymous viewing or no data collection. See the Google Privacy Policy (opens in a new tab), YouTube Terms of Service (opens in a new tab) and YouTube’s explanation of privacy-enhanced mode (opens in a new tab).
The site’s social links open the relevant external platform. They do not load an embedded social feed here. The platform’s own privacy practices apply after you follow a link.
Your choices and requests
Use to change optional YouTube permission. You can read the site with optional media disabled or follow a direct link to watch on YouTube. Changing this setting does not change your newsletter choice or delete an account.
Contact hi@the-soundlab.com to ask about your information or request access, correction, deletion, restriction or an export. Requests are handled manually by the team, and identity is verified where needed; do not send identity documents unless requested through an appropriate process.
The service does not provide self-service account deletion; the team deletes accounts on request. Personal data is handled in accordance with UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data, and a complaint may be raised with the UAE Data Office.
Changes to this notice
The date above identifies this version. Material changes to data use, providers or optional technologies require updated information and, where required, a new choice before the changed activity begins. Future features are not covered by a blanket permission obtained today.
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