Privacy Policy.

Payment data

Payment data is handled by the configured store/payment provider. Virtue Creative Systems does not store credit card numbers or raw payment credentials.

Licensing data

The VFxM licensing server stores the license and activation records the app needs to activate, check, deactivate and support a license. From version 1.2.4 the Windows machine ID is hashed on your computer before it is sent, as VFxM has always done on a Mac; records made by earlier versions hold the Windows machine ID as it was sent then, not hashed. Exactly what the app sends, and what the server keeps, is listed below under “What VFxM sends with its license check”.

Observatory visitor count

The Audio Industry Observatory pages count visitors and how long the page is visible, so they can show today's visitors and the average time spent. No cookies and nothing in your browser's storage are used. Your IP address and browser name are combined with a random value that changes every day and turned into a one-way code; only that code, the date and the seconds are kept. The daily random value is deleted after two days, so the code cannot be turned back into an IP address or linked across days. Visit records are deleted after 90 days.

Stored records

The backend may store hashed identifiers, activation status, app version, platform, validation timestamps, provider order/license IDs, and download request metadata for licensing, security, and support.

What VFxM sends with its license check

Since version 1.2.0, the license check VFxM makes about once a day has also carried a short description of the computer it runs on. Earlier versions of this page did not say so. Everything VFxM sends is listed here.

When VFxM contacts the license server

• Daily check. When REAPER loads VFxM and the last successful check is more than 24 hours old, and when you click Refresh License Status in Settings. It runs in the background. With no connection, nothing is sent and your license keeps working.
• Activate, and Reset & Re-bind on the splash screen.
• Deactivate.
• Trial: Start Free Trial, a background refresh of the trial token while the trial runs, and Check for Bonus Days.

What the daily check sends

• Your license key.
• The activation ID the server gave this computer when you activated.
• A hardware fingerprint (from version 1.2.3). This is a one-way SHA-256 hash made on your computer. On a Mac it is made from the serial number, the model identifier (for example MacBookPro18,3) and the file-system ID of the startup disk. On Windows it is made from the Windows MachineGuid and the serial number of the C: volume. Only the hash is sent, never the values it was made from.
• The VFxM version.
• The operating system: macOS or Windows.
• The operating system version, for example “macOS 15.3” or “Windows 11 22631”.
• The processor type: arm64 or x86_64, and on a Mac whether REAPER is running under Rosetta.
• The REAPER version, exactly as REAPER reports it, which includes its build platform.
• The VFxM interface language you chose, as a language code such as “en”.
• The VFxM interface scale, as a number such as 1.00.
• How many plugins are in your VFxM library, as a single number.

The last seven items are the system profile. Any item VFxM cannot read is left out.

What the other calls send

• Activate and Reset & Re-bind: your license key, the hardware fingerprint, and a machine ID. On a Mac the machine ID is a one-way hash of the Mac’s hardware UUID. On Windows it is a one-way hash of the Windows MachineGuid from version 1.2.4 on; versions before 1.2.4 sent the MachineGuid itself, not hashed.
• Deactivate: your license key and the activation ID.
• Start Free Trial: the hardware fingerprint, the VFxM version, and macOS or Windows. No email address.
• Trial refresh: the hardware fingerprint and the VFxM version.
• Check for Bonus Days: the hardware fingerprint, the email address you type, and the VFxM version.
• Check for updates: an empty request. Nothing about you or your computer.

What VFxM never sends

• Plugin names, or the list of your plugins. Only the count.
• Anything from your projects: names, tracks, FX chains, settings or audio.
• File paths, file names or the contents of any file on your computer.
• Your notes, ratings, favourites, categories, presets or thumbnails.
• Your computer’s name or your user name.
• The network (MAC) address of your computer.

Why

• Support. A report that VFxM is slow, or that a window is cut off, can only be answered against the real setup: which system, which REAPER, how large a library, which language and scale.
• Compatibility. To know which macOS, Windows and REAPER versions VFxM actually runs on, so those are the ones it is tested on.
• Which platforms to support. To decide from real numbers, not guesses, which systems and processors to keep supporting.
• The license key, activation ID, machine ID and hardware fingerprint are what let the server confirm a license and count its two activations.

What the server keeps, and for how long

• One record per activated computer. It holds the machine ID as it was sent (on Windows, the MachineGuid, stored as-is) and a SHA-256 hash of it, the hardware fingerprint hash, the VFxM version, the system profile, and the dates the computer was activated, last checked and deactivated.
• The system profile is replaced on every check. Only the most recent one is kept. There is no history of past profiles.
• Your license key is kept as a SHA-256 hash, and a copy is kept so it can be sent to you again by email.
• Deactivating marks the computer’s record inactive and frees the activation. The record itself is kept.
• Trials keep the hardware fingerprint hash, macOS or Windows, the VFxM version the trial started with, and the start and end dates.
• Bonus Days keeps the email address you typed, the hardware fingerprint hash, the VFxM version and the date. The email address is also written to the server’s event log.
• The license server does not record your IP address for any of these calls.
• How long: records are kept for as long as the license or trial exists. To have them deleted, contact support.
• For a VFxM license key, the key and the machine ID are also passed to Polar (polar.sh), the store that sells and issues VFxM licenses, which records each activation under that machine ID as its label. On Windows that label is the MachineGuid as-is. The system profile is not passed to Polar.

Turning the system profile off

From version 1.2.4, Settings → License has Send system information with the license check, on by default; switch it off and the system profile is not sent. The license check will still send your license key, the activation ID and the hardware fingerprint, because it cannot confirm a license without them.