Privacy policy

Steadbeam is made by BTC Media Labs LLC in New York. This policy covers the Steadbeam app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android.

The short version

• Your places, your household and what you watch for stay on your device, encrypted.
• We have no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking.
• The app downloads the same public data for everyone, so we can't tell which places you follow.

What stays on your device

The app stores the following only on your device:

• the places you add;
• the household members you enter (the names you choose, citizenships, countries where they live, and status where they aren't a citizen);
• the groups and measures you choose to watch for;
• your alert settings and what the app has already shown you.

It's kept in an encrypted file whose key is held by your device's secure key storage (the Keychain on Apple devices, the Android Keystore on Android). None of it is sent to us or anyone else, and there's no cloud sync.

Backups. On Android, the app's data is excluded from device backups. On Apple devices, a device backup may contain the encrypted file, but its key never leaves the device, so the file can't be read from a backup.

If you turn on the app lock, your device checks your face, fingerprint or passcode. The app never sees that information.

What the app downloads

The app regularly downloads a data set that we prepare from public sources:

• regional levels, with the evidence behind them;
• official measures;
• government travel advisories;
• official hazard warnings.

Every copy of the app downloads the same data, never data for particular places, so the download doesn't reveal which places you follow.

The data is served by Cloudflare, our hosting provider. Like any web request, a download shows Cloudflare technical information such as your IP address, which Cloudflare handles under its own privacy policy. We don't use it to identify you.

Notifications

Alerts are created on your device from the downloaded data. Lock-screen wording stays neutral unless you choose to show details.

Apple devices only. So that the app can refresh promptly when an urgent event begins, it sends Apple's push token for the app to our Cloudflare storage. The token:

• contains nothing about you, your places or your household;
• is used only to send the same silent wake-up to every device, never a message aimed at one person;
• is deleted after 60 days if the app doesn't renew it.

The Android app doesn't use push.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are sold and managed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). We never receive your card or payment details. The app checks your subscription status on your device. Apple and Google give us the sales reports they give every developer (for example the country and amount of each sale), and we use them only for accounting, tax and refunds.

Crash reports

If you've allowed your device to share diagnostics with app developers, Apple or Google may send us anonymous crash reports and app statistics under their own terms. They contain nothing from your household file. You can turn this off in your device's settings.

Deleting your data

In the app, choose Settings → Delete household and local data. This removes your places, household, watched groups, the encryption key and the downloaded data from the device. It's ordinary deletion; we don't claim it prevents forensic recovery. Deleting the app also removes it.

Because we hold no personal data about you, there's nothing for us to delete on our side, apart from the anonymous push token described above, which expires on its own.

Sensitive information

You may choose to enter sensitive information, such as a legal status. It stays on your device, but anyone who can unlock your device and the app could read it. Think about this before you enter it.

Links to official sources

Warnings, advisories and measures link to the issuing organization's website, which has its own privacy practices.

Children

Steadbeam is meant for adults managing a household and isn't directed at children.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date above. If the app ever needs to send any of your information off the device, we'll ask you first.

Contact

Questions about privacy: alex@btcmedialabs.com. BTC Media Labs LLC, New York, USA.