Privacy Policy
Last updated:
This policy explains what the WiCam mobile app (ai.wicam.app, for Android and iPhone) collects
about you, why we collect it, and what control you have over it. It covers the app and the account
service behind it. It does not cover anything you do with a camera outside the app.
In short
- You sign in with your phone number. That number, and the devices you sign in from, are the core of what we hold about you.
- We do not receive, store, or watch your video or audio. Live streams go directly between your phone and your camera, and recordings are written to the camera’s own memory card.
- Faces you register stay on the camera. The face library is stored on the camera hardware, not on our servers.
- You can delete your account from inside the app, or by asking us. See Deleting your account.
What we collect
Your account
| Data | Why we hold it |
|---|---|
| Phone number | It is your identity. You sign in with it over a one-time SMS code; there is no password. |
| Session records — one per phone you sign in from | To keep you signed in on each phone and to secure your account. |
| Device model, operating system and app version | Support, and deciding which app update to offer you. |
| IP address of your requests | Security: detecting abuse and rate-limiting sign-ins. |
| Push notification token | So your phone can receive camera alerts. One token is kept per phone. |
Your cameras
| Data | Why we hold it |
|---|---|
| Camera serial number and the name you gave it | So we know which cameras are yours. |
| Who owns each camera, and the history of ownership changes | Warranty. A camera’s warranty follows the camera, so we have to know who holds it now and who held it before. |
| Warranty start and end dates | To honour warranty claims. |
| The camera’s local network address, as the app reports it | Helps the app reconnect to a camera on your own network. |
We keep a log of ownership events — when a camera was added, released, shared or transferred, and who did it. This is what lets support answer “whose camera is this, and since when”, and it is the record a warranty claim is settled against.
Diagnostics
If the app crashes, a crash report is sent to our own Sentry server — hardware we run, not a third-party crash service. A report contains the technical state of the app at the moment it failed: the error, the code path, your device model and operating system, and the app version. Release builds of the app produce no logs at all, and credentials, one-time codes, push tokens and Wi-Fi passwords are deliberately kept out of anything the app records.
We also use Firebase Analytics and AppMetrica to understand which screens are used and where the app is slow. These receive usage events and a device identifier — not your phone number, and not your video.
What we do not collect
This list matters as much as the one above.
- Video and audio from your cameras. The live picture travels directly between your phone and the camera. We operate no video storage and no cloud recording: footage lives on the camera’s microSD card, and on your phone for the clips you choose to download.
- The contents of your face library. Registered faces and their photos are held on the camera itself. We never receive them, and we cannot see who your camera recognises. When you pick a face photo from your gallery, the phone’s own picker hands the app only the photo you chose.
- Your location. The app asks Android for location permission for one reason only: Android will not let any app list nearby Wi-Fi networks without it, and the app needs that list to put your camera on your Wi-Fi. Your position is never read, stored or transmitted. The iPhone app does not ask for location at all.
- Your Wi-Fi password. It is passed to the camera on your own network, as a QR code the camera reads off your phone screen. It never reaches us.
Permissions the app asks for
| Permission | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Camera | Scanning the QR code on your camera, and photographing a face you want to register. |
| Microphone | Talking through the camera’s speaker. |
| Notifications | Delivering camera alerts. |
| Location (Android only) | Listing nearby Wi-Fi networks during camera setup — see above. |
| Photos (iPhone only) | Saving a screenshot or a downloaded clip to your photo library. The app asks to add photos only, never to read them. |
| Display over other apps (Android only) | The floating live-view window. |
| Local network (iPhone only) | Finding and connecting to your cameras on your own Wi-Fi. |
Each is requested when the feature needs it, and declining one disables only that feature.
Who else is involved
| Who | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Kavenegar (SMS gateway) | Your phone number and the one-time code | Sending the sign-in code to your phone by SMS. |
| Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Your push token and the alert to be delivered | Delivering notifications to Android and iPhone. |
| Google (Firebase Analytics) and AppMetrica | Usage events and a device identifier | Product analytics. |
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
How long we keep it
- Your account and camera records: for as long as your account exists.
- Warranty records: for the life of the warranty and a reasonable period afterwards, because a warranty is a commitment we may have to prove.
- Ownership-event logs: retained as the audit trail behind warranty and support decisions.
- Crash reports: on our own server, for a limited diagnostic window.
When you delete your account, the account is closed and your camera links are removed. Each camera’s warranty stays with the camera rather than with you, so the next owner can continue it.
Deleting your account
You have two routes, and both have the same effect:
- In the app — Settings, then Delete account.
- On the web — the account deletion page.
Deleting your account signs you out on every device, removes your links to your cameras (your owned cameras are released, with their warranties intact for the next owner), and clears the IP addresses we had stored. It is not reversible: signing in again with the same number does not restore the old account.
How we protect it
- All traffic between the app and our services runs over TLS. Release builds of the Android app block unencrypted connections at the operating-system level, and trust only system certificate authorities, so a proxy certificate installed on the phone cannot silently read the traffic.
- Your sign-in tokens are held in protected storage on the phone and are excluded from cloud backup and phone-to-phone transfer, so they cannot leave your device inside a backup.
- Release builds write no logs.
No system is perfectly secure, but these are the measures in place.
Children
WiCam is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from a child. The app is often used to watch over a child — that footage stays on your camera and your phone, as described above.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change affects what we collect, tell you in the app.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request about your data: privacy@wicam.app.