Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 27, 2026

HearthWire for Android runs entirely on your own phone and home network. It does not collect, transmit to us, or share any of your data. There are no accounts, no servers, no cloud, no telemetry, and no analytics. We never see your files, your photos, your messages, your calls, or your settings.

Local network (your intranet), not the internet

Everything this app does happens over your local network only: the private network your home router creates for the devices inside your house. Files, messages, voice calls and screens travel the short way, from your phone straight to your computer, and stay inside your home the entire time. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and there is no outside server involved in moving your data.

What the app stores, and where

Everything HearthWire saves stays on the phone itself, in the app's own private storage:

• Your home network's name and shared secret, saved when you join or create a network, so the phone stays a member after a restart.
• Which folders you chose to share, as a list of folder paths. The files inside them are never copied anywhere by us.
• Names you gave other devices, and any you blocked. These are private to this phone and are not sent to the devices concerned.
• Preferences: the name this phone shows on the network, whether it stays reachable with the screen off, and how the remote-control screen is oriented.

We never receive any of these. Uninstalling the app removes them.

Files, and the folders you share

Files you send go directly to the computer you pick. Files sent to you are saved into your Downloads folder, and only after you accept them: nothing is written to your phone without your approval.

When you share a folder, the computers in your network can list and read what is inside it, and can add files to it if you turn that on. You choose every folder, one at a time, and can stop sharing at any moment. Nothing is shared until you say so, and nothing is uploaded off the device.

Permissions, and why each one exists

• Photos, videos and music (READ_MEDIA_IMAGES, READ_MEDIA_VIDEO, READ_MEDIA_AUDIO): so a folder you chose to share can be listed and read by your own computers. The app reads media only from folders you selected, and only to serve them to your devices.
• Microphone (RECORD_AUDIO): only during a voice call you started or answered. Nothing is recorded, stored, or sent anywhere but to the device on the other end of that call.
• Notifications: so a message, a call, an incoming file or a device asking to join can reach you when the app is not on screen.
• Local network and Wi-Fi state: to find your own devices on your own network.
• Run in the background (foreground service, connectedDevice): to keep the connection to your computers alive so messages, calls and transfers still arrive while the app is closed. You can turn this down in the app's own settings.
• Start at boot: so the phone rejoins your home network after a restart without you opening the app.

The app requests no camera, no contacts, no location, and no phone identity.

Playing a film from a computer

When you press play, the film streams encrypted from your computer to your phone and is handed to a video player app on the same phone through a connection that never leaves the device. Those players are separate apps by other developers, and what happens inside them is governed by their own policies. The app itself records nothing about what you watch.

Encryption and joining

Traffic between your devices is encrypted with a key derived from your home network's shared secret (AES-GCM). A device can only join your network after a person approves it, by confirming that the same number is shown on both screens.

Purchases

HearthWire for Android is bought once through Google Play. The purchase is handled entirely by Google, under Google's own terms and privacy policy. We do not receive your name, your payment details, or any other personal information from it.

Get HearthWire only from official sources

Install it only from Google Play. Because the app connects to the computers in your home, a copy from anywhere else could be modified and is not something we can vouch for.

Europe (GDPR)

We are not a data controller or processor for anything you do in this app, because no personal data reaches us. There is nothing for us to access, correct, export or erase, because we hold nothing. Everything the app saves is on your own phone and under your control.

California (CCPA/CPRA)

We do not collect, sell or share personal information. We have never sold or shared personal information, and we do not process it for targeted advertising.

Children's privacy

The app is not directed at children and collects nothing from anyone, of any age.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it.

Contact

Questions about this policy: support@hearth-software.com