Last updated: August 1, 2026
HearthWire for iPhone and iPad runs entirely on your own device and your own 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. In the App Store's own privacy questionnaire, every category is answered Data Not Collected.
The app finds the other devices in your household by announcing itself on your local network and listening for the others. Everything after that, messages, files, voice calls, folder browsing, video playback and screen viewing, travels directly between your own devices over that same network.
There is no server of ours anywhere in the product. Disconnect your home from the internet and everything described on this page still works, which is the simplest proof that nothing is passing through us.
Inside its own sandbox on your device, and nowhere else:
None of this is uploaded anywhere. Deleting the app removes all of it.
The app can share folders you pick from the Files app so the rest of the household can read them. Nothing is shared until you choose it, and you can stop sharing at any time. A phone shares only while the app is open, which the app tells you on the sharing screen every time.
Files you keep from another computer are saved inside the app on your device. Files you send go to the device you chose and to no other.
Video plays from the computer that holds it, over your network, as you watch. The file is not downloaded to your device and no copy is left behind. The video engine that decodes formats the system cannot open is libVLC, published by VideoLAN under the LGPL and carried inside the app. It is a decoder, not a service: it has no network of its own in this app and reports nothing to anyone. See the Terms for the licence and the offer of source.
Traffic between your devices is encrypted with AES-GCM. A new device joins only after somebody approves it. Screen viewing and control need the consent of the person at the computer being viewed, for each session, and that person can end it at any moment.
The app is a one time purchase on the App Store, with no subscription and no in app purchases. The transaction is handled entirely by Apple. We never see your name, your address, your payment details or your Apple Account. We receive only the anonymous sales reports Apple provides to every developer.
The app is a household utility and is not directed at children. It collects nothing from anybody, of any age.
We are not a data controller or processor of your personal data through this app, because none is collected, transmitted to us, or processed by us. The data described above stays on devices you own and under your control. Rights of access, correction, portability and erasure are satisfied on your own device: the data is already yours, and deleting the app removes it.
We do not collect, sell, or share personal information as those terms are defined by California law. There is no category of personal information collected through this app, and therefore none disclosed for a business purpose.
Install this app only from the App Store. Because it connects your devices and your home network, a tampered copy obtained anywhere else is especially dangerous, and this policy describes only the genuine app as published by us.
If this policy changes, the current version will be posted at this address with a new date at the top. Material changes will be described in the app's release notes.
Nir Nagar, support@hearth-software.com or iam@nirnagar.com