Big Button Universal TV Remote privacy policy

Who we are

Big Button Universal TV Remote is made by Wavista Apps, operated by William Tsao, an individual based in California, USA. Contact: support@wavistaapp.com.

Your TV and home network

• Finding your TV. With your permission for local network access, the app looks for Roku, Samsung and LG TVs on your Wi-Fi by checking the devices on your home network, then asks each TV what it is. You can also type your TV's address.
• Controlling your TV. The app sends button presses, the text you type or say for searches, and requests to open TV apps straight to your TV over your home network. A Samsung TV sees the app as "TV Remote", and an LG TV is asked to allow the app to control it.
• Waking your TV. The app can send a wake-up signal to your TV's last known address.
• What the app saves on your iPhone: each saved TV's brand, network address, own name and model, serial or device number, network hardware address (for wake-up), the name you gave it and when you added it. The pairing key each TV gives the app is kept in your iPhone's Keychain, for this device only. TV app icons may be kept in the app's image cache.

None of this is sent to us or to the TV maker by the app, and it is kept out of analytics and crash reports. It is used only between your iPhone and your TV.

The iPhone's Keychain can keep pairing keys even after you delete the app. To remove them, use Delete my data before you delete the app.

Voice search

Voice search uses the microphone only while you use it, to type your search on the TV. The app does not save the recording. The words are shown to you, then sent to the TV like typed text. On iPhones that can recognize speech on the device, the audio stays on your iPhone. On iPhones that cannot, iOS sends the audio to Apple's speech recognition service, under Apple's privacy policy.

Other things kept on your iPhone

Your setup answers (who the remote is for and the layout you chose), your layout and vibration settings, and small counters such as free button presses and days of use. If you back up your iPhone to iCloud or a computer, the backup includes this data, as it does for any app.

What leaves your iPhone, and who receives it

RevenueCat (purchases)

RevenueCat runs purchases and subscriptions for us. It receives a random anonymous ID it creates for the app, your App Store purchase records (what you bought, when, its price, and trial and renewal status) and technical details such as the iOS and app version. Its software also sends the identifier for vendor, an ID that Apple gives our apps on your iPhone. RevenueCat never gets your name, email or payment card. If you installed the app from an ad on the App Store (Apple Ads), Apple tells RevenueCat which ad campaign, ad group and search keyword led to the install, so we can see whether our ads pay for themselves. This is Apple's own ad attribution: it does not use the advertising identifier and needs no tracking permission. Apple handles payment.

PostHog (usage analytics, which you can turn off)

We use PostHog to see how the app is used, so we can find problems and improve it. Analytics are on when you install the app, and you can turn them off at any time in Settings, Share usage analytics. When they are off, the app sends nothing to PostHog. When they are on, PostHog receives, tied to the anonymous ID:

• your two setup answers, both picked from a list: who the remote is for (you, a relative or a family TV) and the layout you chose;
• events such as opening the app, setup steps viewed, whether you allowed local network access, when the purchase screen was shown, trials, purchases, restores and review prompts;
• your TV's brand, with events for finding a TV (and how), pairing (how long it took, or why it failed), connection problems, opening a TV app, sending text (typed or spoken), using voice, choosing a layout, and a sample of about 1 in 20 button presses (which button and layout);
• details the PostHog software adds, such as the app version, iOS version, device model, language, time zone and screen size.

About your TV, PostHog learns only its brand (Roku, Samsung or LG). It never receives network addresses, hardware addresses, TV names, pairing keys, TV app names or the text you type or say. Session recording, touch tracking and location lookup from your IP address are turned off. PostHog does not store your IP address.

Sentry (crash reports)

If the app crashes or hits an error, it sends a report to Sentry so we can fix it: what went wrong and where in the app, the device model, iOS and app version, a random ID Sentry makes for the install, and a short trail of what the app did just before. The app leaves every request to your TV out of that trail and out of performance timings, so the TV's address and the buttons or text you send never reach Sentry. It also leaves out console logs, and Sentry's own record of network requests on iOS is turned off. For about 1 in 10 app starts and screen loads it also sends performance timings. Reports do not include the anonymous ID. Sentry does not store your IP address.

Apple

Apple handles the App Store, payments, speech recognition (as above) and iPhone backups under Apple's own privacy policy.

Email to support

If you email us, we receive your email address, your message and the details that Contact support adds (app version, iOS version and the anonymous ID). We use them only to help you. We keep support emails for 2 years after your last message, then delete them. Cloudflare forwards them to our Gmail (Google) inbox.

Permissions

• Local network: to find and control your TV on your Wi-Fi.
• Microphone and speech recognition: only for voice search, as above.

The app does not use your camera, photos, location, contacts, notifications or Apple Health.

How long data is kept

• On your iPhone: until you use Delete my data or delete the app (pairing keys in the Keychain can outlast the app, as above). Delete my data keeps the count of free button presses used.
• RevenueCat: for as long as we offer the app, so your purchase can be restored.
• PostHog: up to 1 year.
• Sentry: 30 days.

Delete my data

Open Settings and tap Delete my data. It deletes your saved TVs, their pairing keys, your answers, settings and other counters from your iPhone, and starts the app again from the beginning. It keeps only the count of free button presses you have used (and whether the app already showed you the upgrade screen after them), so the free presses do not start over. These are stored only on your iPhone. Analytics stay off on that iPhone for good. Your TVs will need to be paired again.

The app has no server, so Delete my data cannot delete what PostHog, Sentry or RevenueCat already received. To ask us to delete your PostHog profile and events, any Sentry reports we can match, or your RevenueCat record, email us from Contact support (it adds the anonymous ID we need). Delete my data does not cancel your purchase or subscription, and deleting the RevenueCat record does not cancel it either; Restore purchases brings it back.

Your requests

You can email support@wavistaapp.com to ask what we hold about you, or to delete it. Send the email from Contact support in the app so it includes the anonymous ID; we cannot find your data without it, because we do not know your name. We reply within 30 days.

What we do not do

We do not sell your personal information or share it for advertising. The app has no ads and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.

The app does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, so there is nothing for a Do Not Track signal to turn off, and the app does not respond to one.

Children

The app is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you think a child has used the app, email us and we will help delete the data.

Where the law requires it, the app asks Apple for your age range. The answer stays on your iPhone, is used only to apply age protections, and is never sent to us or anyone else. If Apple says you are under 13, or you choose not to share your age range where it is required, the app turns off usage analytics, Apple Ads attribution (see RevenueCat above) and, on iPhones that cannot recognize speech on their own, voice search, since it would send your voice to Apple. Typed search and the remote keep working.

Security and where data is processed

The app talks to its service providers over encrypted connections (HTTPS). It connects only to TVs at private home network addresses. Pairing keys are kept in the iPhone's Keychain. RevenueCat, PostHog (US cloud) and Sentry process data in the United States.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change affects how we use data you already gave us, we will tell you in the app first.

Contact

support@wavistaapp.com

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