Why do we need your Location Permission?
SUMMARY
In order to know when the app is in the same place as your cameras are, we need permission to identify the name of the wifi network from the app. This is only doable via the "Location Permissions". Otherwise, the app will not connect to your cameras with confidence and will likely fail. We store this information only on your phone, not in the cloud.
With an increased focus on privacy, Apple and Google both have chosen to lock down specific network details of the phone from all applications. With the launch of Android 10 and iOS 13, both operating systems now require us to request from you the wifi details in order to work with your home network.
In order to maintain privacy, we focus on keeping all of your personal details (e.g. camera name, password, wifi network) on your phone and not in our servers. This is to ensure that no video data or passwords are shared with our servers and only YOU can connect to your cameras.
To do this, we need the ability to identify when the app is in your home network - where you cameras are located. To do so, we need the details on your wifi network name so we can tell when you are home (and use the local IP address) or outside your home (and use the external IP address).
Thus, in order to ensure connectivity without using an outside source (like a peer-to-peer connection or a sentinel service), we need the app to be able to see the wifi name and details for this to work effectively.
If we do not have this permission, it is very likely that the cameras will not connect if you:
- try to connect from another home
- try to connect via your mobile network
- try to connect from work
- try to connect when you change the wifi SSID name