Version 3.1, released on the 1st of August 2023
LineCast aims to provide a reliable CCTV service at an affordable price point. We have elaborated a strict privacy policy, which we believe is one of LineCast's strongest points due to its main principle of only involving the user data critical for the functionality of the service. This page provides a detailed description of how we handle the captured data and personal information, and covers security-related aspects.
Here is a resume of our privacy policy:
A detailed description follows.
In this document, the term "App" refers to the software that the user installs on an Android device, which is further referred to as a "Camera Device."
"Web Viewer" refers to a web page where the user can view the video content captured by the App, optionally listen to the audio captured by the App, control the device's camera parameters, and use a microphone connected to the device the web page is viewed on to send audio back to the Camera Device's loudspeaker.
The term "Captured media content" or simply "media content" in this document refers to the video content captured by the App on the Camera Device, optionally the audio content captured by the App on the Camera Device, and optionally the audio content captured by the Web Viewer sent back to the Camera Device's loudspeaker.
The term "Server" refers to a computer that the App and the Web Viewer communicate with through the Internet.
The term "Service" refers to either the App, the Server, or the Web Viewer functionalities or their combination.
The term "Capture session" in this document refers to a period of time between the moment when the user initiates the process of capturing the media content in the App and one of the following: (1) the user terminates the capture in the App, or (2) the Internet connection between the Camera Device and the Server is interrupted for 31 days or more.
Apart from the captured media content, the App does not utilize any information available on the Camera Device related to the user's identity, birth date or age, gender, e-mail, phone number, contacts, localization, accounts, payment information, activity, files, other installed apps, or any other kind of information that may be considered personal.
The App does not request permission to access this information in any way. None of this data is required for the functionality of the service, and none of it is used for any marketing purposes. Specifically, there are no advertisements served either in the App or on the Web Viewer page.
LineCast uses Google Payments services to process in-app purchases in a fully anonymous and isolated manner, respecting the user's identity. This is the standard method for apps available on Google Play to handle in-app purchases.
No personal information of any kind is obtained from Google Payments during the purchase process. The App simply verifies the status of purchasing a specific subscription or pass on a given Camera Device, without accessing the identity of the person who initiated the purchase or any payment details. The user does not directly interact with the App during the payment process, such as selecting a payment method or entering bank card details. Instead, these interactions are handled exclusively by Google Payments services, and the App has no technical capability to intercept them.
Any information provided by the user during the purchase process is processed by Google Payments, and their respective privacy policy governs this data handling, which can be found here.
Neither the App nor the Web Viewer contain analytics services or user behavior trackers.
No third-party cookies are used in the Web Viewer. The Web Viewer uses cookies only to handle user authentication, which is critical for the functionality of the Service.
The App requires access to the device's cameras and microphone to capture the media content.
This access is granted upon explicit approval by the user. Without this explicit approval, the App cannot use the device's cameras and microphone, and no video or audio can be captured. This is a security measure enforced by the Android operating system and cannot be bypassed in any way.
The camera video access is critical to the service and is mandatory for the App to work. The microphone access is optional and can be denied by the user, in which case only video is captured.
If the user enables the optional backward audio feature in the Web Viewer to send audio back to the Camera Device's loudspeaker, the Web Viewer requests access to the microphone of the device it is visited from. The access is granted upon explicit approval by the user. Without this explicit approval, the Web Viewer cannot use the microphone, and no audio data is captured on the viewer's side. This is a security measure enforced by web browsers and cannot be bypassed in any way.
If the user enables the "dashcam mode" feature during the capture session setup, the App records video and audio and stores it on the Camera Device. If this feature is disabled, no video and audio data is recorded at any moment.
The Server handles the transmission of the captured media content from the Camera Device to the Web Viewer. If the user enables the backward audio feature in the Web Viewer, the audio signal from the Web Viewer is transmitted to the Camera Device loudspeaker.
If "dashcam mode" is enabled, the user can download the recorded content, effectively making a copy on the device they connect to the camera from. When the user initiates the download of a selected recording, the web browser running on the corresponding device downloads and writes the content to the filesystem of this device, which cannot be accessed by any component of the Service. The user is therefore fully responsible for what happens to the downloaded content.
In any event or configuration, the captured media content is stored in a copyable form during its transmission by the Service, even temporarily. In some contexts, this is referred to as "ephemeral processing": during its transmission from the Camera Device to the user, the content exists only in volatile memory for a short period of time and cannot be extracted, copied, or distributed in file form.
When the App is capturing video and/or audio, a foreground notification and a corresponding icon are visible in the system tray on the Camera Device when its display is on. These notification elements are persistent during the capture session and cannot be hidden while the camera or the microphone is used by the App. They disappear only when the capture session is terminated or interrupted, implying that neither camera nor microphone is used by the App. This is a security measure enforced by the Android operating system and cannot be bypassed in any way.
If the capture session is terminated by the user, the termination is irreversible. A new capture session cannot be started automatically in any way without user interaction.
The capture session may be temporarily interrupted by the Android operating system due to memory, battery, or thermal constraints. When this temporary interruption occurs, the App stops using the camera and microphone, and the notification elements disappear from the Camera Device screen. For service robustness purposes, in case of such an interruption, the App tries to resume the capture session it was running before the interruption. If it succeeds in doing so, the capture process is resumed, and the notification elements appear again on the Camera Device without interaction with the user.
Each capture session is uniquely identified by a secret access link. This link provides access to the Web Viewer, which prompts the user for the password entered in the App during the capture session setup. The password is only stored on the camera device unless the user shares it with someone by interacting with the App. The password is never sent to the Server or the Web Viewer.
The App and the Server perform numerous additional security verifications before granting access to the captured media content. For example, if someone attempts to enter an invalid password multiple times, access to the captured media content is temporarily blocked. Additionally, LineCast implements a two-factor authentication procedure: after the user enters a valid password in the Web Viewer, the Web Viewer requests a one-time security code from a TOTP app that was paired with the App during the capture session setup. The two-factor authentication is optional, can only be enabled in the App during the capture session setup, and cannot be disabled for a given capture session.
However, it is crucial for the user to protect the credentials information from unwanted access. Without the two-factor authentication, anyone possessing the link and the password can access the captured media content. In the event that the credentials are compromised, the user must terminate the capture session on the Camera Device.
Once the capture session terminates, regardless of the exact reason for termination, the access link and the associated password are invalidated. Consequently, the Camera Device cannot be accessed using the same credentials thereafter.
All data exchanges between the App, the Server, and the Web Viewer are fully encrypted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer).
We reserve the right to update LineCast's privacy policy. The updates may be related to new features, changes in the existing implementations, or be based on user feedback. We do not plan any changes regarding the main principle of using only the minimal necessary data critical to the functionality of the service.
The privacy policy is versioned. The version and the release date are given at the top of this page.
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