VidBeam Privacy Policy

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This policy covers VidBeam: Cast Web Videos to TV for iOS, published by Sang Cao.

The short version

VidBeam has no account to create and no server we run, and we collect nothing ourselves. Your bookmarks, history and settings stay on your iPhone.

The free version shows ads, served by Google AdMob. To show them, Google’s advertising SDK inside the app collects some data about your device and how you use the app — described below. If you allow tracking, Google may also use your device’s advertising identifier. VidBeam Pro removes the ads.

What stays on your device

  • Bookmarks and history, stored on the device.
  • Your settings — the search engine you picked and whether pop-ups are blocked.
  • Sign-ins and cookies of the sites you visit, kept by the browser as Safari would.
  • A few counters that decide when an ad may be shown (when you first opened the app, how many videos you have sent to a TV, when the last ad appeared). The first-opened date is kept in the iPhone’s Keychain, so it stays if you delete and reinstall the app.

Clearing history and website data is in Settings, inside the app.

Advertising (free version)

The free version includes the Google Mobile Ads SDK. After a video you chose starts on your TV, it may show one full-screen ad on your iPhone. No ad is shown, and the SDK requests none, during your first week with VidBeam, and none at all with VidBeam Pro.

According to Google’s own disclosure for the SDK, it collects:

  • Device identifiers — including the advertising identifier (IDFA), only if you allow tracking — used for advertising and analytics, and to track across other companies’ apps and websites if you allow it.
  • Approximate location, estimated from your IP address.
  • Advertising data (which ads were shown and how you interacted with them) and product interaction in the app, for advertising and analytics.
  • Diagnostics — crash and performance data — to keep the SDK working.

This data goes to Google, not to us, and Google’s privacy policy applies to it: policies.google.com/privacy, and how Google uses data from apps that use its services: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

VidBeam does not give the ad SDK the pages you open or the videos you watch.

Your choices.

  • Tracking. The first time you send a video to a TV after your first week, iOS asks whether VidBeam may track you. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, Google does not receive the advertising identifier. You can change this at any time in iOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.
  • Consent where the law requires it. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, and anywhere else the law asks for it, Google’s consent form appears before any ad is requested. You can change your choice later in VidBeam › Settings › Ad privacy choices.
  • No ads at all. With VidBeam Pro the app requests no ads.

Purchases

VidBeam Pro is bought through the App Store. Apple handles the payment; we receive no card or account details, only what the App Store tells the app — that this Apple Account has Pro.

What else leaves your device

Four kinds of request, none of which reaches us.

The pages you open. VidBeam is a browser: it loads the page you asked for, straight from that site. Those sites see what they would see if you used Safari, and their own privacy policies apply. We are not a party to it. The small site icons shown next to your bookmarks and history are fetched from those same sites, never from an icon service.

Searches from the address bar. These go to the search engine you choose in Settings — Google, DuckDuckGo or Bing — and to nowhere else.

A check on each video it finds. When a page contains a video stream, VidBeam asks the site serving that video for the playlist, or for the first bytes of the file, so it can tell how long the video is, what quality it offers, and whether it can be played at all. That request goes only to the site the video came from.

Finding TVs. To list Google Cast TVs, VidBeam looks for them on your own Wi-Fi network (iOS asks for Local Network access the first time). Nothing about this leaves your network.

Playing to a TV

Your TV fetches the video itself, straight from the site, over AirPlay or Google Cast. When a site only answers your iPhone, VidBeam passes the video through your iPhone to the TV, over your own Wi-Fi, and says so in the app. Nothing about what you watch passes through us, because there is nothing of ours in the path.

What the app does not do

  • It does not download, save or export video. There is no such feature, hidden or otherwise.
  • It ships with no sites, no suggested pages and no sample bookmarks.
  • It cannot play DRM-protected video, and says so in the app.

What this app is not

VidBeam is a browser. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any website. It does not host, provide or decrypt any content. You are responsible for the content you choose to watch.

Children

VidBeam is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

If the app’s behaviour changes, this page changes with it and the date at the top moves.

Contact

Questions about this policy: sangcaolabs@gmail.com. We usually reply within one to two business days.