Privacy policy

Privacy policy

Last updated 2026-08-17

Watch Home Remote is operated by TLM Software Design, Inc. (Michigan, USA). This policy explains what we collect, why, and what choices you have. We've kept it short on purpose.

The short version

• Turning a device on or off from the watch or the phone is a LAN-only operation — the command goes from your phone straight to the device over your Wi‑Fi or Thread network. No cloud service sits in that path.
• Your Matter fabric credentials (the keys that let your phone control your devices) are generated on your phone and stored in its secure keychain/keystore. We never see them.
• The watch talks only to your phone, over Bluetooth. It never connects to the internet directly.
• On iPhone, those credentials and your trial date sit in the Keychain, which outlives deleting the app — so your devices come back if you reinstall, and the free trial can't be restarted. Reset the Matter fabric in Device settings to erase them.
• We don't sell your data, run ads, or use third-party trackers.

What we collect

Device and group configuration

The names, kinds, and groupings you give your devices are stored on your phone. This lets the app work offline and start up instantly with your last-known device list.

Matter fabric credentials

When you add a device, your phone generates its own signing key and joins the device to a Matter fabric it controls. That key lives in your phone's secure storage (iOS Keychain or the Android equivalent) and is never transmitted to us.

On iOS this key, and the list of devices it has joined, are kept in the Keychain, which outlives deleting the app. That is deliberate: each device you have added stores a matching credential, and if your phone forgot the key while the devices remembered it, those devices would be left holding a credential the app could no longer use or withdraw — recoverable only by factory-resetting each one. Keeping it also means reinstalling restores your devices instead of stranding them. Use Device settings → Reset Matter fabric to erase it: that withdraws this phone's access from every reachable device and deletes the key. Erasing the phone clears it too.

We do not check that a device is genuine before adding it. Matter devices can present a manufacturer certificate, but many consumer devices ship without one that can be verified, so refusing those would block ordinary hardware from working. If you supply Wi-Fi credentials during setup, they go to the device you are adding.

Purchase and trial status

We keep a record of your 7-day trial start and, if you buy the one-time unlock, your purchase status through our payments processor (RevenueCat) so it can be restored on a new device.

The trial start date is a single timestamp held on your phone. On iOS it is in the Keychain and so survives deleting the app, which is what stops one device from starting the free trial over and over. It is not synced to iCloud and never leaves your phone. Your purchase is tied to your App Store or Google Play account, not to this record, so it restores on any device you sign in to.

Diagnostics

The app keeps a rolling 14-day log on your device only, to help diagnose connection issues. Nothing is uploaded: it leaves your phone only if you choose to export and send it to us in a bug report. The app contains no crash-reporting or analytics SDK — we receive no automatic diagnostics at all.

Device permissions

The app asks for four permissions, each used for one purpose and nothing else:

• Camera — to read a Matter device's QR setup code while you add it. Frames are processed on your device and never stored or transmitted.
• Bluetooth — to exchange messages with your Garmin watch, and to set up a brand-new Matter device that isn't on your network yet.
• Local network — to find and control your Matter devices over your own Wi-Fi or Thread network. This is how the app works without a cloud service.
• Location (Android) — required by Android for Bluetooth device discovery during setup. We do not collect, store, or transmit your location, and the app requests it with Android's neverForLocation flag where the platform allows.

This website

This site currently runs no analytics, no cookies, and no tracking pixels. If aggregate visit measurement is added later, it will be cookie-gated behind an explicit consent banner and this page will say so before it ships.

Who we share with

We rely on a small number of service providers, each used for one specific job:

• The Apple App Store and Google Play for billing. We don't see your full payment information.
• RevenueCat for entitlement/purchase status.
• A web-hosting provider for this marketing site.

How long we keep things

• Matter fabric credentials and the device list: on your phone until you reset the Matter fabric in Device settings (on iOS these are in the Keychain and outlive deleting the app — see above; on Android they are removed with the app).
• Device and group configuration (names, groups, order, what is hidden): on your phone until you remove it or delete the app.
• Trial start date: on iOS, until you erase the phone — it outlives deleting the app so the trial cannot be restarted. On Android it is removed with the app.
• Purchase status: tied to your store account and retained by our payments processor per its own policy.
• Crash and diagnostic logs: a rolling 14 days on-device; anything you export is shared only when you send it to us.

Your rights and choices

Removing a device withdraws this phone's access from it. Deleting the app removes your configuration, and on Android everything else with it; on iOS, Device settings → Reset Matter fabric is what erases the fabric key and device list, and it is worth doing before you delete the app if you want nothing left behind. If you live in the EU, UK, California, or another region with comparable privacy laws, you have the right to access, correct, port, or delete personal data we hold and to object to or restrict processing — email us for anything not covered by the in-app controls.

Children

Watch Home Remote is not directed to children under 13 (under 16 in the EU) and we don't knowingly collect data from them.

Changes

We'll post material changes here and update the "Last updated" date.

Contact

Privacy questions, requests, or complaints: privacy@swtlm.com.