Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

This policy covers SmartCtrl (listed on the App Store as "Universal TV Remote: SmartCtrl"), an app for iPhone and iPad that controls smart TVs and streaming players over a local Wi-Fi network. The app is developed by Appxcellence Solutions LLC ("Appxcellence", "we", "us") and is distributed on the App Store under the developer name Nice Express.

For any question about this policy or your data, write to contact@appxcellence.net.

2. Information that stays on your device

To work as a remote, SmartCtrl needs some information about the TVs on your network. It is stored only on your iPhone or iPad and is never sent to us.

Commands such as "volume up", the text you type with the keyboard feature and the list of apps installed on your TV travel directly between your device and your TV on your local network. They do not go through any server of ours. Your TV processes them under its manufacturer's own privacy policy.

In the app's Settings you can forget the last TV, remove TVs added by IP address, and use Forget all pairings, which erases every pairing key from the keychain. Deleting the app removes its settings; iOS may keep keychain items after an app is deleted, but only SmartCtrl can read them.

3. Permissions

SmartCtrl asks for one permission: Local Network, to discover the TVs connected to the same Wi-Fi (using Bonjour and SSDP) and to send them commands. You can turn it off at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network, but the app cannot find or control a TV without it.

The app does not ask for your location, camera, microphone, contacts, photos or calendar, and it does not show the App Tracking Transparency prompt.

4. Advertising (Google AdMob)

The free version of SmartCtrl shows a banner ad, provided by Google AdMob (Google LLC, or Google Ireland Limited for users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland). To choose, display and measure ads and to prevent fraud, the Google Mobile Ads SDK built into the app collects:

• Device identifiers, such as the identifier for vendors. Because SmartCtrl does not ask for tracking permission, iOS does not give the advertising identifier (IDFA) to the app or to Google.
• Advertising data: the ads shown, and your taps on them.
• Product interaction: basic information on how the ad space is used, such as app launches.
• Diagnostics: crash data, performance data and other technical data about the SDK.
• Your IP address, from which Google may estimate an approximate location (country or city), and general device information such as model, iOS version and language.

In App Store Connect we declare this data as used for third-party advertising and not linked to your identity, and we declare that the app does not track you. Ad attribution uses Apple's SKAdNetwork, which is designed to measure ads without identifying you.

Google acts as an independent controller of this data and processes it under its own policies: Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

SmartCtrl Pro removes the ads.

5. Purchases and subscriptions

SmartCtrl Pro is sold through the App Store, as a one-time Lifetime purchase or as a weekly or monthly subscription. Apple processes the payment and tells the app whether you own Pro. We do not receive your name, Apple Account or payment details. Apple's handling of purchases is described in the Apple Privacy Policy. You can manage or cancel a subscription in Settings › your name › Subscriptions.

6. When you contact us

If you choose "Contact support" in the app's Settings, it opens an e-mail to contact@appxcellence.net pre-filled with technical details to help us answer: the app version, the iOS version and device model, and the brand and model of the TV you are connected to. You can read and delete these lines before sending.

We use your e-mail address and message only to reply to you, and we delete support conversations when they are no longer needed, at the latest two years after the last message.

7. Other connections the app makes

• Update check: when you tap "Check for updates" in Settings, the app asks Apple's public App Store service for the latest version number of SmartCtrl. No personal information is included, apart from what any internet request reveals to Apple, such as your IP address.
• Links: links to the App Store, to our website or to the legal pages open in Safari or the App Store, under those services' own policies.

The app contains no analytics service of its own: we do not receive usage statistics, crash reports or your location.

8. Why we use data, and on which legal basis

• To provide the remote features you ask for (discovering, pairing with and controlling your TV): performance of our service to you. This happens on your device.
• To fund the free version with ads: our legitimate interest in offering the app for free, and your consent where the law requires it.
• To answer your messages: our legitimate interest in providing support, and your request itself.
• To comply with the law and to protect our rights: legal obligation and legitimate interest.

9. Who receives data

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for money. Data reaches only the following parties:

• Google, through AdMob, as described in section 4.
• Apple, for downloads, purchases, subscriptions and the update check.
• Your TV, on your local network, when you control it.
• Authorities, only if the law requires it.

Google and Apple may process data outside your country, including in the United States, under the safeguards described in their policies (such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework).

10. How long data is kept

Information stored on your device stays there until you forget a TV, reset the app or delete it. Advertising data is kept by Google for the periods set in its policies. Support e-mails are kept as described in section 6. We keep no other personal data.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, California or Brazil), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal data, to object to or restrict its processing, and to withdraw a consent at any time. To exercise these rights, write to contact@appxcellence.net. As we hold almost no data about you, your request will mostly concern your support e-mails; for advertising data, you can also contact Google directly.

You can limit personalised advertising on your device in Settings › Privacy & Security, and stop all ads by subscribing to SmartCtrl Pro or by deleting the app. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority.

Residents of California: we do not sell personal information, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16.

12. Children

SmartCtrl is rated 4+ on the App Store but is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you think a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Security

Pairing keys are kept in the iOS keychain, and the app uses the encrypted connections each TV offers where it supports them (for example a secure WebSocket on Samsung and LG, TLS on Android TV and Hisense, HTTPS on Fire TV and Vizio). Some protocols do not offer encryption on the local network, such as Roku's, or LG's on older sets; they carry remote commands only.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example when the app gains a feature. The effective date at the top of this page will change, and for significant changes we will tell you in the app's release notes or in the app itself.

15. Contact