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Privacy Policy

Spancam · Last updated: August 1, 2026

Overview

Spancam turns your phone — Android or iPhone — into a webcam for your own computer. It is designed with privacy in mind: your camera video is sent only between your own devices over a local connection (a USB cable or your local Wi-Fi network) and is never routed through any external server. This policy covers the Spancam apps for Android, iPhone (iOS), and macOS.

Data Collection

We do not collect personal data. Spancam has no accounts and does not collect, store, or transmit any personal information. The one thing it does send is anonymous usage analytics and an anonymised session replay (see Analytics below), which contain no personal or identifying information. Specifically:

  • No personal information is collected
  • No accounts, names, emails, or contact information
  • No advertising identifiers are used
  • No cookies or cross-app / cross-site tracking
  • Only anonymous usage analytics and an anonymised session replay that never includes your camera picture (see Analytics)

Analytics

To understand which features are used and how reliably connections work, Spancam sends anonymous, aggregate usage analyticsto two third-party analytics providers — Mixpanel and Microsoft Clarity. Clarity runs only in the Android and iPhone apps; the macOS app does not use it. This data:

  • Is tied only to a random identifier generated by the app for your device — never your name, account, email, or Apple/Google ID (there are none). It is not shared with anyone and it stays on the device even if you reinstall, so we can tell a returning user from a new one without ever knowing who you are
  • Contains no personal information and no video, image, or audio
  • Records app events such as feature usage, connection type and quality, and performance/thermal state
  • Is never used for advertising and is never combined with data from other apps or companies to track you

Session replay.Both providers can additionally build an anonymised playback of a session — which screens you opened, how they were laid out, and where you tapped — so we can see where the app is confusing. Microsoft Clarity reconstructs this from the app’s layout rather than recording your screen; Mixpanel’s session replay captures periodic screenshots of the app’s own interface. In both cases the live camera viewfinder is masked before anything leaves your device, so your camera picture is never part of a session replay. The focus-peaking and exposure overlays, which are drawn from the camera image, are masked in the same way, as is any text you enter. Session replay only ever covers Spancam’s own screens — never other apps, and never your desktop.

This data is associated with that per-device identifier, which is why our App Store privacy label lists some of it as linked to you. That identifier is not a name, an account or an advertising ID, and we hold nothing that could turn it into one. It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never combined with data from other companies to track you across apps or websites.

Camera & Video Data

Spancam captures the camera solely to send it to a computer you control. On Android, the app hardware-encodes the video and streams it to your own desktop over the attached USB cable or a direct connection on your local Wi-Fi network. On macOS, the app receives that video, processes it entirely on your Mac (including optional eye-contact correction and background effects), and presents it as a “Spancam” camera you can select in other apps.

In concrete terms:

  • Video is sent only to your own devices over your own cable or local network — never to any Spancam or third-party server
  • No video, image, or audio is recorded, written to disk, retained, or logged beyond what is needed to show the live picture
  • An optional standby webcam can serve your phone's camera to a browser on your local network, reachable only by devices on your network and protected by a one-time link/token
  • The only data that crosses your local connection is the live video stream

Permissions

Spancam requests only the permissions needed for its core function. It is video-only and does not request microphone, location, contacts, or file access.

  • Camera(Android, iPhone & macOS) — capture the video you stream and publish as a virtual camera.
  • Notifications (Android) — show the ongoing notification while the camera is streaming.
  • Local Network(iPhone & macOS) — discover your phone on your Wi-Fi using Bonjour. No data leaves your local network.
  • USB(Android & macOS) — carry the video over the USB cable. No data leaves the cable.

Network Communication

All communication between the phone and the computer happens over:

  • USB — a direct wired connection between your phone and computer. Data never leaves the cable.
  • Local Wi-Fi — a direct connection between devices on the same network, discovered via Bonjour (DNS-SD). Data does not pass through any external server.

Data Storage

Spancam stores minimal preferences locally on your device (such as your chosen camera, transport, viewfinder options, and on macOS your optional eye-contact calibration). This data:

  • Is stored only on your device
  • Is not synced to any cloud service or external server
  • Is removed when you uninstall the app
  • Contains no personal or identifiable information

Data Deletion

Since Spancam does not collect or store any personal data on external servers, there is no user data to delete. All locally stored preferences are automatically removed when you uninstall the app.

Third-Party Services

Spancam uses Mixpanel and Microsoft Clarityto collect the anonymous usage analytics described above. They process that data on our behalf, to help us understand how the app is used and to improve it. Microsoft Clarity is a session-replay and heatmap service; as described above, the camera viewfinder and any text you enter are masked before they leave your device. Spancam includes no advertising SDKs and no cross-app or cross-site tracking SDKs, and we never sell your data. The only other third-party integration is the platform app store used to distribute the app. You can read each provider's privacy policy here: mixpanel.com/legal/privacy-policy and privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement.

Children's Privacy

Spancam does not collect any personal information from anyone, including children under the age of 13. Since no personal data is collected, the app is safe for users of all ages.

Your Rights (GDPR / CCPA)

Since Spancam does not collect, store, or process any personal data, the rights typically granted under GDPR and CCPA — such as the right to access, rectify, delete, or port your data — have no personal data to act upon. If you have any concerns, please contact us using the information below.

Changes to This Policy

If we update this privacy policy, we will post the new version on this page with an updated date. Please check this page periodically for any changes.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at [email protected].