Privacy policy · Home Station

Who we are

Home Station runs Home Station: the website gethomestation.com, the family web app and the Home Station app for Android. Home Station is responsible for your information. For anything on this page, write to us at [email protected]. The person in charge of protecting personal information can be reached at the same address.

What we collect about you

When you create an account and use the family web app, we keep:

Your name, email address and language, and your password, stored scrambled so no one can read it.
The radios you look after: the name you give each one (such as “Mom”), its stations, its settings and the family members who help with it.
The voice messages you record or upload, with their length and when they were first heard.
The email addresses of the people you invite to help.
If you turn on alerts in a browser: the address its push service gives us for it, and the browser’s name.
If you pay: your plan, how many radios it covers, and your customer number at Stripe. Stripe handles your card. At most we see its brand and last 4 digits.
While you’re signed in: your IP address and browser, kept with your session.

What the radio sends us

The person who listens has no account, and we never ask for their name, age or health. The Home Station app on their phone or tablet sends us:

The device’s model and Android version, the version of the app, and a random code that tells our server which radio it is.
A push token from Google, so we can wake the radio when the family changes something.
Every minute while the app is open or playing: whether it’s playing, which button, the volume, the battery level, whether it’s charging, and which voice message is playing. We keep only the latest, not a history.

The app doesn’t use the microphone, camera, contacts or location. It has no ads, and no tracking or analytics tools. A log of what the app does stays on the device, unless a family member chooses to send it to us from the setup menu.

Cookies

We use only the cookies the site needs to work: one that keeps you signed in and remembers your language, one that protects forms, and, if you tick “Keep me signed in on this device”, one that does just that. No advertising or analytics cookies, and no tracking by other companies. Our fonts and images come from our own server.

Your browser also keeps a few of the pages’ settings on your device, such as hiding the card that offers the app. They never reach us.

Why we use it

To run the service you asked for: connect the radio, send it your stations and messages, show you its status, and alert you when it goes offline or a station stops. This is our contract with you.
To check that stations still play and switch to a working stream, keep the service secure and fix problems. This is our legitimate interest in a service that works.
To send notifications to your browser, only if you turn them on. This is your consent, and you can take it back at any time.
To bill you and keep the records that tax law requires. This is a legal obligation.

We email you only about your radios and your account. We never sell your information, and never use it for advertising.

Who else sees it

Only the family members of a radio see its status and its messages. Beyond them, a few companies help us run Home Station, and use your information only for that:

Our hosting provider, which keeps the service’s data on its servers.
Cloudflare, which carries the traffic between your browser or the radio and our server, and protects it from attacks. It sees your IP address and what passes through it.
Our email service, which delivers your alerts, invitations and password resets.
Stripe, which takes payments. Stripe also uses payment information for its own legal duties and to prevent fraud, as its privacy policy explains.
Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, which delivers wake-ups to the radio. It gets the radio’s push token and a note that something changed, never your stations or messages.
Your browser’s push service (from Google, Mozilla, Apple or Microsoft), if you turn on notifications. Alerts are encrypted, so it can’t read them.

The radio plays each station straight from the broadcaster, so the broadcaster sees the device’s IP address, as with any internet radio. When a station starts, the radio also tells radio-browser.info, the free station directory, so it can count plays. When you search for a station, our server asks radio-browser.info without sending anything about you. When you listen to a station while choosing it, your browser plays it straight from the broadcaster, which sees your IP address.

We share information with the police or the courts only when the law requires it. If Home Station is ever sold or merged, your information would move with it under this policy, and we would tell you first.

Other countries

Some of these companies work in other countries, including the United States. Where the law requires it, your information is protected there too, for example by the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

How long we keep it

Your account: until you delete it.
A radio and its status: until its owner disconnects it, or deletes their account when no one else looks after it.
Voice messages: each radio keeps its 20 newest, and older ones are deleted by themselves. You can delete any of them sooner.
Invitations: with the radio they’re for, and deleted with it.
Billing records: as long as tax and accounting law requires, usually 6 to 10 years, at Stripe and with us.
Technical logs: up to 30 days.
Backups: something deleted can stay in our backups for up to 30 days, until they’re replaced.

Your rights

You can see, correct and delete your information, and get a copy of it:

Your name, email, password and language are on the Account page.
To delete your account and everything in it, use “Delete your account” on the Account page. It happens straight away.
For a copy of your information, or anything else, write to [email protected]. We answer within 30 days.

Depending on where you live, you can also object to how we use your information, ask us to use less of it, and complain to your data protection authority. We would like the chance to help first.

The person who listens

If you set up a radio for someone, tell them what Home Station does and what the family can see, and set it up only with their agreement, or that of someone who may decide for them. They, or that person, can write to [email protected] to find out what we keep about their radio, or to have it deleted.

Children

Home Station accounts are for adults. We don’t knowingly collect information about children.

Security

Everything travels encrypted (HTTPS). Passwords are stored scrambled. Voice messages are kept private and reach the radio through links only the radio gets. Only the family members of a radio can see it. If a breach ever put your information at risk, we would tell you, and the authorities, as the law requires.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will email you before it applies. The date at the top shows the last change.