Orbit OSPrivacy policy
In short: Orbit has no ads, no analytics and no trackers, and nothing is sold or shared. Most of what Orbit knows stays on your phone and your TV. Signing in with Google is optional; if you do, a small amount of data goes to Google's Firebase so your phone can reach your TV away from home, and your backups go to your own Google Drive. You can delete all of it from the app.
Who we are
Orbit OS is made by Shivam Anil Jha, an independent developer in India. Questions about this policy or your data: heyshivm2002@gmail.com.
What stays on your phone and your TV
These never leave your phone, your TV and your home network, and are not sent to us:
- Your TV: its name, its address on your Wi-Fi and the pairing token it gave your phone, encrypted with a key in your phone's Android Keystore.
- The set-up record. Before Orbit changes anything on a TV it writes down the change (which preinstalled apps it switched off, the TV's own home screen, its accessibility and screensaver settings, which Orbit apps it installed), with the TV's model, Android version and app list, on the phone and on the TV, so Undo can put everything back.
- Your TV's app icons, cached so the remote opens quickly, and your Orbit settings.
- The name your TV greets you with, stored on the TV.
- The phone's debugging key. To set up a TV, Orbit uses the TV's own debugging connection on your home network after you press Allow on the TV. The phone makes its own key; the TV keeps only the public half.
To find your TV, Orbit listens for the TV's own announcement on your Wi-Fi and checks your local network for the TV's port. On your Wi-Fi, button presses, what is playing, app icons and, in Help mode, pictures of the TV's screen go straight between the phone and the TV, and the TV answers only phones paired with it. Android's cloud backup and device-to-device transfer are turned off for Orbit, so none of this is copied to Google's backups or to a new phone.
If you sign in with Google (optional)
Signing in lets your phone reach your TV from anywhere and keeps backups in your Google Drive. It uses Google services, under Google's privacy policy:
| Data | Why | Where and how long |
|---|---|---|
| Your Google account's email address, name and a user ID | To sign you in, and so your phone and TV recognise the same account | Firebase Authentication (Google). Kept until you delete your account. |
| Your TV's name, when it was last online, and its current state (what is playing, the volume, the app list and app icons when the phone asks) | So the remote works away from home | Firebase Realtime Database (Google, Singapore). Only your signed-in account can read or write it. The state is replaced as it changes; deleted with your account. |
| Remote commands sent while you are away from home, and the TV's answers | To pass them between your phone and your TV | Same database. Each command is deleted once the TV answers, and each answer once the phone reads it. |
| A timestamp every few seconds while Orbit is open away from home | So the TV knows a phone is watching and sends updates | Same database, replaced as it updates. |
| Pictures of the TV's screen, only while you have Help mode open (video shows grey or black) | So you can see the TV's menus from the phone | Same database, deleted when Help ends. The TV shows a note while someone can see its screen. |
| A short linking code | To link a TV to your account once | Same database, deleted as soon as the TV is linked (codes last up to 10 minutes). |
| Backups of your TV's original set-up (about 6 KB each): the undo record, the TV's name, address, model and Android version, its app list and which apps were on, and its own home screen, accessibility and screensaver settings | So you can put the TV back even if the phone is lost | Your own Google Drive, in the hidden app folder that only Orbit can open. We cannot see it. Kept until you delete the backup or your account. |
All traffic to Google and Firebase is encrypted (HTTPS). Orbit asks Google only for your basic profile and for its own hidden folder in your Drive; it cannot see your other Drive files.
What we do not do
- No advertising, no advertising ID, no analytics or crash-reporting SDKs.
- We do not sell, rent or share your data with anyone. Google processes the data above only to provide its services to the app.
- Orbit does not read your contacts, messages, photos, location, microphone or camera.
Deleting your account and data
- In the app, open Settings › From anywhere and tap Delete my Orbit account. With Also delete my TV backups from Google Drive left on, Orbit deletes your backups, unlinks your TV and deletes everything its cloud keeps under your account, deletes your Orbit account, removes its access to your Google account and signs you out. Nothing changes on your TV.
- Or email heyshivm2002@gmail.com from your account's address with the subject "Delete my Orbit account". We delete everything within 30 days and reply when it is done.
Smaller steps: Settings › Forget this TV removes the saved TV from the phone; Settings › From anywhere › Unlink TV removes the link; Settings › Backups deletes backups one by one; uninstalling Orbit removes everything it keeps on the phone. You can remove Orbit's access to your Google account at myaccount.google.com/permissions. To put a TV back as it was, use Settings › Undo Orbit OS on this TV. See Delete your Orbit account.
Children
Orbit is a tool for adults setting up their own TV. It is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new date. A change that collects new kinds of data will also be shown in the app before it applies.