Effective October 9, 2026 (updated for screen sharing with your seller, control from away from home, and the new app names). Applies to the Box Remote Buddy phone app (shown as "Box Remote" on iPhone) and the Box Remote Buddy for TV app for TV boxes (shown on the TV as "Box Remote Agent").
Box Remote Buddy turns a phone into a remote control for an Android TV box. The phone app sends button presses to the Box Remote Buddy for TV app running on the box. The TV app turns them into key presses on the box.
There is no account and no sign-in, and no advertising.
Remote control. When your phone is on the same Wi-Fi as the box, button presses and typed text go directly from the phone to the box. When your paired phone is away from home, the same requests travel through our relay server (run on Cloudflare) over an encrypted connection, and are passed straight to your box; the relay does not store them. The TV app keeps one connection to the relay open for this. Only a phone you paired with the code on your TV can use it.
Screen sharing with your seller ("Get help"). Only when you start it on the TV, and after Android asks you to allow screen capture, the TV app sends a live picture of the TV screen to the seller you gave the help code to, through our relay server, together with the box's status and its list of installed apps so the seller can help you. Nothing is recorded or stored; a banner on the TV shows while your seller is watching, and the session ends when you or the seller stop it.
Usage analytics. Both apps send anonymous usage information to PostHog, an analytics service we use (servers in the United States): which screens and buttons are used and how often, whether setup and pairing succeeded, the box model and Android version, the phone model and operating system version, the app version, and error reports. Each installation is identified by a random ID generated by the app; it is not tied to your name, email, phone number or any account. The service records the approximate location (city level) derived from the network address of the request. This data is used only to understand how the apps are used and to fix problems; it is not sold and not used for advertising. On the phone you can turn this off at any time: Setup tab → "Share anonymous usage data". Analytics never include your Wi-Fi network name, device addresses, pairing tokens, the names you give your boxes, the text you type, or anything shown on the TV screen.
Purchases. If a paid unlock is offered, payment is handled by the store or payment service you use; we do not receive your card details.
The phone app stores the address of your box and a pairing token so you do not have to pair again. The TV app stores the pairing tokens of phones you have paired. Both stay on the device and are removed when the app is uninstalled.
The TV app uses Android's accessibility service on the TV box. It presses keys, Back and Home, opens apps and taps the screen when you use the phone app, or when your seller helps you. During setup it reads the box's Settings screens to find and choose its own keyboard. When you pair your phone as a Bluetooth remote from the phone app, it opens the TV's Bluetooth settings and selects your phone; you answer the TV's Pair question yourself. It never changes other settings. Nothing it reads is stored, sent or sold.
The TV app includes a keyboard so the phone can send arrow keys and typed text to the box. It does not collect what you type.
Phone app: network access to reach the box, Bluetooth to act as the box's Bluetooth remote when you turn that on, notifications, a foreground service and start at boot so it can fix the box automatically after the box restarts (when you turn that on), and vibration for button feedback. TV app: network access to listen for the phone and to reach the relay, notifications for its running status, a foreground service so the remote keeps working, start at boot, the screen capture you approve for "Get help", and permission to show its setup screen over other apps, which you can allow from its own screen.
Uninstalling the apps removes everything stored on your devices. To ask us to delete analytics data, email sarmis500@gmail.com; because we do not know who you are, include the box or phone model and roughly when you used the app so we can find it.
The apps are not directed at children and knowingly collect no personal information from anyone.
If this policy changes, the new version is published at this address. Questions: sarmis500@gmail.com.