Privacy policy
In short: HelmTV has no account, no analytics, no ads and no tracking. Everything the app stores stays on your device, and the app opts out of Android cloud backup and device transfer. The app only connects to the provider you configure yourself. It contacts no server run by the HelmTV developer.
1. Who is responsible
The HelmTV app and this website are published by Karlgrund Consulting AB, organisation number 559393-2915, Sweden (“we”, “the HelmTV developer”). We are the controller, within the meaning of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for the personal data described in section 4. Contact for all privacy questions and requests: support@helmtv.app.
HelmTV is a media player. It includes no TV channels, movies or series of its own, and it does not sell any. You add your own Xtream-style provider (a name, a server address, a username and a password) the first time you run the app.
2. Languages
The app interface is available in seven languages: English, Svenska, Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Norsk bokmål and Suomi. This policy is available in English.
3. What the app stores on your device
The app stores the following only on your device, in its private app storage. It is never sent to the developer, so the developer has no access to it and does not process it:
| Data | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Provider connection: a display name, server address, username and password | To log in to your provider. The address, username and password are encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore before they are saved. |
| A cached copy of your provider's catalog: categories, channels, movies, series and program guide data | So browsing, search and the guide work quickly. It is refreshed from your provider when you open the app. |
| Favorites and watch progress (what you watched and how far) | Favorites and “continue watching”. |
| Your recent searches: the last ten things you searched for in the app | To show them as suggestions in Search. You can clear them at any time with “Clear history” in Search. |
| Preferences: for example the interface language, last watched channel, recently used and hidden categories, grouping, and keyboard layout | To remember how you like the app set up. |
The app opts out of Android cloud backup and device-to-device transfer (allowBackup is off), so Google's backup does not copy this data and nothing is restored to a new device. On a new device you add your provider again.
4. What the developer processes, why, and for how long
The developer does not receive data from the app about you, because the app contacts no server run by the developer. The developer receives only the messages you choose to send. This is everything:
| Data | Purpose and legal basis | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address and the contents of any message you send to support@helmtv.app, including any diagnostics you leave in it (see section 8) | To reply to you and handle your request. GDPR Art. 6(1)(f) (our legitimate interest in answering you), or Art. 6(1)(b) where you ask us to do something. | Kept only as long as needed to handle your request, and then deleted unless we are required by law to keep it. |
We do not use this data for advertising, profiling or analytics, we do not sell it, and we do not make automated decisions about you.
Separately from the app, we run a sample server that exists only so that reviewers of the app, for example at Google Play, can try HelmTV. It is not part of the app, it is not offered to users, and the app connects to it only if someone types its address in. It contains only original or openly licensed material. The sample server software does not record visitors' IP addresses or keep any accounts or profiles. The network service that forwards traffic to the server can see connection data such as IP addresses under its own terms.
5. Network connections
The app uses the Android internet permission and the permission to check network state. It makes network requests only for these purposes:
- Your provider. The app contacts the server address you entered to log in, download the catalog and program guide, and play streams. Your username and password are sent to your provider as part of these requests, as the Xtream protocol requires. A provider may redirect a stream to another server of its own, such as a content delivery host. Your provider is your choice and is a separate controller with its own privacy policy. We do not receive any of this.
- Images from your provider's catalog. Posters and channel logos are loaded from the image addresses that your provider's catalog contains. Those addresses can point to servers that are not run by your provider, and such a server can see your IP address and which image was requested. This is determined by your provider, not by us.
The app makes no other network requests. What your provider, an image server or another host does with the information it receives is governed by its own privacy policy, not this one.
Plain HTTP connections
Many providers only offer plain HTTP, and some of their streams are served over HTTP from other hosts. To make those providers work, the app allows unencrypted HTTP connections. If you enter a server address without http:// or https://, the app assumes http://. Over plain HTTP, other parties on the network path, such as your network operator, can potentially see your provider credentials and what you watch. Using HTTPS, where your provider supports it, and choosing a provider and network you trust is your responsibility.
6. Your rights and how to use them
Under the GDPR you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to our processing (in particular where it is based on legitimate interest), and to receive it in a portable format. To use any of these rights, write to support@helmtv.app. Because we do not hold an account or profile of you, we can only look up personal data that you identify, for example the email address you wrote from.
Erasure of the data in the app: all of it is on your device. Uninstalling the app removes it, and you can also open Android's settings, choose the app and select “Clear data” (or “Clear storage”). Recent searches can also be cleared with “Clear history” in Search. There is nothing about you in the app to erase on the developer's side. If you emailed us, ask us to delete your message and we will.
You also have the right to complain to the supervisory authority. In Sweden this is the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY), www.imy.se. If you live elsewhere in the EU or EEA, you can complain to your own national authority.
7. Google Play
If you install HelmTV through Google Play, Google may collect standard installation, usage and crash information (for example in Android vitals) under Google's own privacy policy. The developer sees only aggregated statistics that Google makes available in its developer console.
8. Feedback by email
The About screen in the app shows a QR code. When you scan it with your phone, your phone opens an email to support@helmtv.app that is already filled in with: the app version and version code, the Android version and API level, the device model, the interface language, and a short list of recent event names from the app (for example the kind of error that occurred). It contains no addresses, titles, usernames or passwords. You see all of it, and can change or delete it, before you send anything. The app sends nothing itself; the email only reaches us if you send it from your own mail app. Incoming mail to our support address is delivered through an email service provider acting on our behalf.
9. Children
HelmTV is not directed at children. It is intended for people aged 18 and over, and the developer does not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, write to support@helmtv.app and we will delete it. The app includes no content of its own; what you can watch is determined by the provider you choose, and you are responsible for it.
10. This website
This website is static. It uses no cookies, analytics, advertising, fonts or scripts from third parties. It is hosted on GitHub Pages (GitHub, Inc.), which may keep ordinary server logs, such as IP addresses, as part of operating the service under its own privacy policy. Links to other websites, such as the one to IMY above, load nothing until you click them.
11. Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be published on this page with an updated date at the top. Material changes, such as a new network connection in the app, will be reflected here before the app starts to make it.
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