Privacy

Pocket Homelab is a client. It requires no developer-operated backend or account and has no telemetry. Optional Pocket Core pairing connects to your own Core server and account. This page describes what it does with your data; the in-app Privacy policy under Settings → Help & privacy is the authoritative version.

No data collection

• There is no Pocket Homelab account and nothing to sign up for.
• There is no analytics SDK, no advertising SDK and no cross-app tracking in the public app.
• Your service credentials, documents, photos, media history and financial records are never sent to a developer-operated backend, because there is no such backend.
• The public app does not register for push notifications.

Your credentials

Every URL, API key, token and app password you enter is stored in one item in the device Keychain, protected after first unlock. It is not synced to a server by the app.

• The iPhone and the Mac keep separate Keychain items. Configure or pair each device separately, or use encrypted transfer.
• Keychain items can survive uninstalling the app. Use Erase all settings first if you want them gone.
• On Android, the configuration is encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore, which cannot be exported. It is left out of Android’s cloud backup and device transfer, and uninstalling the app removes it.
• Configuration exported by the app is encrypted under a passphrase. An env file you fill in yourself is plaintext; keep it private.
• Pocket Core pairing keeps its device credential and previous manual values in the same secure store. Switching to individual services pauses Core refreshes without deleting the pairing. Disconnect removes it locally; revoke the device in Core to invalidate the server credential.

Direct connections only

Requests go from your device straight to the servers you configure. If you choose Core, the app sends the pairing code and device name to your Core server, then uses its device credential to refresh your service profile. These requests go to your server, not a developer-operated service.

• Requests use an ephemeral session with no cookie jar and no shared cache, and bodies and headers are never logged.
• A redirect to a different origin is refused, so a token can never be forwarded to another host.
• Requests time out after about 8 seconds by default, and unreachable services fail on their own card without blocking the rest of the app.
• Whether your servers are reachable, LAN, VPN, Tailscale, public HTTPS, is entirely your setup. The app never configures a VPN for you.

Permissions

Nothing is requested at launch. iOS and macOS ask only when you first use the feature:

Permission	Used for
Camera	Scanning a Pocket Core pairing QR code (iPhone), scanning a document into Pocket Documents or Paperless-ngx (iPhone), or checking your camera before joining a meeting (Mac).
Photo library	Saving an Immich photo or video to your library.
Calendars	Showing and managing events from your calendar accounts on Mac, and adding upcoming releases to a “Homelab media” calendar when you ask it to.
Local network	Reaching services you configure on your LAN.
Notifications (badge)	Showing the app badge count, if you turn it on.

Decline any of them and the rest of the app keeps working.

The Mac camera check starts only when you choose to join a meeting. It uses no microphone and records no video. Copy Photo to Clipboard captures a still only on request; the preview does not save photo files or keep a photo history. Closing the preview or joining releases the camera. The meeting itself opens in its app or browser, which manages its own camera and microphone access.

Data stored on the device

Cached images, offline snapshots, downloaded episodes and files, and the queue of changes waiting to sync. All of it can be removed with Clear local data, which keeps your credentials, or with Erase all settings, which does not.

Purchases

Pro is sold through Apple’s App Store using StoreKit. Apple handles the payment and tells the app whether an entitlement is active; the developer never sees your payment details. Purchases can be restored on any device signed in to the same Apple Account.

Google Calendar

If you sign in with Google under the Mac Calendar’s Invitations → Google account, Pocket Homelab asks Google only for the permission to see and change your calendar events (calendar.events) and your address, so it can answer invitations on your behalf. It uses that access for one thing: finding the invitation you are answering and setting your own response on it. Nothing from your Google calendar is stored beyond the sign-in tokens, which stay in your device’s Keychain, and nothing is sent anywhere but to Google. Sign Out revokes the access at Google and deletes the tokens; you can also remove it at any time under myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Pocket Homelab’s use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Third parties

The only network destinations are the servers you configure, Google if you sign in for calendar invitations, and Apple’s own services for purchases. The app sends nothing to the developer.

Not affiliated

Pocket Homelab is an independent client and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of the services it supports. Use it only with services you run or are authorised to access.