nowhere is the whole policy.

the short version, and it is the true version: the beacon logs detections on the device and mirrors them to the app over a direct bluetooth connection. there is no account, no cloud, no telemetry, and no server for your data to reach. your location, when you allow it, is used on your phone only, to pin detections on your own map.

the long version follows. because the app and firmware are open source, none of it is a promise you have to take on faith, you can read the code. this site and the beacon are operated by soyboi llc, a california company; where this policy says 'i' or 'me', that means soyboi llc.

the device

the beacon is a passive radio listener. it receives the WiFi and bluetooth signals nearby devices already broadcast; the only thing it ever transmits is the encrypted bluetooth link to your own phone. it has no internet connection of its own.

if you turn on offline logging ("black box"), detections made while your phone is away are stored encrypted on the beacon's own flash and handed to your app the next time you connect. you can clear it from the app whenever you like, and if the beacon reboots several times without ever seeing your phone again, it wipes itself. that log lives on your hardware and nowhere else.

the app

detections, your map history, watchlists, and settings are stored on your phone. there are no accounts, no analytics, no crash reporters, no advertising SDKs, no tracking. the logs are yours to keep: export any session as a plain CSV straight from the logbook, ready for a spreadsheet or your own tools. the file lands on your phone through the share sheet, where it goes from there is your choice; the app uploads nothing.

the app makes a short, visible list of network requests, and nothing about where you are or what you detected ever rides along:

› map tiles. when you open the map, the map images load from a map provider (openstreetmap on android, apple maps on iOS). like any web request, that provider can see your IP address and which area of the map you are viewing. no detections, identifiers, or other app data ride along.

› firmware update checks. the app fetches a small static version file from soyboi.tech to learn whether new beacon firmware exists, and downloads the firmware image if you choose to install it. these are plain file downloads from a static site, no identifiers, no account, nothing about you or your detections is sent.

› the known-ALPR map layer (opt-in, off by default). if you turn on the "known ALPR" layer, the app downloads one static dataset of community-mapped license-plate-reader locations from soyboi.tech and draws it on your map. it is a plain file download, exactly like the firmware check: your map viewport is never sent anywhere, no per-view lookups, nothing about you leaves the device. the camera locations come from openstreetmap contributors, licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL), via the registry the DeFlock project maintains.

that is the whole list. any future network feature will be opt-in, and this page will say so before your app does it.

location

if you grant location access, your position is used on your device to pin detections to your own map and to fill in coordinates when you export a log. it is never sent to me or anyone else. deny location and everything still works, detections just land without map pins.

the website

this site is static files served by cloudflare. no cookies, no analytics, no trackers, and no third-party requests, even the fonts are served from here. cloudflare, as the host, sees standard server logs (your IP and the pages you request) the way any host does; i don't add any logging of my own.

orders

hardware is sold through tindie. your order details, name, shipping address, payment, are collected and processed by tindie under tindie's privacy policy. i see what a seller needs to ship your package, use it for that and nothing else, it never gets sold or shared.

questions

open an issue at github.com/soyboi1312/all-cameras-are-beacons, the same channel as everything else, in the open.

last updated july 2026 · beacons is passive, receive-only