Privacy Policy

We collect limited information when you use WatchDog:

• Account details such as your name and email address.
• Device information such as device type and operating system, and anonymised identifiers used only to operate the app and your subscription.
• Technical website data such as IP address and browser type, recorded by our website host for security and reliability.
• Diagnostic information from the apps, limited to what is needed to keep the service working, with no advertising or behavioural profiling.

LA Software UG does not access the contents of your device, files, communications, or personal data stored on your laptop.

We use collected information to:

• Provide and operate WatchDog's security and detection features
• Improve reliability, accuracy, and performance of our services
• Detect potential misuse, abuse, or security threats
• Communicate product updates, important notices, and support responses

We do not use your data for advertising or profiling.

When you join our waitlist or contact us through this website, we collect the email address you provide so we can notify you about WatchDog's launch and respond to your message.

Waitlist submissions are handled on our behalf by Formspree (Formspree, Inc., United States), which forwards them to us. We use your email address only for these purposes. We do not sell it or use it for unrelated marketing, and you can ask us to delete your waitlist entry at any time using the details below.

When you create an account and subscribe, we process the data needed to give you access and manage your licence. We process the email address linked to your account, the Apple user identifier we receive when you choose Sign in with Apple, your subscription and purchase status, and a per-install identifier generated on your device to tie your licence to that installation. This data is held on our own server at api.watchdogapp.de.

We use it to authenticate you, to keep your subscription active across your devices, and to provide support. If you subscribe to the Mac app through our website, your payment is processed by Stripe, and your card details are handled by Stripe and not stored by us. If you use Sign in with Apple's private email relay, we only ever see and store the relay address. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of our contract with you under Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.

WatchDog Key is our iOS companion app, used to remotely arm and disarm WatchDog, receive security alerts, and confirm proximity. When you install and pair WatchDog Key, we process the following additional data:

• Apple Push Notification (APNs) device token: issued by Apple to your iPhone, used solely to deliver alert notifications. Stored on our server (api.watchdogkey.app) and linked to your pairing record.
• Pairing ID: a randomly generated identifier created when you pair your iPhone with your Mac. Contains no personal information.
• Pairing secret: a cryptographic key used to verify that alert and command requests genuinely originate from your paired devices. Stored securely on our server and on both devices.
• Mac device name: the local name of your Mac (e.g. "Andre's MacBook Pro"), included in alert messages so you can identify which device triggered them.
• Alert reasons: short labels describing why an alert was triggered (e.g. "movement detected", "lid closed", "USB connected"). No images, audio, video, or location data are transmitted.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is used only locally between your iPhone and Mac for pairing, remote arm/disarm commands, and proximity detection. Arm, disarm, and proximity features work over Bluetooth alone and do not require an internet connection. No Bluetooth data is sent to our servers.

Push notifications (alarm alerts) are routed through our server, which holds the Apple Push Notification key required to deliver them. Receiving alerts requires that your iPhone is connected to the internet. We do not log notification contents beyond what is necessary to deliver them.

You may unpair WatchDog Key at any time from the WatchDog desktop app. Unpairing deletes the pairing record from our server and invalidates the previous pairing token. When you delete your account, all WatchDog Key data is removed within 30 days.

We use a small number of carefully chosen service providers who process data on our behalf or as independent controllers. Apple operates the App Store, in-app purchases, Sign in with Apple, and push notification delivery, and acts as an independent controller for those services under its own terms. Stripe processes payments for subscriptions purchased through our website, and your card details are handled directly by Stripe and are not stored on our servers. Vercel hosts our website. When you visit watchdogapp.de, your IP address and technical request data are processed on Vercel’s servers to deliver and secure the site. Railway hosts our backend at api.watchdogapp.de and api.watchdogkey.app. Amazon Web Services hosts the WatchDog Mac app downloads and automatic updates. Sentry provides error logging that helps us diagnose and fix problems. When an error occurs, Sentry may receive diagnostic data such as a stack trace, your device type, and operating system version, together with the email address and account identifier linked to your session. We do not allow Sentry to collect IP addresses. Formspree handles our website waitlist and contact form submissions. Each provider only receives the data needed for its task, and we do not sell your data to anyone.

Some of our providers are based in the United States, so your data may be transferred outside the European Union. Apple, Stripe, Vercel, and Amazon Web Services rely on their certification under the EU and US Data Privacy Framework. Railway, Sentry, and Formspree rely on Standard Contractual Clauses included in their data processing agreements. You can ask us for more detail about these safeguards using the contact details below.

We keep your account and subscription data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, your data, including any WatchDog Key pairing records, is removed and your Stripe subscription is cancelled. We retain only your email address and your account creation date after deletion, so that the same person cannot claim repeated free trials. We keep this minimal record on the basis of our legitimate interest in preventing abuse, under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Waitlist and contact emails are kept until we launch or until you ask us to delete them, whichever comes first. Diagnostic information is kept only for the short period needed to investigate and fix problems and is then deleted.

We take security seriously and implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including:

• Encrypted data transmission
• Restricted internal access to data
• Secure infrastructure and monitoring practices

WatchDog is designed to minimise data collection and does not enable remote access to the contents of your device.

Depending on your location, you have the right to request access to your personal data, to request correction of inaccurate data, to request deletion of your data, to request restriction of processing, to receive your data in a portable format, to object to processing, and to withdraw any consent you have given. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before you withdrew it.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The authority responsible for us is the Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit in Berlin. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below and we will respond within one month.

Our website uses only technically necessary storage needed to deliver and secure the site. We do not use analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies, so no cookie consent banner is required.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services or legal requirements. Significant changes will be communicated through our website or application.

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how we handle data, you can contact us at info@lasoftware.tech.

The data controller is LA Software UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Mulackstraße 34, 10119 Berlin, Germany.