Vela privacy policy

Vela turns two iPhones into a baby monitor. It is made by me, Andrei Bogoslovskii, and this page explains, in plain words, what happens to the things it sees and hears. The short version: they stay on your own phones.

Video and sound

The phone by the cot uses its camera and microphone to send live video and sound to the phones you have paired with it. At home they travel directly between your phones over your home network, encrypted end to end, and do not pass through any server. Nothing is uploaded to a cloud or recorded anywhere but on your phones.

To set up a direct connection, each phone briefly asks a public STUN server run by Cloudflare for its own network address. That request carries your phone's IP address and nothing else — no video, sound or other content.

Watching from away

When your phone isn't on the same Wi‑Fi as the phone by the cot, the two meet through a small server of mine, relay.iosdeveloper.uk, which runs on Cloudflare. It only passes the short messages the phones need to find each other and agree on a connection — a few kilobytes — and it cannot see or hear anything. Each pair of phones is identified there by a random-looking code derived from that pair's private key; the server doesn't learn the key, your phones' names or who you are. It does see your phones' IP addresses while they are connected, and it keeps no record of them.

Video and sound still go between your phones, encrypted end to end. Where a direct connection isn't possible — some mobile networks, hotels and offices block it — they pass through Cloudflare's TURN relay, which forwards the encrypted stream and cannot decrypt it. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.

As soon as both phones are on the same Wi‑Fi again, Vela switches back to the direct connection at home.

Sound recognition and recordings

Crying, a smoke alarm and a few other sounds are recognised on the phone by the cot, using Apple's built-in sound analysis. The audio is never sent anywhere to be analysed.

If recording is turned on (it is by default, and it can be turned off on the phone by the cot), Vela keeps a short audio clip around each recognised sound — about fifteen seconds before and thirty after. Clips are stored only on the phone by the cot, are left out of iCloud backups, and are deleted after seven days or sooner if they take up more than 200 MB. A paired parent phone can ask to play a clip; it receives a copy to listen to and does not keep it.

The night's journal

The phone by the cot keeps a journal of each night: when it started and ended, which sounds were heard and when, when a parent's phone connected or lost the link, and notes such as low battery. The last fourteen nights are kept, only on that phone, and are left out of iCloud backups. Paired parent phones can ask for the last seven.

Pairing and your phones' names

To pair, the phones exchange a short code and each other's device names. Each pair then shares a private key, stored in the iOS Keychain, so the phones recognise each other next time without the code. The list of paired phones is kept on each device. Removing a phone from the list revokes its key.

Permissions

• Camera and microphone — on the phone by the cot, to show and let you hear the room; on the parent's phone, the microphone so you can talk back — your voice is sent only while you hold the talk button — and the camera only to scan the pairing code.
• Local network — so the two phones can find each other on your Wi‑Fi.
• Notifications — so the parent's phone can tell you about a sound or a lost link when Vela isn't on screen. They are created on your phone, not sent from a server.

Purchases

Vela is free to use at home. An optional one-time purchase is handled by Apple through the App Store, and recorded through RevenueCat, a service that confirms purchases for apps. RevenueCat receives an anonymous identifier created for this app, your purchase history in Vela and basic device information such as the iOS version and region. It does not receive your name, email or payment details, and it never receives any video, sound or journal. See RevenueCat's privacy policy and Apple's.

Usage statistics

To see where Vela is hard to use, the app sends anonymous usage signals through TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service: for example that pairing started or failed, that a connection went live at home or over the internet, that an alert fired and of what kind, or that the purchase screen was opened. Each signal carries the app version, iOS version, device model and language. The identifier attached to it is hashed on your phone before it is sent, so TelemetryDeck cannot tell who you are. Signals never contain video, sound, recordings, room or phone names, pairing codes or your location, and they are not used for advertising or tracking. See TelemetryDeck's privacy policy.

Writing to support

When you write to us from Vela's settings, the email already contains your app's anonymous purchase identifier, the device model and the iOS and app versions, so we can look up your purchase and reproduce a problem. You can delete these lines before sending.

What Vela does not do

• It has no accounts and asks for no name, email or phone number.
• It contains no advertising and no tracking, and your data is never sold or shared for advertising.
• It does not use your location.

Children

Vela is used by adults to keep an ear on a room where a child sleeps. It is not directed at children and does not collect information from them. Images and sound of the room, which may include a child, stay on your own devices as described above.

Deleting your data

Everything Vela keeps is on your phones; the server for watching from away keeps nothing. Deleting the app removes the journal, the recordings and the list of paired phones. Pairing keys live in the iOS Keychain, which can outlast the app; to revoke a phone for good, remove it from the list in Vela before deleting the app. You can also turn off recording at any time.

Changes and contact

If Vela starts working differently, this page will be updated first, with the date above. Questions are welcome at support@iosdeveloper.uk.