By installing or using Earshot Privacy, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please uninstall it.
Earshot Privacy is a tool that helps you see when your phone's microphone and camera were used, and helps you check a room you are in for a camera or a tracker.
It does this with the ordinary signals Android makes available to any app. It is an observer, not a guard: it can tell you what it saw, and it tells you plainly what it could not see.
Earshot Privacy cannot promise a room is safe, and it never says so.
Every result screen states what was checked and what was not, and those statements are the honest limits of the tool. In particular:
Finding nothing is not proof that there is nothing. Do not rely on this app alone in a situation where your safety depends on the answer. If you believe you are being watched or recorded without your consent, contact your local police or a support service.
And if you do find something, think before you act on it. Removing a camera, switching off a tracker or deleting an app can tell the person who put it there that you have found it, and that can make things worse rather than better. It can also destroy evidence. If you are worried about somebody’s reaction, consider recording what you found first — a photograph, or the report this app can produce — and speaking to the police or a support service before you change anything. There is no single right answer, and it is your judgement to make, not ours.
We do not claim that Earshot Privacy will find any particular device, and we publish no accuracy figures, because we do not have any we would stand behind.
Every feature in this app is described by what it examines, not by what it will find. The Wi-Fi sweep lists devices on your network. The Bluetooth sweep lists trackers that are broadcasting. The physical checklist walks you through places to look. The lens scan shows you bright reflections and infrared light. What any of that means is your judgement.
If you ever see this app described as detecting, finding or catching anything — in an app store, in an advertisement, or anywhere else — that description is wrong and we would like to know about it.
Before Earshot Privacy does anything, it shows you one page setting out the limits above, and asks you to tick a box saying you understand that the app cannot prove a room or a phone is safe. There is no way past that page. If we later change what the app does, you will see it again.
When you accept, your phone writes down four things: the date and time, which version of that page you accepted, which build of the app you were using, and a SHA-256 fingerprint of the exact words you agreed to. It records the fingerprint rather than the words so that the file says what was agreed without saying anything about you — there is no name in it, no identifier, and no address.
That record stays on your phone. We never receive it, and the app has no permission that would let us. You can read it yourself at any time under Alerts → Your record of acceptance, and send yourself a copy.
Ticking that box does not give up any right you have. It is not a waiver, and nothing in it is intended to reduce what the law gives you — see sections 9 and 10. Its only purpose is that nobody should be able to say afterwards that they were never told what this app cannot do.
Earshot Privacy does not read the list of apps installed on your phone.
It could. Android has a permission for it, and other apps in this category ask for it. An earlier version of this app asked for it too, and a version of this document and of the privacy policy said so. We removed it, because a privacy app holding the list of every app you have installed is a worse thing to be than a privacy app that cannot show you a permission summary.
Where the app would once have listed apps itself, it now sends you into Android’s own privacy settings, where the same information lives and where nothing is passing through us to reach you.
Earshot Privacy is an informational tool. It is not legal advice, not security consulting, and not a substitute for a professional inspection. Reports and scan results it produces are a record of what the app observed and are not certified evidence.
A gap in a record means nobody was observing, not that nothing happened. The app keeps track of the periods it was actually running and says so on screen and in any history you export, because a quiet night and a stopped app otherwise look identical. Read those gaps as the app admitting what it could not see.
Gaps will happen, and not because anything is broken. Your phone decides what keeps running on it, not us. Android can stop the app to save battery or memory; a phone that is switched off, out of power, or in a restricted mode is not watching; and battery optimisation settings, manufacturer “cleaners” and force-stopping the app all end the record until it is opened again. We cannot promise continuous observation on a device we do not control, and we do not. What we do promise is that the app will show you when it was not watching instead of leaving the silence to be mistaken for calm.
If you intend to rely on anything this app produced in a legal matter — a hearing, a report to the police, a dispute with a landlord or an employer — take advice about whether it is admissible and what it can properly be said to show. We can tell you what the app recorded. We cannot tell you what it proves.
You agree to use Earshot Privacy only on devices and networks you own or have permission to examine. Scanning networks or devices belonging to other people without permission may be illegal where you live. That is your responsibility, not ours.
The app is designed to help you find surveillance of yourself. Do not use it to conduct surveillance of anyone else.
Earshot Privacy stores its records on your device only. We do not receive them. See the Privacy Policy.
You are responsible for the device itself — if somebody else can unlock your phone, they can read your history. The app has a Delete all history control for that reason.
Somebody else who can unlock your phone can also delete that history. The app will tell you when this has happened: an empty history that was cleared says so, rather than presenting itself as a fresh install with nothing to show. If you ever open the app and see that your history has been cleared when you did not clear it, that is worth taking seriously.
Deleting the history removes everything the app has recorded, including the record of when it was running. It cannot be undone, and we have no copy — so the app offers you a spreadsheet of your history on the way out.
Everything Earshot does that warns you is free, and stays free. Being told when your microphone or camera is used, seeing what is using them right now, today’s history, all four room checks as often as you like, everything a check found, and deleting your data with a full copy on the way out — none of that costs anything, and none of it ever will. Earshot will never know about something and stay quiet because you have not paid.
Earshot Pro is one payment. It is optional, it is not a subscription, nothing renews, and there is nothing to remember to cancel. It adds four things and only these four:
There is no advertising in Earshot, and there never will be.
Payment is handled entirely by Google Play. Crowner never sees your name, your email address or your card details, and Earshot has no account and no server. Whether you have paid is a single yes-or-no stored on your own phone, checked against your Google Play account when the app opens — which is how it comes back on a new phone, or after reinstalling, without paying twice.
Google Play’s own refund rules apply to the purchase, and they are Google’s to administer rather than ours. If Play refunds you, Earshot removes Pro the next time it opens; nothing is taken from you that you have not been refunded for, and nothing is left running that you have paid to stop.
If paid features are introduced later, the terms covering payment, renewal and cancellation will be published before they take effect, and will describe accurately how cancellation actually works for the platform you bought through.
The room checks are free, and will stay free. The Wi-Fi sweep, the Bluetooth sweep, the physical checklist and the lens scan will remain free to everyone, however many times you run them and wherever you are. Running a check, and seeing everything it found, will never cost money.
If Earshot Privacy is ever paid for, the charge will be for one of three things, and nothing else:
What will never be charged for: being told that your microphone or camera was used, seeing what is using them right now, running any of the four room checks, seeing the full list of what a check found, or deleting anything you have stored. Earshot will never know about something and stay quiet because you have not paid.
That is a deliberate commitment and not a pricing accident. Those four checks are the ones that depend on the physical world, and they are the ones whose limits §2 spends the most words on. We do not think it is right to take money for the part we are least able to promise anything about, and saying so here means you can hold us to it.
Earshot Privacy is provided as it is. We may improve it, change it, or stop offering it.
Because everything is stored on your device, stopping does not take your history away from you. The copy on your phone stays yours until you delete it or uninstall the app.
We may update these terms only to reflect:
We will not use this section to reduce a protection you already have under section 9, or to charge you for something you have already paid for.
If a change affects your rights, what the app says it does, or what it records, we will show it to you inside the app. The notice will say what changed and when it starts.
We will not rely on quietly publishing a new version on our website. You have no reason to check our website, and a change you never saw is not a change you agreed to.
We do not treat carrying on using the app as agreement to a change of that kind. When the terms change in any way described in 7.2, the app asks you to read and accept the new version — the same page described in section 2b, shown again — and until you do, the app stops at that page.
If you would rather not accept, you can export your history and stop using the app. The copy on your phone remains yours either way, and we keep nothing to delete.
Changes apply from the date you accept them onwards. Anything that happened before then stays under the terms that were in force at the time.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Earshot Privacy is provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that it will find any particular device, or that it will operate without interruption or error — see section 3 on why gaps in the record happen.
This does not apply to a warranty the law does not let us exclude. If you are a consumer, you may have rights under the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act of British Columbia, or under similar legislation where you live, that cannot be given up in a document like this one. Those rights are unaffected by this section.
Nothing in these terms takes away or limits any right or remedy you have under the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act of British Columbia, or under any other law that does not allow those rights to be given up. If anything below conflicts with such a right, the right wins.
We do not exclude or limit our liability for:
Earshot Privacy looks. It does not conclude. You accept that:
The room checks are free to everyone, and section 6 commits them to staying free. We have not sold you a result, and we are not offering one.
Where we are liable to you and the law allows that liability to be limited, our total liability for everything arising out of your use of, or inability to use, Earshot Privacy is limited to the greater of:
We have set a figure rather than capping this at what you paid, which is the usual practice, because Earshot Privacy is free and what you paid is nothing. A limit of nothing is not a limit — it is the same total exclusion written a politer way, and section 9.1 would defeat it in any event.
This limit does not apply to anything in section 9.2.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, for lost profits or lost business, or for the cost of services you bought because of something the app showed you.
This does not affect section 9.1 or section 9.2.
Each part of section 9 is independent. If a court will not enforce the limit in 9.4, or 9.5, that does not affect 9.1, 9.2 or 9.3, and 9.3 in particular — what the app is for, and what it is not for — is a description of the product rather than a limit on anything, and stands on its own.
These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Nothing here removes any mandatory consumer protection right you have where you live, and nothing here requires you to bring a claim anywhere other than where you live.
Earshot Privacy is not designed for children and is not directed at them. You must be at least 13 years old to use it, or older if the law where you live sets a higher age for agreeing to something like this. It contains nothing intended for a child audience and collects nothing from anybody.
If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, that part is removed or read down only as far as necessary, and everything else stays in force. In particular, a court declining to enforce any part of section 9 does not affect sections 2, 2a, 2b, 3 or 8, and section 9.6 says the same about the parts of section 9 themselves.
These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about Earshot Privacy. They replace anything said about the app in a store listing, an advertisement or a review — and if any of those describes it as detecting or finding anything, section 2a says plainly that the description is wrong.
Write to info@crowner.ca. We read it, and there is no ticket system in the way.
This includes disagreeing with these terms. If you think something here is unfair, or that the app does not do what this document says it does, we would rather hear it than not — that is how section 2a’s last paragraph is meant to be used.
Nothing in this section is a condition of making a complaint to a consumer protection authority, to an app store, or to a court. You do not have to come to us first.