On supported devices, Beside can request read-only system access to steps and sleep. Each category also requires its own sharing choice, off by default. System authorization alone does not enable sharing. Only the selected time-window summary, its timestamps and time zone are uploaded for your active partner; raw health samples are not uploaded. Missing readable samples do not mean zero or prove permission was granted. Turning sharing off clears that category's server summary; a new relationship does not inherit the old sharing choice.

If you explicitly enable live draft sharing for a chat session, your partner can see unsent text in the Beside composer, including text you later delete. Drafts are temporarily relayed, are not stored as messages or sent as push notifications, and expire within six seconds without updates. Sharing turns off when you leave Chat, enter the background, or lose the realtime connection. This feature does not read other apps, your keyboard globally, or your clipboard.

Connected Wi-Fi names (SSID) and their observation times are shared only after you enable the separate Share Wi-Fi name switch, which is off by default. Apple devices may require precise-location authorization to read the name; this does not enable location sharing. Names that the system cannot provide are omitted. Names can be retained in device history under its existing retention period; disabling sharing removes the current name and hides retained names from your partner's history responses. Beside does not collect Wi-Fi passwords, BSSID or IP addresses for this feature.

You can open Beside as a guest without signing in. Guest mode does not make authenticated Beside requests, collect partner presence, ask for location permission, or create personal history.

After you sign in and pair, your active device type and name—and limited type, name, and time metadata for archived devices—are available to your active partner by default. Phone location, battery, charging, power, activity, app visibility, Current app, connection type, and signal strength remain off until you enable each category. A value that your device cannot provide is omitted rather than replaced with an estimate or placeholder. A device-list choice explicitly disabled in an older Beside version remains respected.

An active Beside relationship receives a dedicated private conversation in HyChat. Beside can load and send messages in that conversation, and HCO Net stores them for the two relationship members. Ending the relationship archives the conversation in read-only mode.

• Account and Session information needed to sign you in, such as your HCO Net user identifier, username or email label, display name, a device-bound Beside Session, and a local device identifier. Beside does not receive your plaintext HCO Net password back from the server.
• Relationship and membership information, including pairing-invite status, the active couple relationship, partner display information, sharing choices, membership status, and related entitlement, redemption, or transaction records. Redemption codes are normalized and hashed for server lookup.
• Active device type and name, plus limited archived-device type, name, and time metadata, which are available to your active partner by default for new relationships. A legacy device-list choice remains respected. Other device data is shared only when you enable its category, including battery level, charging and power state, activity, app visibility, connection type, and supported signal strength.
• Precise location from one selected phone only when phone-location sharing is on, including coordinates, horizontal accuracy, capture time, server receipt time, and—when the operating system actually supplies them—altitude, vertical accuracy, speed, speed accuracy, course, and course accuracy.
• Current-app open and close events that you report through the unified iOS Report App Shortcut action or Automation you configure, including app identity, event time, local upload state, server receipt time, and server-calculated elapsed duration.
• Archived-device information after a Session is revoked, including device type and name plus last-seen and archive times. Sensitive transient fields are removed when the device is archived.
• Request, IP, device, timing, and security-event information reasonably needed to operate Beside, diagnose failures, enforce limits, and prevent abuse.

Beside collects precise location from only the phone you select after you turn on Phone location and grant operating-system permission. The first valid phone sample selects an empty source automatically, and you can switch the source from that phone's sharing settings. Unselected phones do not contribute location. On iOS, choosing Always lets Beside use background location after you leave the app or lock the phone. Beside turns off Apple's optional persistent blue background-location indicator, but iOS may still show ordinary system privacy or location indicators. Android shows its required background-location notification.

The iOS, iPadOS, and macOS apps use Apple MapKit to display the shared phone location. Map requests are handled by Apple under its privacy notice. Displaying the partner's map does not require access to the viewing device's own location. Beside does not use location for advertising, cross-app tracking, or a public location feed.

On other supported native platforms, Beside requests OpenStreetMap map tiles through an authenticated HCO Net proxy. HCO Net can observe the requested map area. Only uncached or expired tile requests reach OpenStreetMap, which sees the server IP and tile coordinates and may infer the approximate viewed area; HCO Net does not forward your login credentials, device IP, or partner identity. The server keeps a shared, size-limited cache of public basemap images, without user or relationship identifiers, and evicts older tiles. This is not a personal location-history database or an offline map download. Beside never silently falls back to direct OpenStreetMap requests.

The in-app sharing switch remains the final control. Turning it off stops Beside from sending new phone-location samples even if system location permission remains available.

Beside does not silently inspect every app you use. On supported iPhones, current-app reporting is supplied by the unified Report App action and personal Automation you choose to configure. A non-empty App value reports open and an empty value reports close. The reporting action uses a separate device-bound credential that can submit app-activity events only and cannot read your account, relationship, location, or partner data.

Beside keeps up to 5,000 Report App transitions in app-local storage and normally attempts idempotent cloud batches about every ten minutes while iOS permits the app or action to run. While your partner is actively viewing Share and your device has received the short realtime lease, each new Report App transition attempts an immediate batch. Successfully uploaded events remain in that local history. Disabling Current app, signing out, revoking the Session, changing the relationship, or deleting the account invalidates the applicable reporting credential; unsent entries are retained locally but marked ineligible for later upload so they cannot enter a new relationship.

The released configuration does not read general Screen Time history. If a platform capability is unavailable, Beside hides it and sends no value for it.

Device identity and each enabled sharing category are available only to the other member of your active pair; none is public. The server derives the partner from the active relationship and does not let a client choose an unrelated user. A legacy choice that hides device identity does not suppress another category you enabled. Active VIP may also let that partner open timestamped Report App history for an active device only while you share Current app.

While your partner keeps Share visible in the foreground, Beside creates a short active-view lease. Through the Beside server, the viewer requests the latest authorized state about every five seconds, the selected location phone is asked to upload its latest permitted sample about every five seconds, and supported battery or Report App changes can be sent without waiting for the normal periodic batch. The lease is released when viewing stops and expires automatically after an interruption. Delivery depends on both devices being able to execute and reach the server; force-quit, suspension, missing background permission, or offline state can delay an update.

For a new relationship, a partner can see the owner's archived-device list by default. A device-list choice disabled in an older version continues to hide it until upgraded. The archive view is limited to device type or name and last-seen or archive time. It never includes old location, battery, charging, signal, app activity, archive identifiers, or deletion controls.

HCO Net does not sell or rent Beside information and does not share it with advertisers or data brokers. Information may be disclosed when you direct Beside to share it with your active partner, when a service provider needs it to operate Beside, or when disclosure is legally required.

Beside relies on HCO Net account, hosting, database, network, and security infrastructure. Apple supplies MapKit and the iOS Shortcuts and operating-system services used by the app. Apple and Google may process app installation, store, device, crash, or network information under their own privacy notices when you use their platforms.

Providers receive only the information reasonably needed for their function. Beside does not use third-party advertising or cross-app tracking SDKs.

Apple Privacy PolicyGoogle Privacy PolicyOpenStreetMap privacy

• For a standard membership, Beside stores the latest permitted device state rather than a continuous location trail. Active VIP may store shared phone-location samples for up to 30 days and authorize relationship-scoped Report App history reads. VIP expiry immediately stops history access and new VIP-only location collection without extending a location sample's original expiry.
• Signing out or Session revocation archives the matching device and immediately removes its location, battery, charging, signal, current-app, and extension values. The owner may permanently delete the archived row after seven complete days. Until deletion, the limited archive fields remain available as described above.
• Unpairing ends the active relationship and removes its current device snapshots, location history, cloud Report App history, sharing policies, active-view leases, and current-app reporting credentials. Device-local Report App history remains within that app installation. Limited relationship, membership, redemption, transaction, security, or legal audit records may remain when reasonably required.
• Pairing codes expire after 15 minutes and are stored as hashes rather than readable codes. Session and App Report credentials are stored as hashes on the server where the design permits.
• Account deletion revokes applicable Sessions and removes data according to the HCO Net account-deletion process. Deleted information may remain in restricted backups until ordinary backup rotation completes.

Beside uses production transport encryption, short-lived access credentials, rotating refresh credentials, OS-protected credential storage, server-side authorization, and scoped reporting tokens. No Internet service can guarantee absolute security, so please report suspected account compromise promptly.

You can change each sharing category, unpair, sign out, review archived devices, and delete an eligible archive from the app. You can also delete your HCO Net account through HCO Net account settings.

Depending on applicable law, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, or an explanation of Beside data by contacting admin@hconet.com. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request.

Material changes will be reflected here by updating the effective date and, when required, providing additional notice. Questions, privacy requests, or security concerns can be sent to admin@hconet.com.