Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information Kevin Erik Iin (“Beam,” “we,” “us”) handles when you use the Beam app for iPhone and iPad, the Beacon app for Mac, and this website (together, the “Services”). We try to collect as little as we can, and to tell you plainly about everything we do collect.

The short version: your screen, sound and what you type through Beam go from your Mac to your phone and never to us. We run no servers in the stream path, and the stream is encrypted with the secret your devices share from pairing. The Beam app and this website send anonymized usage analytics: never your name, email, Apple Account or IP address. If you send us feedback or join the Windows waitlist, we get what you choose to send.

1. What stays on your devices

1.1 Your stream

The video, audio, clicks, key presses and controller input that Beam carries travel between your Mac and your iPhone or iPad. On your home network they go straight from one device to the other. If you stream from away from home with Beam Unlimited, they travel over your own Tailscale network (see section 3). We never receive, store or look at any of it.

1.2 Pairing

When you pair, Beacon and Beam agree on a random shared secret. Each device keeps it in its own secure storage (the Keychain). We never receive it. You can remove a pairing at any time from Beacon’s menu, or by deleting the app.

1.3 How the stream is protected

All video, audio and input that Beam carries between your Mac and your iPhone or iPad is encrypted using the shared secret established during pairing. This protects your screen content and what you type from interception on shared Wi-Fi networks, such as offices, hotels and cafés. The pairing secret is stored in each device’s secure local storage and never reaches us.

If you stream from away from home with Beam Unlimited, the same encrypted stream is carried over your own Tailscale network, which encrypts it again between your two devices (see section 3).

2. What we collect

2.1 Usage analytics in the Beam app

The Beam app uses PostHog, an analytics service, to record anonymized events. These tell us things like how many people start streams and where the free tier runs out. They never contain personal information: no name, email address, Apple Account, contacts, your device’s name, IP address or anything from your stream. The events are:

• App installed, updated, opened and moved to the background
• Stream started (with the quality setting, and whether you’re on the trial or have Beam Unlimited) and stream ended (with its length)
• Picture in Picture started
• Upgrade screen shown (and why), purchase started and purchase completed
• Free trial ended, and daily free limit reached

Events are tied to a random ID that the app makes up, which can’t be traced back to you. Each event also carries basic technical details: device model, iOS version, app version and language. PostHog turns your IP address into an approximate city and country as the event arrives and then throws the address away, so it is never stored. Events go through w.beamscreen.app, an address on our domain that forwards them to PostHog’s servers in the EU. See posthog.com/privacy. Beacon on the Mac does not collect analytics.

2.2 Feedback and support

Both apps have a feedback form. When you use it, we receive your message and your email address if you add one. In Beam, if you leave the option on, we also get a diagnostic log. The log describes what the app did recently: app and system versions, device model, connection attempts and errors, and settings. It can include your Mac’s name and your devices’ local network or Tailscale addresses. It never includes your screen content.

Feedback goes to our server at beamscreen.app, which forwards it to a private Telegram chat that we read and to our own support inbox. The support inbox may pass the message to an AI model through OpenRouter to sort it and draft a reply, which a person reviews before anything is sent. Emails to [email protected] are handled the same way.

2.3 Windows waitlist

If you tell us you’d use Beacon on Windows, we record that, along with your operating system, the time and your IP address (to count each person once). If you also leave an email address, we store it so we can tell you once when Beacon for Windows is out, and we’re notified in our Telegram chat. We don’t send newsletters and don’t share the list.

2.4 This website

beamscreen.app uses PostHog to count page views and clicks on the download buttons, and to record anonymized session replays: how the pointer moves, where people click and how far they scroll, so we can see where the site is confusing. Text you type into forms is masked in replays, and like the app, the website never sends PostHog your name, email or IP address (the address is reduced to an approximate city and country, then discarded). PostHog keeps a random ID in your browser, in a first-party cookie and local storage, so repeat visits count once. Requests go through w.beamscreen.app to PostHog’s EU servers.

The site runs on our own server, behind Cloudflare. Like any website, it sees your IP address and browser details when you load a page, and Cloudflare processes that traffic to deliver and protect the site.

2.5 Questions you ask on this website

The “Ask anything” box at the end of the FAQ answers questions about Beam automatically. Before a question is stored or answered, we remove anything that looks like an email address, a phone number or a serial number. Our server sends the question to an AI model through OpenRouter to write the answer, and saves the question, the answer and the time so we can see what people want to know and improve the answers. To limit abuse, we also keep a code made from your IP address that changes every day and can’t be turned back into the address. Please don’t type personal details into the box.

2.6 Purchases

Beam Unlimited is sold through Apple’s App Store. Apple handles the payment and never shares your card or billing details with us. The app only learns that a purchase was made, so it can unlock it.

2.7 App Store statistics

If you’ve chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device’s settings, Apple gives us aggregated statistics about Beam through App Store Connect. We can’t identify you from them.

2.8 Updates for Beacon

Beacon checks beamscreen.app for updates and downloads new versions from GitHub. Those requests show our server and GitHub your IP address, like any download.

3. Streaming away from home

Streaming from away from home uses Tailscale, a service you install and sign in to yourself. Tailscale connects your Mac and phone directly when it can. When it can’t, it passes the encrypted traffic through one of its relay servers, which forwards it without being able to read it. Your Tailscale account and its relays are covered by Tailscale’s privacy policy. We have no access to your Tailscale network.

4. Who else is involved

We don’t sell your information or share it for advertising. These services handle some of it on our behalf, as described above:

• PostHog: anonymized app and website analytics, stored in the EU.
• Telegram: delivers feedback and waitlist notifications to us.
• OpenRouter: passes support messages and questions asked on the website to an AI model, to sort messages, draft replies and answer questions.
• Cloudflare: delivers and protects this website.
• GitHub: hosts Beacon downloads.
• Apple: distributes Beam and processes purchases.
• Tailscale: only if you stream from away from home, under your own account.

Some of these providers, such as Telegram, OpenRouter, Cloudflare and GitHub, may process data outside the European Economic Area.

5. Permissions the apps ask for

Beacon (Mac)

• Screen Recording: to capture your display or a window and send it to your paired phone.
• Accessibility (shown in Beacon as Media Key Control): so your phone can press keys, click, scroll and type on the Mac. Optional.
• Local Network: to be found by your phone and to send it the stream.

Beam (iPhone and iPad)

• Local Network: to find your Mac and receive the stream.

Beam does not use your camera, microphone, contacts or location.

6. How long we keep things

• Analytics events and website replays: for as long as PostHog keeps them under our plan, and no longer than we need them to improve the Services.
• Feedback and support messages: as long as we need to help you and to keep a record of the issue.
• Questions asked on the website: 12 months, then deleted automatically.
• Windows waitlist: until we’ve told you about the Windows release, or until you ask us to remove you.

The pairing secret stays on your devices until you unpair or delete the app.

7. Children

The Services are not aimed at children under 13 (or under 16 in the European Economic Area), and we don’t knowingly collect information from them. If you think a child has sent us personal information, write to [email protected] and we’ll delete it.

8. Your rights (EEA and UK)

Under the GDPR and UK GDPR you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, or hand it over in a portable format. You can also object to our use of it. Because we don’t ask you to sign in, tell us what to look for: the email address you used for feedback or the waitlist, for example. Write to [email protected] and we’ll reply within 30 days.

If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon) at aki.ee or to your local data protection authority.

Who is responsible: Kevin Erik Iin, operating as Beam, in Estonia, is the data controller.

Why we may use it: analytics, site security and improving the Services rely on our legitimate interest in running and improving them. Feedback and support rely on your request for help. The waitlist email relies on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

9. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the effective date at the top. If a change is significant, we’ll also mention it in the app or on this site where we can.

10. Contact

Questions or requests about privacy go to: