AngelSense GPS Watch

Warning: *Privacy Not Included with this product

AngelSense's Angel Watch is a GPS tracking device that works over LTE cellular service, has a two-way microphone, and is marketed to parents of young kids and guardians of special needs children and adults. It comes with features like continuous real-time monitoring, location playback, and emergency search tools. At the time of this review, AngelSense offered their Angel Watch for free and customers then paid between $45 - $65 per month for their choice of service plans. Having peace of mind when it comes to the safety of your children or a vulnerable adult is important. Having privacy be a part of this safety equation seems important too. Unfortunately, AngelSense's commitment to privacy is something we have serious concerns about.

What could happen if something goes wrong?

Often in our world these days there is a tension between security, helping us feel safe in the world, and privacy, helping us feel like we are protected from unwanted intrusions into our personal life. The things that often can help people feel secure, also have the potential to violate our privacy. AngleSense's Angel Watch is a good example of this. Designed for kids, people with special needs, and vulnerable adults, this GPS tracking watch with a two-way microphone can bring peace of mind to a parent or guardian of a child with autism or an adult with dementia. However, such a device also has the ability to collect a whole lot of personal information on the wearer, the person using the app to monitor the tracking device, and the people in the vicinity of the device. We acknowledge these sorts of devices have a place in our world. We also think that any company that makes such a device has an big responsibly to prioritize privacy on all the personal information the can potentially collect.

Unfortunately, we do not think AngleSense prioritizes privacy. We made this determination in large part because they don't actually have a real privacy policy for this device or the app that controls the device. The only privacy information we could find for this surviellance watch was buried in a short section in their terms and conditions agreement. The short section they label "Privacy Policy" there doesn't tell us nearly enough about what specific kinds of data this smart watch collects, how they company uses, who that personal information might be shared with and for what purposes, what rights users have to access or delete this data, and what steps are taken to secure this data, and, importantly, how the company handles the collection of children's data. This fact that this information is missing is very very bad. The fact that the company didn't take the time to draft a real privacy policy indicates to us they might not take privacy of their users seriously enough, especially for a device that can track and collect so much personal information.

Also concerning is the fact that we reached out to AngelSense multiple times with our privacy and security related questions and never received any answers from them. And we also cannot confirm if AngelSense takes the appropriate security measures to meet our Minimum Security Standards.

All in all, we have grave concerns about the privacy and security of AngelSense's smart tracking watch targeted at children and vulnerable people. We recognize how such a device could bring peace of mind to the parents and guardians of special needs people. However, we must warn users that this device does not indicate to us that it takes privacy and security as seriously as it needs to for a device and app that can track and potentially collect so much very personal information. Please beware the AngelSense GPS tracking watch could very well come with *privacy not included.

Tips to protect yourself

- Do not allow AngelSense to track your activity across other apps and websites
- Parents, keep a sharp eye on parent controls and permissions.
- Do not sign up with third-party accounts. Better just log in with email and strong password.
- Chose a strong password! You may use a password control tool like 1Password, KeePass etc
- Use your device privacy controls to limit access to your personal information via app (do not give access to your camera, microphone, images, location unless neccessary)
- Keep your app regularly updated
- Limit ad tracking via your device (eg on iPhone go to Privacy -> Advertising -> Limit ad tracking) and biggest ad networks (for Google, go to Google account and turn off ad personalization)
- Request your data be deleted once you stop using the app. Simply deleting an app from your device usually does not erase your personal data.
- When starting a sign-up, do not agree to tracking of your data if possible.

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Can it snoop on me? information

Camera

Device: No

App: Yes

Microphone

Device: Yes

App: No

Tracks location

Device: Yes

App: Yes

What can be used to sign up?

What data does the company collect?

How does the company use this data?

We ding this product because we found no detailed product-specific privacy policy. All we found for a privacy policy was a short section in the company's Terms and Conditions that doesn't provide detailed information about data collection and use.

Terms and Conditions

"The Company shall use personally identifiable information of Customer only for the purpose of providing the services under this Agreement to Customer. Information may be provided to emergency services. The Company may use aggregated non-personally identifiable information derived from information provided by Customer, including but not limited to for the purpose of improving the Product and related services."

"8. PRIVACY POLICY
The Company collects personal information that include the Customer email address, phone number and home address in order to provide the service. This information will not be shared with any 3rd party without the written consent of the Customer

The company may collect information about your computer, including your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and in order to create reports. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

The only cookies in use on our site are for Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that helps website owners understand how visitors engage with their website. Google Analytics customers can view a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so that they can improve it.

Like many services, Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to track visitor interactions as in our case, where they are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We then use the information to compile reports and to help us improve our site.

Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. These cookies are used to store information, such as the time that the current visit occurred, whether the visitor has been to the site before and what site referred the visitor to the web page.

Google Analytics collects information anonymously. It reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our site – for more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page."

How can you control your data?

We ding this product because we found no detailed product-specific privacy policy. All we found for a privacy policy was a short section in the company's Terms and Conditions that makes no mention of how customers can access or delete their data or retention period for their data.

We are unable to determine if all users have the right to delete their data. We are unable to determine data retention policies.

What is the company’s known track record of protecting users’ data?

Average

No known privacy or security incidents found in the last 3 years.

In 2020, it was reported that the parent of a child using the AngelSense watch was sued by the local school board because "school system claims the device can illegally intercept the communication of other students, faculty, and staff."

Child Privacy Information

No children's privacy information is provided by this company that targets their products at children.

Can this product be used offline?

No

User-friendly privacy information?

No

AngleSense's limited privacy policy is buried as a short section at the bottom of their Terms & Conditions. It is a short paragraph that does not tell the user much information about how their data is collected, what consent to use any data collected looks like, or what control users might have over any data collected.

Links to privacy information

Does this product meet our Minimum Security Standards? information

No

Encryption

Yes

Strong password

Yes

Security updates

Can’t Determine

Manages vulnerabilities

Can’t Determine

Privacy policy

No

We found no clearly product-specific policy

Does the product use AI? information

Can’t Determine

Is this AI untrustworthy?

Can’t Determine

What kind of decisions does the AI make about you or for you?

Is the company transparent about how the AI works?

Can’t Determine

Does the user have control over the AI features?

Can’t Determine

*Privacy Not Included

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