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What the instrument shares, and what it never does

The Salt Light Instrument is built to be a calm, private object in your home. It has no account, no microphone, no camera, and no advertising. This notice explains exactly what it sends, to whom, and how to turn it off. Because the firmware is open-source, you can verify every word of it.

In one line: the instrument sends us counts and numbers only, only to Edge Coastal Instruments, never to anyone else, and you can switch it off.

The three levels of data

Diagnostics ride on top of the connection your instrument already makes for live data and updates. Each level is a strict superset of the one above it.

Baseline

Always on

To show live data and receive updates, your instrument fetches files from our Edge Coastal Instruments servers over Wi-Fi. Like any website, our server records those requests in its access log. We read those logs to see that instruments are online and which firmware version is in the field. Your instrument sends nothing extra for this.

  • The internet (IP) address your request came from, used to roughly tell instruments apart and gauge how many are online, then reduced to a coarse network range (we keep the network portion, not your full address) in our diagnostics records
  • The time of each request, which file was requested, and whether it succeeded
  • The firmware version (carried in the request, used to track update adoption)

Basic diagnostics

On by default, you can turn it off

Once or twice a day your instrument sends us a tiny summary so we can spot units that keep restarting or losing data and help you faster. It is counts and numbers only, never anything you see, type, or where you are.

  • A random ID for this unit (not your MAC address; you can reset it)
  • Firmware version and connectivity mode
  • Number of restarts, self-heals, and failed data fetches
  • How long it has been running (in hours)
  • Whether diagnostics are on by the shipped default or because you turned them on

Product-improvement data

Off by default, opt-in

If you turn this on, the same daily summary also includes how you use the instrument, to help us decide what to improve. Still numbers only, never the contents of any screen, alert, or message.

  • How many times each screen was viewed (Home, Sky, Sea, Ferry)
  • How many alerts fired in total
  • A Wi-Fi signal reading and a free-memory low-water mark, which we keep only as coarse ranges on our server

What we never collect

  • Your location or GPS coordinates: any location you set is kept only on the instrument, never sent to us
  • Your Wi-Fi network name or password
  • Your MAC address
  • Anything shown on the screen, or any alert or message text
  • Audio or images: the instrument has no microphone or camera
  • Your name, email, or account: the instrument has no account

You are in control

Offline mode is a hard switch

Any offline setting (Settings → Connection → Offline mode) stops all diagnostics immediately, regardless of the toggles below. Offline, the instrument sends nothing.

Turn diagnostics off

Open Settings → Connection → Privacy and data. Switch Basic diagnostics off to stop sending entirely, or switch Product-improvement data on or off. One tap, no penalty.

Reset your unit ID

The same screen has Reset ID, which gives your instrument a fresh random identifier and clears its usage counts, so it starts over as a new, unlinked unit.

See exactly what was sent

Your instrument hosts a private web page on your own network (the address is shown in Settings) that displays the last summary it sent and when. Nothing is hidden.

Who receives it, identifiers, and how long we keep it

First-party only. Diagnostics go only to Edge Coastal Instruments. We do not sell or share your data, we use no advertising or third-party analytics services, and nothing is passed to anyone else.

Identifiers. A unit is identified by a random ID created on the device, not your MAC address, and resettable by you at any time. When a summary reaches our server we replace that ID with a one-way hash before storing it, and we drop the originating IP address from the diagnostics database. We treat these as pseudonymous, not anonymous. Each summary also carries a simple flag confirming diagnostics are turned on, which our server checks before it stores anything.

Retention. Each diagnostics check-in is kept for up to 90 days, then deleted, so a unit that stops reporting fully ages out within 90 days. The baseline fleet records we derive from our access logs (a pseudonymous per-unit code from a one-way hash of the IP address, plus a coarse network range and counts) are likewise kept up to 90 days. The web-server access logs themselves (which, like any web server's, include IP addresses) are kept for up to 30 days and then rotated out.

Home Assistant bridge (optional, local). If you enable the Home Assistant integration, your instrument publishes its sensor readings to your own Home Assistant over your local network. That data goes to your server, not ours, and is off by default.

Your US privacy rights

We do not sell or share your personal information (as those terms are used in California's CCPA/CPRA and similar US state privacy laws), so there is nothing to opt out of.

You can see and control your data directly. The on-device Reset ID clears your unit's usage counts and gives it a fresh identifier, and any offline mode stops collection entirely. To request deletion of the diagnostics tied to your unit's hashed identifier, email privacy@ecin.net and we will remove them.

Scope

Salt Light Instrument is sold and supported in the United States. It is a general-audience product, not directed to children, and is not intended for anyone under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

We may update this notice as the product changes; the effective date below always reflects the current version, and material changes ship with the firmware that introduces them.

Questions about your data? Email Edge Coastal Instruments at privacy@ecin.net.
Hand-built in Maine. Effective June 17, 2026.