Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 5, 2026

EspControl is a source-available, non-commercial touchscreen control panel project maintained by jtenniswood. This policy explains what information may be involved when you use the EspControl documentation website, firmware, or built-in web configuration interface.

The short version

EspControl does not operate an account system, advertising service, analytics platform, or central service that collects your smart-home data. The firmware is designed to communicate with your Home Assistant installation and other services you choose to configure. Your device configuration is stored on your device or in your own backups.

The documentation website

The documentation site is hosted by GitHub Pages. When you visit it, GitHub may process technical information such as your IP address, browser and device information, the pages requested, and timestamps in order to deliver and secure the site. GitHub controls that processing under its own policies; see the GitHub Privacy Statement.

The site does not intentionally use cookies, advertising trackers, or a first-party analytics service. Its search is generated and run in your browser.

Every documentation page includes a support button whose image is loaded from Buy Me a Coffee's CDN. Loading that image may disclose your IP address and browser request information to Buy Me a Coffee or its service providers. Following the button takes you to Buy Me a Coffee, which has its own privacy policy.

The install and C6 recovery pages also automatically load the USB installer library from unpkg when the browser supports Web Serial, and the install pages check a public firmware manifest. These browser requests may disclose normal request metadata, such as your IP address, browser and device information, and request time, to the relevant hosting providers. The library is not loaded on other documentation pages unless one of these installer components is used.

The site also contains links to GitHub, Home Assistant, ESPHome, and other third-party websites. Those sites have their own terms and privacy practices.

The EspControl firmware and device

The firmware does not send your smart-home data to an EspControl server. It normally exchanges data directly with your Home Assistant instance over your local network, including entity states, names, media information, weather data, and commands needed for the cards you configure. Home Assistant and any integrations in your installation determine how that information is stored and processed.

Depending on the cards and options you enable, the device may also:

• request media artwork from URLs supplied by Home Assistant or by your configuration;
• send requests to webhook URLs that you configure; and
• use Home Assistant's voice-assistant pipeline, which may involve a speech service or other provider selected in Home Assistant.

These requests are initiated by your configuration and may expose information to the service named by the URL or integration. Review the privacy practices of those services before enabling them.

Firmware and asset downloads

Firmware with EspControl's update checker enabled periodically requests public version metadata and, when an update is installed, firmware files from the EspControl GitHub Pages site. Some builds also check the public ESPHome hosted firmware manifest for an ESP32-C6 co-processor. These requests contain normal network request information, such as the device's IP address and request time, as observed by the hosting provider. They are not intended to include your Home Assistant entity data or account credentials.

You can disable EspControl's built-in update checker where the firmware build provides that option. Ethernet-only builds documented on this site omit the EspControl update checker. ESPHome OTA or other update methods may still contact the services you select.

Standard released firmware also loads the JavaScript for its built-in web configuration interface from EspControl's GitHub Pages site. The request URL includes the device model slug and firmware version, so the hosting provider may receive those values along with normal browser or device connection metadata when the interface is opened. This asset request is separate from the firmware update checker.

Networked standard builds automatically synchronize time with the public NTP pool at 0.pool.ntp.org, 1.pool.ntp.org, and 2.pool.ntp.org. DNS and NTP requests may disclose normal connection metadata to the pool operators. This traffic occurs even when no optional cards or services are configured and the EspControl update checker is disabled.

Information you provide to the project

If you open a GitHub issue, pull request, or discussion, GitHub processes your GitHub account information and the content you submit. Issue descriptions, logs, screenshots, and configuration snippets may be public. Remove passwords, tokens, Wi-Fi credentials, private URLs, and other sensitive information before posting. Do not use a public issue to send a privacy request or other confidential information.

Retention and sharing

The project maintainer does not operate a database of EspControl users and does not sell or rent personal information. Information submitted through GitHub is retained and handled according to GitHub's policies and the project's public repository settings. Information handled by Home Assistant, Buy Me a Coffee, GitHub Pages, or another service you choose is governed by that service's policy and retention practices.

Your choices and privacy requests

You can choose whether to use automatic firmware updates, configure optional webhooks or voice features, visit external links, or submit information to GitHub. To remove local device settings, use a full flash erase or another verified factory-reset procedure that clears the device's storage. A normal reset or firmware re-flash may preserve saved configuration, including entity IDs, webhook credentials, and other settings. This does not remove copies you have made elsewhere.

For a question about this policy or a request concerning information directly controlled by the project maintainer, contact jtenniswood through GitHub. Please do not include private information in a public issue. Requests about GitHub, Home Assistant, or another third-party service should be directed to that service.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated when EspControl's data practices or the services it uses change. The effective date at the top of this page indicates when the current version was published.