SafeNeat Companion is the child-device half of the SafeNeat parental control platform. It is installed by a parent on their child's phone and pairs with the SafeNeat Parent app or web dashboard - together, they let parents monitor their child's device activity, set screen-time limits, manage allowed and blocked apps, see their child's location, and receive geofence alerts when their child enters or leaves places they have set as safe zones.
This app is built for transparency. On the child's device you will see:
• A persistent notification reading "SafeNeat Companion is monitoring this device"
• A visible SafeNeat brand icon in the app drawer — never hidden
• An in-app disclosure shown BEFORE each permission prompt, explaining what is collected and why
• An on-device control to view, pause, or stop monitoring with the parent's password
This app does not operate in stealth mode. The child is informed it is running and what it does.
WHAT IS MONITORED AND SHARED WITH THE PARENT
• App usage — which apps the child opens and for how long, so the parent can set healthy screen-time limits
• Web filtering — the parent's dashboard chooses which websites and content categories are allowed; SafeNeat Companion enforces this with an on-device VPN (Android VpnService) that blocks disallowed websites at the DNS level. This VPN runs only on the device, routes no traffic through external servers, and performs no TLS interception. The parent sees only the blocked domain (no page content, no full URLs)
• Location — the child's current location, recent location history, and geofence enter/exit events
• Device status — battery, screen-on/off, boot events, tamper attempts on the SafeNeat installation
• SOS — when the child triggers SOS, the app calls the emergency contact the parent set up and notifies the parent
WHAT IS NOT COLLECTED
• No SMS message content
• No call log
• No chat content from WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, or any other messaging app
• No browser URL content or page text — only the domain name of blocked websites
• No search query content
• No microphone access — ever
• No background camera access — the camera is only used when the child taps "Scan QR" during pairing
ZERO-KNOWLEDGE ENCRYPTION
SafeNeat is built around a privacy guarantee that is enforceable in code, not just promised in policy. Family content — location, geofence definitions, emergency contacts, blocked-website events — is end-to-end encrypted on the child's device with a family key before upload. SafeNeat's servers store only the encrypted payloads and cannot decrypt them. Only the parent, who holds the family key on their own device, can read their family's data. Even our internal staff cannot.
REQUIRED PERMISSIONS
SafeNeat Companion requests only the permissions needed for the features above. Each is requested with an in-app disclosure explaining what data is collected and shared. The Accessibility Service is used to detect which app is currently in the foreground (for parental rule enforcement) and to detect tamper attempts — it does not read text content from any app. Background location is used solely for child-safety geofencing. The phone permission is used solely for the SOS feature. The VPN (Android VpnService) is used solely for on-device web filtering, with no external routing and no TLS interception.
PAIR WITH SAFENEAT PARENT
This app pairs with the SafeNeat Parent app (on the parent's own phone) or the web dashboard, where rules are configured and alerts are received.
ABOUT SAFENEAT
SafeNeat is a product of Brainergo P.C. Full privacy policy: https://safeneat.com/privacy. Privacy contact: info@safeneat.com.
GDPR / COPPA COMPLIANCE
SafeNeat operates under the EU GDPR and the US COPPA. Parents can access, correct, export, or delete their family's data at any time via the SafeNeat dashboard. Account deletion removes all personal data within 30 days.