Is First Alert safe to use?

First Alert integrates 67 third-party SDKs spanning infrastructure, analytics, and media. It collects data linked to your identity including Contact Info and Identifiers. It does not include any advertising or attribution SDKs. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does First Alert need?

First Alert requests 16 iOS permissions: Camera, Microphone, Contacts, Photo Library, Location (When In Use), Location (Always), Location (Always & When In Use), Calendars, Motion & Fitness, Speech Recognition, Face ID, Save to Photo Library, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Peripheral, Local Network, and Apple Music.

What data does First Alert collect?

According to its App Store privacy label, First Alert collects data linked to your identity including Contact Info and Identifiers. It collects Usage Data and Diagnostics not linked to your identity.

How many SDKs does First Alert have?

First Alert integrates 67 third-party SDKs. 11 for analytics, 1 for crash reporting, 26 for infrastructure, and 19 for other. None are for advertising or attribution.

Does First Alert use Google SDKs?

Yes. First Alert includes 14 Google or Firebase SDKs: Firebase A/B Testing, Firebase Core, Firebase Performance, Firebase Remote Config, Firebase Remote Config Interop, Firebase Sessions, Google Data Transport, Firebase Crashlytics, Firebase Core Extension, Firebase Core Internal, Firebase Installations, Firebase Shared Swift, Google Toolbox for Mac, and Google Utilities. These are used for cloud infrastructure and services, not advertising.

Does First Alert access your location?

Yes. First Alert requests location access. The developer states: "Your location is used to enable auto-away schedules for your thermostats and smart home devices using geofencing.".

Does First Alert access your camera or microphone?

First Alert requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "First Alert needs to use the camera to scan the QR code on your device". Microphone access is for "To use 2-way audio communication, you need to grant the app access to the microphone service of your mobile device". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does First Alert access your contacts?

Yes. First Alert requests access to your contacts. The developer states: "First Alert needs access to your contacts to allow other users to access your devices.".

Does First Alert run in the background?

Yes. First Alert registers 5 background modes, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to First Alert?

Other lifestyle apps include AARP Now , FocusedActionJournal , Apartment List , Apartments , NGL , and ecobee . Each app takes a different approach to lifestyle and varies in its data collection and SDK usage.

Lifestyle · Privacy report

First Alert by Resideo

Free · ★4.8 · Resideo Technologies, Inc.

Is First Alert safe?

It leans heavily on third-party trackers.

Our take. First Alert is built with more third-party tracking code than 83% of the lifestyle we have scanned.

Privacy footprint · vs 87 lifestyleHeavy

Trackers from other companies10 · a lot

typical lifestyle: 4

Data the app links to you2 types · little

typical lifestyle: 5 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

First Alert links 2 categories of your data to you.

From the developer's own App Store privacy label. These are the kinds of data First Alert ties to your identity.

Contact InfoIdentifiers

Who else is inside

It carries trackers from 2 companies.

Third-party SDKs found in the app, matched to the company that publishes each. Present in the code; we do not observe what they transmit.

🇺🇸GoogleAnalytics

Firebase, AdMob and Google analytics SDKs, built to record how you use the app and serve ads.

SDKs

🇺🇸AmplitudeAnalytics

Product analytics, built to record detailed behaviour inside the app.

SDKs

How it compares

Where it sits among lifestyle.

Every one of these apps we have scanned, on the two measures above: third-party trackers it carries (across) and data it links to you on its own label (up). Toward the top right is more invasive.

Each dot is one lifestyle app. First Alert sits to the right, carrying more third-party tracking than most.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 67 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. 10 are third-party trackers.

10analytics

1crash reporting

3push & messaging

53standard libraries

10 of the 67 are third-party trackers. 3 are push-notification SDKs that deliver notifications, rather than tracking you across apps. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

GoogleAnalytics · USA

Google Analytics Connector · Firebase A/B Testing · Firebase Core · Firebase Performance · Firebase Remote Config · Firebase Remote Config Interop · Firebase Sessions · Google Data Transport

AmplitudeAnalytics · USA

Amplitude · Amplitude (Flutter)

Push & messaging3 · notifications

OneSignal · OneSignalLocation

Standard libraries53 · on-device

The app's own code plus open-source interface, storage and networking libraries.

How we know this

Counterspy downloads the app from the App Store and statically analyzes its compiled binary. Embedded SDKs are matched against a signature database and resolved to the company that operates each. We also read the developer's App Store privacy label, which lists the data the app says it collects and links to you. We do not run the app or intercept its traffic, so we report capabilities present in the code and the developer's own disclosures, not proven transmission. We assess privacy and data collection, not malware, security flaws, or developer intent. Reports are automated and never edited for payment. Scan v2.24.2, 2026-04-04.

Third-party trackers are advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs detected by static signature matching. Presence shows a capability is compiled in, not that it ran or transmitted data.
"Data the app links to you" is the count of data categories the developer declares as Data Linked To You in its App Store privacy label. Labels are self-reported and not verified by Apple.
Comparison across the 87 lifestyle in our corpus. Trackers: median 4. Data linked to you: median 5.