Is SmartThings safe to use?

SmartThings integrates 30 third-party SDKs spanning infrastructure, media, and storage. It does not collect data linked to your identity. It does not include any advertising or attribution SDKs. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does SmartThings need?

SmartThings requests 15 iOS permissions: Camera, Microphone, Contacts, Photo Library, Location (When In Use), Location (Always), Location (Always & When In Use), Speech Recognition, Face ID, Save to Photo Library, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Peripheral, Local Network, Apple Music, and NFC.

What data does SmartThings collect?

According to its App Store privacy label, SmartThings collects Location, Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data, and Diagnostics not linked to your identity.

How many SDKs does SmartThings have?

SmartThings integrates 30 third-party SDKs. 1 for analytics, 1 for crash reporting, 4 for infrastructure, and 19 for other. None are for advertising or attribution.

Does SmartThings access your location?

Yes. SmartThings requests location access. The developer states: "SmartThings needs to access your location to fully automate your home, such as turning off the lights at sunrise or when you leave home with your phone.".

Does SmartThings access your camera or microphone?

SmartThings requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "This allows SmartThings to accept QR code invitations". Microphone access is for "This allows SmartThings to find and connect to nearby Samsung devices". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does SmartThings access your contacts?

Yes. SmartThings requests access to your contacts. The developer states: "SmartThings uses Contacts to send text message.".

Does SmartThings run in the background?

Yes. SmartThings registers 4 background modes, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to SmartThings?

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

SmartThings

Free · ★4.6 · Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Is SmartThings safe?

It leans heavily on third-party trackers.

Our take. SmartThings is built with more third-party tracking code than 22% of the lifestyle we have scanned.

Privacy footprint · vs 87 lifestyleModerate

Trackers from other companies1 · some

typical lifestyle: 4

Data the app links to you0 types · little

typical lifestyle: 5 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

It links almost nothing to you.

SmartThings's own App Store privacy label declares it links no data to your identity. That is rare, and it is a good sign.

Who else is inside

It carries trackers from 1 company.

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.

🏢Other third partiesanalytics

A third-party SDK.

SDK

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. SmartThings sits to the lower left, lighter than most.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 30 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. 1 are third-party trackers.

1analytics

1crash reporting

28standard libraries

1 of the 30 is a third-party tracker. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

Other third partiesanalytics

LaunchDarkly

Standard libraries28 · 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 v1.7.41, 2026-04-05.

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.