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Product Policies

Security​

Smart homes are meant to be peaceful sanctuaries. Many smart homes have families of diverse ages and backgrounds. The following guidelines ensure that all customers will feel comfortable with their smart home and the SmartThings apps. In addition to the below guidelines, we may use our discretion to determine if your integration violates local laws or customs.

Sexual Content​

Your integration must not:

  • Present or encourage overt sexual concepts or content (including, but not limited to, explicit nudity, exposed male or female genitalia, pornography, pedophilia, bestiality, sexually explicit behavior, and sexually suggestive poses).
  • Present or encourage exploitative sexual behavior (including, but not limited to, sexual abuse, sexual assault, and bestiality).

Violence​

Your integration must not:

  • Present or encourage murder, suicide, torture, or abuse.
  • Present or encourage violence or criminal behavior that could instigate a crime.
  • Present or encourage threats toward people or animals.
  • Present or encourage recklessly gruesome content (including, but not limited to, excessive bleeding).
  • Present or encourage real-world use of weapons, bombs, terrorist actions, or other dangerous objects.
  • Contain content that could lead to self-harm, choking, serious injury, or death.

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs​

Your integration must not:

  • Present or encourage the illegal use of alcohol, tobacco (including electronic cigarettes), or drugs.
  • Present or encourage the sale of alcohol, tobacco (including electronic cigarettes), or drugs to minors.
  • Encourage excessive consumption of or make unnecessary references to alcohol, tobacco, or drugs.
  • Encourage consumption of recreational drugs.
  • Present medical information to users, and must notify users that the medical information could be inaccurate.
  • Contain unauthorized drugs, regulated drugs, dietary supplements, or products with names or designs that can cause user confusion.

We understand that some substances may be considered regulated or recreational in some regions but not others. If there is any nuance, we will err on the side of not accepting your product for WWST Certification.

Defamation and Vulgarity​

Your integration must not:

  • Present content that could defame (by slander or libel) individual persons or groups of people based on race, gender, sexual preference or identity, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion, political identity, or ideology.
  • Present excessively unpleasant, repellent, obscene, or vulgar language or expressions.
  • Present offensive, discriminatory, or inflammatory content about specific religious, social, or political parties, groups, or concepts.
  • Present content that reasonable public consensus may find to be improper or inappropriate

Child Safety​

We have a zero-tolerance policy against any form of child or sexual abuse content, including but not limited to any sexual exploitation of minors. If we become aware or are informed of any integration or content promoting or facilitating the distribution of any form of child sexual abuse content, we will promptly report it to all appropriate authorities and remove the SmartThings Developer, User Accounts, and anyone else that may be involved with the distribution.

Illegal Activities​

We do not permit integrations that promote illegal activities. You are responsible for determining the legality of your integration in countries where it will be available to SmartThings customers. If we determine that your integration is unlawful in specific countries where you have made them available, we will remove it.

Data Privacy​

Smart homes are meant to be private. The following guidelines ensure that all customers will feel protected and secure with their smart home and content shared with SmartThings. We follow all local laws and guidelines for the distribution of any third party integration to consumers. In addition to the requirements below, you must comply with the local data privacy laws of the country or region where you make your integration available. Be sure to check each country’s local laws.

Privacy​

Your integration must:

  • Provide a mechanism for users to delete their data. Customers are trusting us with their data. They must be able to delete this data from your systems.
  • Display a user privacy policy during registration if personal data is transmitted outside of the SmartThings Cloud.
  • Not access, collect, use, transmit, or share user data without explicit user consent in accordance with local laws.
  • Not require that the user grant more permissions or provide more personal information than the minimum necessary to successfully support features.

Additionally, your privacy policy must include the following information in an easily understood format:

  • Collected user data items and types
  • Purposes of using user data
  • List of third-parties with which your integration shares user data and shared data types
  • User data items and data types that your integration shares with third-parties
  • User data retention period and user data deletion (for example, upon account deletion or integration uninstallation)
  • Method of notifying users when the privacy policy is revised
  • User data-related privileges (such as reading, revising, or deleting data) that can be requested by users

Experience​

Smart homes are meant to be natural. People want to have unique experiences that can adapt to their physical surroundings, local designs, and enhance every difference that makes each person special. Whether it’s having the thermostat lower the temperature when the user leaves their home or having the lights change intensity and color based on an event the user defines, almost anything is possible. We want people to feel that way when they integrate your product with SmartThings. Users should trust that their integration is providing an original experience, using trusted standards, and accessible to everyone in the home. The following section details the expectations for you when building these distinct solutions.

Original Design (Intellectual Property Protection)​

Do not copy another product experience. Add a bit of flair to make your integration unique to your organization. Do not make small changes to someone else’s integration and attempt to submit it as your own.

Device or Service Ownership​

Some product owners may not want all of their features available on SmartThings. We know that many developers like to make their own versions of an integration. These alternative integrations are not permitted for WWST certification. You must be the owner, or an authorized representative, of an organization that owns any IP rights to your product or service.

  • If you are submitting a device for certification, you must be the OEM or authorized representative (e.g. an authorized contract manufacturer).
  • If you are submitting a Connected Service for certification, you must be an authorized representative of the service.
  • In certain cases where you are seeking to certify an open source product or platform that may not have an IP owner, you must be a recognized contributor to the project.

If we determine that you have submitted a product Certification or are representing a company without their authorization, your SmartThings Developer account will be deleted and you will lose access to any information you have submitted to SmartThings. We reserve the right to delist your product from the Catalog at any time. Refer to Section 5. Submission, Certification, and Distribution of Applications of the SmartThings Terms of Service for additional details.

Modern Standards​

When designing how consumers will use your device, consider how to apply best practices for reliability & uptime, UI interaction and design, optimizing code to improve performance, and other aspects. What are the best apps you use today on your smart phone or in your home? Why do these apps and experiences resonate well with you? Think about how to apply a similar experience with your device integration or connected service.

WCAG Compatibility​

Having a great consumer experience for everyone is paramount when designing your integration. Consider using best practices found in the Web Compatibility and Assistance Guidelines. Examples include providing different text sizes for readability, using alternative text for images, and supporting dark mode. Refer to the WCAG for additional information.

Language Localization​

The minimum requirement is for your integration to be in English or Korean. To offer the best user experience, SmartThings supports 30+ languages. We encourage you to localize for countries where customers may use your device. In non-English speaking countries, the SmartThings app will select the closest available language (default English).