Frequently Asked Questions

PrivacyInsights helps you understand what data apps and websites can collect about you, detect potential tracking devices nearby, and improve your overall privacy posture on iOS. All analysis happens locally on your device.

Most features work offline, including permission scanning, Bluetooth device detection, Security Check, and GeoIP lookups. Features like URL security checking, Domain Security Checker, and traceroute require an internet connection.

iOS 26.0 or later is required. The app works on both iPhone and iPad.

No. All analysis happens locally on your device. We have no servers, no analytics, and no way to see your data. Everything stays on your device.

Each permission enables a specific privacy analysis feature. For example, Bluetooth permission lets us detect tracking devices nearby, Camera enables QR code scanning, and Location helps correlate tracker detection. You can deny any permission and still use other features.

Scan results are stored only on your device. They are never uploaded anywhere. Uninstalling the app deletes all data. Some features like Tracker Monitoring store history locally to detect patterns over time.

No. When you check a URL's security, your device connects directly to that website. We never see the URL or the results.

AirTags paired with your iPhone advertise minimally and are designed to be invisible to their owner. The app is optimised to detect unknown trackers that might be following you, especially those in "separated mode" (not paired with a nearby phone).

We can detect 40+ tracker types including Apple AirTag, Samsung SmartTag, Tile, Chipolo, Pebblebee, and many others. The app also identifies 170+ Bluetooth device manufacturers.

Many Bluetooth devices don't broadcast identifying information. We can only identify devices that advertise recognisable signatures or manufacturer IDs.

The app uses iOS's optimised Bluetooth scanning APIs. Short scans have minimal battery impact. We recommend scanning for 10-30 seconds rather than leaving it running continuously.

This feature tracks a Bluetooth device's signal strength (RSSI) over time and correlates it with your GPS location to detect if a device is following you. It uses sophisticated algorithms to calculate a "following score" based on signal stability and location patterns.

Traceroute shows the path your internet traffic takes to reach a destination, revealing all the servers (hops) in between. This helps you understand where your data travels. The app includes geolocation data to show where each hop is located on a map.

Many routers are configured to not respond to traceroute packets for security reasons. This is normal behaviour and doesn't indicate a problem.

GeoIP provides approximate locations based on IP address databases. It's typically accurate to the city level but can be off, especially for mobile networks and VPNs. The app uses an offline database bundled with the app.

The Network Scanner discovers devices on your local network, identifies manufacturers using OUI (Organisationally Unique Identifier) lookups, and can detect IoT devices. All scanning happens locally on your network.

Go to Settings → Safari → Extensions → Enable both "PrivacyInsights Content Blocker" and "PrivacyInsights". The Content Blocker blocks trackers, while the Web Extension allows you to block domains from Cookie Inspector.

It blocks known tracking scripts, advertising networks, and analytics services based on a curated blocklist. You can also add custom domains from the Cookie Inspector.

Most websites work normally. If a site doesn't work correctly, you can disable the blocker for that site in Safari settings or remove specific domains from your block list.

Custom rules are domains you've blocked from Cookie Inspector. If you haven't blocked any domains yet, this will show 0. The extensions cache rules locally to persist between sessions.

Yes. Apple's Safari extension APIs are still evolving, and functionality may change in future iOS updates. The extensions work well currently but may require updates as Apple refines the APIs.

It analyses URLs for phishing patterns, homoglyph attacks (lookalike characters), tracking parameters, redirect chains, and suspicious patterns. It also checks SSL certificates and domain age.

The app can scan URLs, WiFi credentials, contact information (vCard), calendar events, email addresses, phone numbers, SMS messages, geographic locations, and plain text. Each type is analysed for privacy and security risks.

No. QR codes are processed in real-time using your camera and immediately discarded. No images or QR data are stored or transmitted.

It scans for 40+ jailbreak indicators including suspicious files, modified system paths, unauthorised app installations, and security vulnerabilities. All checks happen locally without internet access.

The app detects most common jailbreak methods, but sophisticated jailbreaks may evade detection. A clean scan doesn't guarantee the device isn't jailbroken, but it's a strong indicator.

The Privacy Score is a calculated metric based on your device's security settings, granted permissions, detected trackers, and other privacy factors. It helps you understand your overall privacy posture.

The specific feature requiring that permission won't work, but all other features remain available. For example, denying Bluetooth permission disables tracker detection but URL scanning still works.

Yes. Go to Settings → PrivacyInsights to manage all permissions at any time. You can also access iOS privacy settings directly from the app.

The permission scanner shows all iOS permissions and their current status across all apps, helping you understand your overall privacy posture. It's not just showing PrivacyInsights permissions.

It demonstrates what apps with photo access can learn about you by analysing your photos on-device. This includes location patterns, social connections, activities, vehicles, food preferences, and even sensitive documents. It's an educational tool to help you understand why photo access is a significant privacy consideration.

No. All photo analysis happens entirely on your device using Apple's Vision and CoreML frameworks. No photos or analysis results are ever uploaded or shared. The feature exists purely for privacy education.

Basic analysis provides a quick overview of metadata, locations, and faces. Extended Profiling performs deep analysis across 12 categories including activities, social patterns, life events, vehicles, food, documents, home content, and work patterns. Extended analysis takes longer but reveals much more about what apps could learn.

Smart sampling limits analysis to 3,000 photos maximum to balance thoroughness with performance. The sampling is distributed evenly across your photo history, so you still get representative results even with large libraries.

Photos of ID cards, credit cards, passports, and other sensitive documents are a significant privacy risk. We recommend reviewing these photos and deleting any that aren't necessary. If you need to keep them, consider moving them to a secure notes app or encrypted storage.

Network Profiling is an experimental feature that uses a local VPN tunnel to monitor all network connections from your device. It shows you which apps and services your iPhone connects to, including endpoints, protocols (TCP/UDP), ports, and DNS requests. All traffic passes through unchanged - nothing is blocked or modified. This feature is designed for short profiling sessions to analyse app traffic patterns, not for regular browsing or as a firewall service.

Yes, you will experience reduced network performance while profiling is active. This is an inherent limitation of iOS's VPN architecture - all traffic must pass through the local tunnel for analysis. The feature is optimised for minimal impact, but some slowdown is unavoidable. We recommend using it only for short profiling sessions (5-30 minutes) when you want to analyse a specific app's network behaviour.

No. The VPN tunnel is entirely local to your device. Your traffic is not routed through any external servers. It simply allows the app to observe what connections your device makes, then forwards the traffic unchanged to its original destination.

If you experience slow network after using Network Profiling, the VPN configuration may still be active. Follow these steps to remove it completely:

Step 1: Open the iOS Settings app
Step 2: Go to General
Step 3: Tap VPN & Device Management
Step 4: Tap VPN
Step 5: Find "PrivacyInsights" in the list
Step 6: Tap the (i) button next to it
Step 7: Toggle "Connect On Demand" to OFF
Step 8: Optionally, tap "Delete VPN" to remove the configuration entirely

After removing the VPN configuration, your network speed should return to normal immediately. You can always set up the VPN again from within the app when you want to profile network traffic.

The best way to stop profiling is to tap the "Stop Profiling" button within the app. This will disconnect the VPN, disable the configuration, and generate a report of captured traffic. If you close the app without stopping, the VPN may remain active in the background.

iOS shows the VPN icon whenever any VPN configuration is active, including local VPNs used for network monitoring. This is normal and indicates the Network Profiling feature is running. If you see this icon when you're not actively profiling, follow the steps above to disable the VPN configuration.

DNS (Domain Name System) requests translate website names to IP addresses. The app highlights DNS requests because they reveal which websites and services your device is trying to reach, even before a connection is established. Note: DNS requests made by the profiling tunnel itself (to Google DNS, Cloudflare, etc.) are filtered out to avoid confusion.

No. Network Profiling is a diagnostic tool for analysing app traffic patterns. It does not block any traffic. For ad blocking, use the Safari Content Blocker feature instead. Due to iOS limitations, we cannot offer a system-wide firewall without special Apple entitlements that are only available to enterprise developers.

Network Profiling relies on iOS's NEPacketTunnelProvider API, which has inherent performance limitations. All traffic must be copied from the kernel to userspace and back, causing unavoidable latency. We're continuously optimising the feature, but some performance impact will always exist. The feature works well for its intended purpose (short profiling sessions) but is not suitable for always-on use.

Go to iOS Settings → Safari → Extensions → PrivacyInsights Content Blocker, then toggle it off. This will stop blocking trackers but won't remove your custom block rules.

Go to iOS Settings → Safari → Extensions. You'll see both "PrivacyInsights Content Blocker" and "PrivacyInsights" (Web Extension). Toggle both off to disable them. Note: The extensions are part of the app, so they can only be fully removed by uninstalling PrivacyInsights.

Open PrivacyInsights → Safari Tracker Blocker → Custom Rules. You can remove individual domains by swiping left, or use "Clear All" to remove all custom rules. After clearing, tap "Refresh Content Blocker" to apply changes.

Some websites require tracking scripts to function. You can temporarily disable the Content Blocker in Safari settings, or check if you've accidentally blocked a required domain in your custom rules.

Ensure Bluetooth is enabled in Settings and you've granted Bluetooth permission to the app. Some devices only advertise intermittently. Try scanning for 20-30 seconds.

Check your internet connection. Some websites block automated security checks. Try a different URL or check if the website is accessible in Safari.

Avoid leaving Bluetooth or network scans running for extended periods. Close the app when not in use. Continuous monitoring features like Tracker Monitoring will use more battery.

Long-running tasks like photo analysis, speech transcription, Bluetooth scanning, and tracker monitoring keep the screen on to prevent interruption. This is managed by the LongRunningTaskManager and the screen will return to normal when the task completes or is cancelled.

Extended photo profiling analyses up to 3,000 photos across 12 categories using on-device machine learning. This can take several minutes depending on your library size. You can cancel at any time, and partial results will be saved.

Many Bluetooth devices don't allow connections from unknown apps. This is normal security behaviour. The app will timeout after 10 seconds and continue scanning.

Visit our website at pii.t1mcode.tech or leave feedback through the App Store. We actively monitor user feedback and regularly update the app.