A guided tour of the data any app can quietly read about you. Explore what's exposed, see why it's identifying, and decide what to do about it.
Ever wondered how advertisers recognize you across apps and websites? It usually comes down to fingerprinting: small, ordinary details about your device, combined until the mix is rare enough to point back to you.
Loupe lets you see those details yourself. It reads the same public iOS APIs that third-party apps use, showing you the raw data and explaining why it matters.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPLORE
Trackers don't need your name, email, or location to recognize you. Your region, languages, settings, storage, and sensors create a pattern distinctive enough to follow you online. Loupe puts these readings in one place so you can see exactly what you're sharing.
THREE LEVELS OF ACCESS
Loupe sorts every reading by how much access it takes:
- Passive: readable by any app with no prompt at all, from your time zone and keyboard languages to your battery and storage.
- Needs permission: readings that trigger an iOS prompt, like location, contacts, photos, and motion.
- Advanced: side channels that public APIs allow, like checking which apps you have installed, graphics checks in a hidden browser, and a record that survives reinstalling the app.
NOTHING LEAVES YOUR IPHONE
Loupe reads everything on your device and keeps it there. Nothing is uploaded, synced, or shared unless you export it yourself. There are no accounts and no analytics.
A FEW THINGS YOU CAN LOOK AT
- The region, languages, and settings that hint at where you live and travel
- Your screen, graphics, storage, and battery details
- The name on a paired accessory, which often gives away your own name
- Which popular apps you have installed, worked out without any permission
- The exact second your device was set up or last erased
Loupe is built by Mysk, a security research team. It exposes the tracking surface of your iPhone, so you can decide what to do about it.
Everyone should try this app. Then go through all the scary information it provides and stay up all night being fearful about the 10,000 apps you have accumulated on your iPad and iPhones. Its fun! Be careful with the maple syrup though. I took my phone out of my pocket and found pocket lint stuck to the syrup. I had to give the phone to a Labrador Retriever for a thorough tongue washing. Its clean now, and works great, but I can only use it on speaker because when I hold it close to my face the intense smell of doggie breath gives me an irresistible urge to chase tennis balls. The first time it happened I ran out in the street and was almost run over by a postal delivery truck. I was okay, but I ended up chasing the truck for three blocks, barking loudly.
Apple is complicit
SuperBlaze27
Apple iOS is as bad as (if not, worse) than Google browsers. I’m writing this review before I throw my phone in the trash. I’m kidding, at least for now, but this is the first app I’ve seen demonstrate to a great extent the variables apps can use to build a fingerprint. It’d be cool to see some recommendations as to how we can potentially reduce the surface that apps are able to access, if possible, and maybe a demonstration of (opt-in) fingerprinting via Firebase (crashlytics?) and the despicable persistent keychain data that can’t be deleted that apps use to fingerprint. Looking forward to future updates!
Informative. Brilliantly Simplistic
iPaul-Pro
Yeah “fingerprinting” is a form of identifying and tracking you digitally, exploiting your information and you online. But how exactly? By what means? And how do you measure that?No better way to explain than demonstrate than by picking up your very own, go to, most used “computer” — your iPhone. Let Loupe do the walking. You can’t help but watch and learn. It’s personal. It’s your device. Excellent demonstration for a reliable lesson in digital tracking but WITHOUT the online exploitation.
Eye opening!
King Sleeve
When they told me that any app could see exactly when my phone was activated, write down to the second, it helped me comprehend how easy it is for them to identify me and track me. I mean, how many of my exact model of phone were activated at the exact second I activated my phone? This app is really starting to make me aware that I need to take steps to protect my privacy.
- Photos now asks for your permission before it looks up place names for your photo locations.
- New language support: Korean, Polish, Italian, and Vietnamese.
- Fixed the Steam URL scheme, thanks to @Solarphlare.
- Small interface refinements.
- Small localization refinements.
Version 1.0.1
The developer, Mysk Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
