Privacy Policy

ThreadMapper · Last updated 12 October 2026

What ThreadMapper reads

• HomeKit accessory data — names, rooms, manufacturer, model, reachability and battery level of accessories in your home. This is read from Apple's HomeKit framework with your permission and is used to build your Thread mesh view.
• Location — only during a survey walk, and only to place its readings on a heatmap. Version 1.9 withdrew the survey, so the app no longer asks for your location. Walks saved by an earlier version keep the coordinates they were taken with; readings without a location fix were stored without coordinates rather than given fabricated ones.
• Response times — how quickly each accessory answers the app, which the app times itself. They are shown in milliseconds, never as a signal.
• Your local network — the app looks for Thread border routers and Matter devices advertising themselves on your network, and reads what they publish about themselves there: their names, models, and whether they are already paired. This is how it can describe hardware Apple Home does not list. While the app is open it also calls out to the addresses on your Wi-Fi to see which devices answer, and asks your router what it calls them. Everything it sends, and when, is listed under Network connections below.
• Camera — to read Matter setup QR codes and, when you start a room scan, to measure the shape of the room, build a floor plan and track where you are standing in it. No photo or video is recorded or stored.
• Bluetooth — to see Matter devices advertising nearby for setup, so the app can show what is waiting to be commissioned. It scans only while you are looking at that screen.
• Barometer — only while you trace a room in AR, to tell which floor the room is on. The AR survey walk read it too, until version 1.9 withdrew the walk.

The first page the app shows asks for HomeKit and local network access, and for notifications, and says what each is for; Not Now there leaves them to be asked when first needed. Everything else is requested at the moment it is first needed. Each is optional except HomeKit, which is how the app reads your Thread network at all. Declining any of the others turns off the feature that asked for it and nothing else.

Where it is stored

By default, everything — device history, survey points, activity events, notes and settings — is stored locally on your device (in the app's own container, an App Group shared with the widget and Apple Watch app, and standard user preferences). None of it is uploaded to us. We operate no servers and receive no copy of it. The only things that ever leave the device are the three optional iCloud features below, and all three go to your own Apple account rather than to us.

Survey walks, including their GPS coordinates, are stored on this phone under full protection. Your own home's walks are included in your iCloud or computer backups. A visited network's walks are not, and are deleted when you forget the network.

iCloud

There are three separate iCloud features, all optional, all going to your own Apple account. None is a service of ours: we have no access to any of them and receive no copy.

iCloud sync (a toggle, continuous)

If you turn on iCloud sync — it is off unless you enable it — your device notes, Thread overrides and app settings are copied to your private iCloud key-value store so they appear on your other devices.

Signal history, survey measurements and probe recordings are deliberately excluded from this continuous sync and stay on the device that took them. Each describes what that one device saw, so merging them between devices would produce a history no single device observed.

Save to iCloud (a button, manual)

Separately, Save to iCloud in Settings takes a full backup of this device as one bundle: your settings, notes, scanned rooms, floor plans, the positions you placed devices at, and the saved AR space. It exists so you can move your work to another iPhone.

Apart from scheduled reports, if you turn them on, this is the only place your measurements leave the device, and it is deliberately manual: nothing is uploaded until you tap Save. It goes to your own iCloud Drive, where your Files app can see it and you can delete it, and nobody else can read it. If you never tap Save, nothing is ever written.

Reports Into iCloud Drive (a toggle, scheduled)

If you turn on Reports Into iCloud Drive, a Pro feature that is off unless you enable it, each scheduled report is also saved to a ThreadMapper › Reports folder in your own iCloud Drive, and only there. We have no copy, and there is no server of ours in between.

Artificial intelligence features

ThreadMapper's AI features (Insights, Network Assistant, troubleshooting and reports) run entirely on device: with Apple's Foundation Models framework where Apple Intelligence runs, on iOS 26 and later, and with the app's own rules for Insights and reports on every other iPhone. Your network data is not sent to us or to any third-party AI service.

Network connections

ThreadMapper makes no analytics or advertising requests, and contacts no server of ours, because there is none. What it does on the network is:

• Listens for devices advertising themselves on your local network — the standard Bonjour discovery iOS provides. This is how the app finds border routers and Matter devices, including ones Apple Home does not list. It reads what those devices broadcast about themselves. To check that a service it found answers, it connects to the address the service advertised, then closes the connection at once without sending anything;
• Calls out to the addresses on your Wi-Fi to see which devices answer: at most two pings to each, while the Local Network screen is open, and a single hello that Xiaomi gateways reply to, when that screen or Everything Here opens. It then asks your router, and no other server, what it calls each device that answered. With Pro, when Apple Home loses an accessory while the app is open, that accessory's own address on your Wi-Fi is asked the same way. None of this happens in the background;
• Checks a single device, on its page, when you tap: five pings to each of its addresses, and one connection attempt to each of a list of common smart-home ports and to any port the device itself advertises, each closed at once. A secure port that answers is asked for the certificate it presents, which is read and then refused;
• Connects to an OpenThread Border Router, if you configure one — on your own local network, at an address you type or choose from those the app found there. When you tap Search This Network, it asks each border router and Home Assistant host it has heard on your network, once, whether it answers as one;
• Connects to a ThreadMapper probe, if you run one — also on your own local network, at an address you type or choose from those the app found there. A probe lists the Wi-Fi networks it hears; their names are shown in the Channel Scanner and the app saves them nowhere;
• Connects to a Philips Hue bridge, if you pair one — on your own local network, to read which lights it still reaches over Zigbee. The key the bridge issues is kept in this device's keychain and is never sent anywhere else;
• Reaches Apple's iCloud, only for the three optional features above, and only your own account.

There is no ThreadMapper server to connect to. There never has been.

Purchases

ThreadMapper Pro and ThreadMapper Field are handled entirely by Apple's In-App Purchase system. We never see or store your payment details. Apple's own privacy policy governs that transaction.

Data sharing

We do not share, sell, rent, or disclose your data to anyone, because we never receive it. Anything you choose to export (a diagnostic PDF, a report, an exported history or a pack you share with an installer) leaves the app only when you deliberately share it, and goes wherever you send it, and nowhere else.

Children

ThreadMapper is a network utility and is not directed at children. It collects no personal information from anyone, including children.

Your control

You can revoke any permission — HomeKit, Location, Camera, Bluetooth or Motion — at any time in iOS Settings. Deleting the app removes all locally stored data. The app also provides an in-app control to clear the activity feed. Survey walks saved by an earlier version are removed when you delete the app, or at any time with Delete Saved Walks in Settings › Data; a visited network's walks are removed when you forget that network. If you have used Save to iCloud, that backup lives in your iCloud Drive rather than inside the app — it appears in the Files app as a folder named ThreadMapper — so deleting the app does not delete it. Remove it from Files whenever you want it gone.

Changes

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new date.

Contact

Questions about privacy: tintronix@gmail.com