Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 16, 2026

1. Overview

Private Browser Incognito ("the App," "we," "us," or "our") is a privacy-focused web browser for iOS, published by AppHaze. It exists to keep your browsing yours, so it is built to need as little information about you as possible: none, in fact. We operate no servers for the App, and your browsing never passes through us.

This Privacy Policy explains what the App and this website do and do not handle, how data on your device is protected, exactly what leaves your device and to whom, and the choices and rights you have. By downloading or using the App, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the App.

2. Who This Policy Covers

This policy applies to the Private Browser iOS application and to this website at privatebrowserincognito.com. It does not apply to Apple's services (the App Store or StoreKit), which are governed by Apple's Privacy Policy; to the websites you choose to visit with the App; or to the search engines you choose to use. Those third parties have their own policies, and Section 14 explains what they can see.

3. Our Privacy Principles

Private Browser is built on a simple idea: the less anyone holds about you, the less can be lost, sold, or demanded. Concretely, the App:

• Requires no account and no sign-in, ever;
• Has no first-party servers: there is nothing of ours for your data to be sent to;
• Contains no ads and no advertising identifiers;
• Includes no third-party analytics, attribution, crash-reporting, or tracking SDKs of any kind;
• Does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and blocks known trackers that try;
• Keeps every key and every sensitive file on the device, encrypted, and out of backups;
• States its limits honestly: a browser cannot hide your IP address from the sites you visit, and we say so rather than imply otherwise.

4. Information We Collect

None. We do not collect personal information from you, and the App's App Store privacy label is "Data Not Collected." We do not operate accounts, servers, or databases that receive your data. Specifically, we have no access to and do not gather:

• Your name, email address, phone number, or any contact details;
• Your browsing: the pages you visit, the searches you run, the tabs you open, or the files you download;
• Your Apple Account, payment card, or billing details;
• Precise or coarse location data;
• Your contacts, photos, microphone or camera content (intruder photos never leave your device; see Section 10);
• Advertising identifiers (IDFA) or cross-app tracking data;
• Usage analytics, telemetry, or crash reports sent to us;
• Any persistent identifier that we could use to recognize you.

Everything the App works with, from your settings to your encrypted vault, is created on your device, stays on your device, and is never transmitted to us.

5. Information We Do Not Collect

To be explicit, Private Browser does not:

• Require you to create an account or sign in for anything;
• Include third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, or social-media SDKs;
• Show ads of any kind;
• Track your activity across other companies' apps or websites;
• Sell, rent, or share personal information with data brokers or advertisers;
• Build any profile of you, marketing or otherwise;
• Send push notifications or run any background data collection.

6. How Private Browsing Works Here

Unlike browsers where private mode is an option, in Private Browser it is the only mode:

• Every tab runs in a non-persistent browsing session held in memory. The web engine is instructed not to write history, cookies, caches, or site data to permanent storage.
• There is no browsing-history feature at all. Nothing records where you have been, so there is nothing to clear and nothing to find.
• Cookies and site data exist only for the life of the session, subject to your cookie policy setting (the default blocks cross-site cookies), and are destroyed when you erase.
• If you use App Lock with "Restore Tabs," the only thing preserved across locks is an encrypted snapshot of your open tabs' addresses and titles, sealed under your passcode-derived key (see Section 8). Without it, nothing is preserved at all.
• A privacy cover hides the App's contents in the iOS app switcher, and decoy sessions never write anything to disk.

7. What Is Stored on Your Device

The App stores a small amount of data locally, in its private sandboxed container, so that it can work the way you configured it. None of it is transmitted to us. In plain terms:

• Settings and preferences: your theme, tracking-protection toggles, cookie policy, search engine choice, HTTPS-Only setting, lock and erase options, and similar switches.
• Things you deliberately saved: home-screen shortcuts, custom search engines, custom autocomplete domains, and per-site protection exceptions. These contain site names and addresses you chose to keep, and they persist until you remove them.
• A lifetime tracker-blocked counter (a single number) and an erase counter used to time an occasional upgrade offer.
• Encrypted, only if you use the features: the saved-tabs snapshot (addresses and titles of open tabs, sealed under your App Lock key), the downloads vault, and the break-in log with any intruder photos.
• Keys: the cryptographic keys for the vault, the lock, and intruder photos live in the iOS Keychain, marked device-only so they never migrate to backups or other devices. Your passcode itself is never stored in any form.
• Failed-attempt counters for the lock cooldown, kept so that force-quitting the App cannot reset a lockout.

Sensitive files (the snapshot, vault, break-in log, and photos) additionally use iOS complete file protection and are excluded from device backups, so they do not travel to iCloud or computer backups at all. The App uses no iCloud services of its own.

8. How Your Data Is Encrypted

For readers who want specifics:

• Vault files are encrypted with chunked AES-256-GCM. Each file gets its own content key derived (HKDF-SHA256) from a random 256-bit vault master key and the file's unique ID, and the chunk structure is authenticated so files cannot be truncated or reassembled undetected. Downloads are encrypted as they stream in; no plaintext copy is ever written to disk.
• The App Lock passcode is never stored. Each unlock factor (real, decoy, panic, biometric) wraps a random master key using a key derived from the entered code via PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 with 600,000 iterations. Verifying a code means attempting decryption; there is no stored code or hash to steal or compare.
• The saved-tabs snapshot is sealed with AES-GCM under that master key, so it is unreadable without your real passcode or biometrics.
• Intruder photos and the break-in log are encrypted with an independent device-only key.
• Keys are held in the iOS Keychain with device-only protection ("when unlocked, this device only"); the biometric factor additionally invalidates itself if biometric enrollment changes.

A consequence you should understand: if you forget your passcode, data sealed under it is permanently unrecoverable, by you, by us, or by anyone. There is no reset and no back door. We consider that a feature, and we want you to know it before you rely on it.

9. Erase, Auto-Erase, Panic & Self-Destruct

The App's data-destruction features permanently destroy data on your device. For clarity, this is what each clears:

• Erase (trash button, home-screen quick action, or erase link): all tabs, the entire browsing session (cookies, cache, site data), temporary HTTP exceptions, any saved-tabs snapshot, and any decrypted preview copies. It does not delete the downloads vault, your settings, or your shortcuts.
• Auto-Erase: the same, automatically, if the App stayed closed longer than the interval you chose.
• Panic code: everything Erase clears, plus the entire downloads vault and the break-in log with its photos.
• Self-destruct (if enabled): after your chosen number of consecutive wrong passcodes, the saved-tabs snapshot is destroyed, and optionally the vault too. The App notifies you on your next real unlock.
• Deleting the App: everything above plus all settings, permanently.

Because we hold no copies of anything, destroyed data cannot be restored. Nothing about these events is reported to us; they happen entirely on your device.

10. Break-In Alerts & Intruder Photos

If you enable break-in alerts, the App records failed unlock attempts (wrong passcodes and failed biometric attempts at the lock screen) with a timestamp, in an encrypted log on your device. If you additionally enable Intruder Photo and grant camera permission:

• After the threshold you set (two to four wrong codes), the App silently captures one photo with the front camera at the lock screen.
• Photos are encrypted immediately with a device-only key, stored only on your device, excluded from backups, and viewable only inside the App after you unlock it.
• We never see, receive, or transmit these photos. No one else can view them unless you unlock the App and deliberately export one.
• The feature never requests camera permission at the lock screen; permission is asked openly, in settings, when you turn it on. If permission is missing, no photo is taken.
• You can view, delete individual entries, clear the whole log, or turn the feature off at any time. The panic code also destroys the log and photos.

Be aware that these photos may depict other people, such as whoever handled your phone. You control this feature and the images it produces; please use both in line with the laws of your jurisdiction. Our Terms of Service address your responsibilities.

11. Every Network Connection the App Makes

Transparency is easiest as a complete list. The App creates network traffic in exactly four situations:

1. The websites you visit. When you enter an address or tap a link, your device connects to that site directly. This is the point of a browser, and this traffic is between you and the site.
2. Searches, and suggestions if you opted in. Searches go to the engine you selected. Suggestion requests, which send what you type in the address bar as you type it, are made only if you explicitly enabled suggestions after the App's plain-language prompt. They go directly to your chosen engine's suggestion endpoint (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or Wikipedia), never through us. Suggestions are off by default.
3. Downloads you start. The file is fetched directly from the website you are downloading from, carrying that site's own session cookies so files behind your logins work.
4. Apple's StoreKit, if you view or make a purchase or restore one. This is Apple infrastructure, governed by Apple's policies.

That is the whole list. The App makes no other connections: no telemetry, no crash reporting, no update checks, no remote configuration, no block-list downloads (the lists ship inside the App), and no "phone home" of any kind. There is no server of ours to call.

12. Search & Suggestions

• You choose your search engine: Google (the default), Bing, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, or a custom engine you add. Searches you run are sent to that engine and are governed by its privacy policy.
• Search suggestions are off by default. The first time you could use them, the App asks you directly, explaining that suggestions require sending what you type to the engine. Nothing is sent unless you say yes, and you can turn it off again in settings.
• Address-bar autocomplete for site names is fully local: it matches against a list of popular domains bundled inside the App and any domains you added yourself. No keystrokes leave the device for autocomplete.
• Custom engines you add never provide suggestions, so nothing is sent to them as you type.

13. Tracking Protection & the Tracker Counter

• Tracking protection uses content-blocking rules compiled on your device from lists bundled inside the App, powered by the open Disconnect tracker lists: ad, analytics, social, content-tracker, cryptomining, and fingerprinting categories, plus optional web-font blocking and cookie controls.
• The lists are never downloaded or updated over the network; they refresh only when the App itself updates. No blocking decision is ever made by, or reported to, a server.
• The tracker counter works locally: a small script in the page checks requests against the bundled list and tells the App only a category letter, so it can count. The count you see, per page and lifetime, is computed and stored on your device.
• Per-site exceptions you create are stored on your device as a list of site names, and you can remove them at any time.

14. What Websites You Visit Can Still See

Honesty requires this section. Private Browser controls what your device remembers; it cannot control what the other end observes:

• Websites you visit see your IP address, your general connection details, and whatever you do or submit on their pages. They may log this under their own policies. Like every browser, the App sends a user-agent string; it is a standard iPhone browser string that also carries a small Private Browser marker.
• Your network (internet provider, carrier, employer, school, or Wi-Fi operator) can see which domains you connect to. The App is not a VPN and does not hide your traffic from the network.
• Sites you sign in to know who you are for as long as the session lasts.
• Site permissions: if a website asks for your camera or microphone, the App asks you first, per site, and you can set per-site rules or block them entirely. Web pages can also read device orientation and motion, as in other iPhone browsers.
• HTTPS-Only Mode (on by default) keeps connections encrypted in transit wherever the site supports it, and the App asks before ever loading an insecure page.

15. Downloads & the Vault

• Files you download are fetched directly from the source website and encrypted as they arrive; no plaintext copy is written to disk at any point.
• Vault contents are excluded from device backups and never synced anywhere. They exist only inside the App on that device.
• Previewing a file decrypts it to a temporary location that is aggressively cleaned: when the preview closes, when the App locks, when you erase, and on every launch.
• Sharing or exporting a file creates a decrypted copy outside the App, and the App warns you before that happens. What you share is then governed by wherever you sent it.
• Erasing your browsing session does not delete the vault. The panic code, optional self-destruct, and deleting the App do.

16. In-App Purchases

The App offers an optional premium unlock, Stealth Suite, as a subscription or one-time purchase. All purchases are processed entirely by Apple through the App Store and StoreKit. We never see or receive your payment card number, Apple Account credentials, or billing address. The App learns only whether a valid purchase or subscription exists, so it can unlock the corresponding features on your device, and it remembers that locally. Apple's handling of your purchase information is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

17. Apple & the App Store

When you download or use an App Store app, Apple may collect certain information as the platform provider, such as aggregate, anonymized App Analytics (for example, download and crash counts) if you have agreed to share that with developers through your device settings. Any data Apple shares with us in this way is aggregated and anonymized; it does not identify you individually, and it contains nothing about your browsing. This processing is governed by Apple's policies, not this one.

18. Third-Party Services

The App integrates no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, or tracking services. The only third parties involved in the App's own operation are:

• Apple, for the App Store and StoreKit purchases;
• Your chosen search engine, which receives the searches you send and, only if you opted in, suggestion keystrokes;
• The Disconnect tracker lists, which are open data bundled inside the App. They are a dataset, not a service: nothing is ever sent to Disconnect.

Websites you choose to visit are third parties too, of course, and Section 14 covers what they can see.

19. Device Permissions

The App can request exactly three system permissions, each tied to a purpose you control:

• Camera: only if a website you visit asks for it (you approve per site) or if you enable Intruder Photo in App Lock settings. Never requested at the lock screen.
• Microphone: only if a website you visit asks for it, with the same per-site control. The App itself never records audio.
• Face ID / Touch ID / Optic ID: only if you enable biometric unlock for App Lock. Biometric data itself never leaves Apple's secure hardware and is never visible to the App.

The App never requests location, contacts, photo library, notifications, or tracking permissions. There is no App Tracking Transparency prompt because there is no tracking to ask about.

20. Diagnostic Logs

Like most apps, Private Browser writes routine diagnostic messages to your device's standard logging system to help it run and to assist with debugging. These logs remain on your device and are not transmitted to us. We use no crash-reporting or analytics service. If your device is configured to share diagnostics with Apple, Apple may receive standard crash information under Apple's own policies; you can control this in your device's privacy settings.

21. This Website & Cookies

This website is a set of static pages that exists to describe the App and host these policies and our support page. It is built to respect your privacy the same way the App is:

• It sets no cookies and uses no local or session storage for tracking.
• It loads no third-party fonts, scripts, analytics, or advertising, and makes no requests to third-party servers.
• The interactive demo on the home page is a simulation drawn entirely in your browser. It loads no pages, sends no requests, and stores nothing.
• The support contact form does not submit data to a server. When you send it, your own email app opens with a message pre-filled for you to review and send. We receive only what you choose to email us, and we use it solely to answer you.

Our web host or content-delivery network may keep standard server access logs (such as IP addresses and request times) for security and reliability; that is common to virtually all websites and is handled by the host under its own policies.

22. Data Security

Because your data stays on your device, its security rests on layers you control: your device passcode and biometrics, iOS full-device encryption, the App's sandboxed container, and the App's own encryption described in Section 8, with keys in the device Keychain and sensitive files excluded from backups. We encourage you to keep iOS updated and your device protected with a passcode. No method of storage is ever completely secure, but keeping data local, encrypted, and off anyone's servers removes the most common ways privacy fails at scale.

23. Data Retention

We retain nothing, because we receive nothing. On your device, data persists as follows: browsing sessions until you erase them (or Auto-Erase does); the encrypted snapshot until it is replaced, erased, or destroyed; vault files and the break-in log until you delete them, the panic code or self-destruct destroys them, or the App is deleted; settings and saved shortcuts until you change or remove them or delete the App. If you email us for support, we keep the correspondence only as long as needed to help you and handle any follow-up.

24. Your Choices & Data Deletion

Since everything lives on your device, you are always in full control:

• Erase your session: the trash button or home-screen quick action, any time.
• Delete vault files: individually from the Downloads screen, or all at once with the panic code.
• Clear the break-in log: delete entries or the whole log in App Lock settings.
• Remove saved items: shortcuts, custom engines, exceptions, and custom autocomplete domains can each be removed where you added them.
• Turn features off: every protection, permission, and opt-in described here can be disabled in settings.
• Delete everything: uninstalling the App permanently removes all of its data from the device.
• Purchases: manage or cancel subscriptions and request refunds through your Apple Account and Apple's standard processes.

25. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal data under laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA), other U.S. state privacy laws, or the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation, including rights to access, correct, delete, or port your data, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them.

Because we do not collect or hold personal information about you, in most cases there is nothing on our side to access, correct, delete, or export; that data lives only on your device, under your direct control, and Section 24 explains how to manage it. We do not "sell" or "share" personal information as those terms are defined under California law, and we do not process it for targeted advertising. If you believe we hold personal data about you (for example, a support email you sent us) and wish to exercise any right, contact us through our support page and we will respond as required by applicable law.

26. Legal Bases (EEA & UK)

For users in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom: because the App processes your data only on your own device and we do not receive it, we are generally not a "controller" of personal data through your normal use of the App. To the limited extent any processing by us occurs (for example, if you choose to email us for support, or Apple provides us aggregated, anonymized statistics), our legal bases are your consent, the performance of our agreement with you, and our legitimate interests in operating and improving the App and responding to your requests. Your chosen search engine and the websites you visit are independent controllers of what you send them, and Apple processes purchase data under its own legal bases.

27. Children's Privacy

Private Browser is rated 17+ and is intended for adults, because it provides unrestricted access to the web. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect any information from children (or from anyone else, as this policy explains). If you believe a child has used the App in a way that implicates us, please contact us and we will address it promptly.

28. International Users

The App keeps its data on your device wherever you are in the world, so there is no international transfer of your data by us. The websites you visit, your search engine, and Apple's services operate globally under their own policies, and your traffic to them flows directly from your device as described in Section 11.

29. Do Not Track & Global Privacy Control

The App and this website do not track you across apps or websites, so there is nothing for a "Do Not Track" or "Global Privacy Control" signal to limit on our side. We honor the spirit of these signals by not tracking in the first place, and the App goes further by actively blocking known trackers on the sites you visit.

30. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example to reflect new features or legal requirements. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be reflected here, and your continued use of the App after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. Because the App never gains new data collection silently (there is nowhere for data to go), changes will typically describe new on-device features. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

31. Contact Us

If you have any questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or your data, please reach us through our support page. We will do our best to respond promptly.

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