Privacy Policy
In short: Portholt does not collect, sell or share your data. It has no accounts, no analytics and no ads. What you enter stays on your devices and, if you keep iCloud sync on, in your own iCloud.
What Portholt does on your network
Portholt is an SSH terminal and network toolkit. When you open a session, browse files, run ping, traceroute, a port scan, a DNS lookup or Whois, or send a Wake-on-LAN packet, the traffic goes straight from your device to the address you enter. Nothing goes through our servers. Portholt only does this when you ask it to, and when Hosts is on screen it checks each saved host’s SSH port so the list can show what is up. Portholt’s widgets make the same check a few times an hour, and if you turn on host-down notifications, iOS may wake Portholt in the background to make it too. iOS asks for Local Network permission the first time it is needed.
Data stored on your device
- Saved hosts: names, addresses, ports, usernames, groups, jump hosts, tunnels, Wake-on-LAN settings and snippets. Stored in the app’s files and protected by iOS file encryption.
- Trusted host keys: the fingerprints of SSH servers you have accepted, so Portholt can warn you if a server’s identity changes.
- Passwords and private keys: stored in the iOS Keychain. Keys made in the Secure Enclave never leave the chip; the Keychain holds only a handle this device can use. Imported keys stay on the device that imported them.
- Preferences: settings such as which keys the key bar shows.
- Automatic backups: when hosts or snippets change, at most once a day, Portholt saves a .portholt file in Files › On My iPhone › Portholt › Backups and keeps the last five; one is also saved before every import. These files are not encrypted and never contain passwords or private keys. You can turn them off in Settings › Backup.
- Diagnostics: if Portholt crashes, hangs or uses too much CPU or disk, iOS writes a report the next day. Reports stay on your device and are sent only if you share them from Settings › Diagnostics.
Deleting Portholt deletes its files, including automatic backups. Keychain items may stay on the device after the app is deleted, as iOS keeps them. Saved hosts, backups and preferences may be included in your own iCloud or computer backups, as with any app; we cannot read those backups.
iCloud sync
Sync with iCloud is on by default and can be turned off in Settings › iCloud sync. It carries hosts, groups, trusted host keys, snippets and terminal settings between the iPhones and iPads signed in to your Apple Account, using iCloud’s key-value store. The data sits in your iCloud, never on a Portholt server, and we cannot read it. Passwords and your SSH key do not sync unless you turn on the separate iCloud Keychain switch, which is off by default; when it is on, iCloud Keychain carries them end-to-end encrypted. Turning it off removes them from iCloud Keychain and keeps them on this device only.
Purchases
Portholt is free for 14 days, then one purchase unlocks it for good. The trial is a $0 App Store product; its start date lives in its App Store transaction, so Apple, not Portholt, keeps it. The unlock is a one-time purchase processed by Apple. We never see your payment details. Apple tells the app only whether the trial has started and whether Portholt is unlocked. Apple’s handling of purchase data is covered by Apple’s Privacy Policy.
What we don’t do
- No analytics, tracking or advertising SDKs.
- No account or sign-in.
- No collection of your hosts, commands, terminal output, files or scan results.
- Crash reports reach Apple only if you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in iOS Settings, and reach us in anonymised form.
Children
Portholt is not directed at children and collects no personal information from anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date above.
Contact
Questions: privacy@portholt.com