Privacy Policy
Effective 29 September 2026. Applies to SFirewall for iPhone and SFirewall for Mac.
SFirewall has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no servers of its own. The developer does not receive any of your data.
What stays on your devices
- Your blocks and settings: the sites, categories, apps, schedules, time limits and words you choose.
- History: a record of changes, blocks and partner code uses, kept on the device.
- Browsing list (iPhone): when page watching is on, the SFirewall Safari extension notes the address, title and time of the pages you open in Safari. The list is kept on your iPhone for 7 days, then deleted.
- Page text (iPhone): the Safari extension reads the text of a page on your iPhone only to check it for your words. Page text is never stored and never sent anywhere.
- Screen text (Mac): the Mac app reads text on screen on your Mac only to check it for your words. It is never stored and never sent anywhere.
- Screen Time data: apps and websites you pick through Apple's Screen Time are handled by Apple's frameworks as private tokens. The "Apps used" view is drawn by Apple and cannot be read, stored or sent by SFirewall.
- Partner code: never stored as typed. Each device keeps only a protected value derived from it (in the iPhone's keychain, and in SFirewall's system storage on the Mac).
Your private iCloud
If you link your iPhone and Mac, SFirewall syncs your settings, History and device status through CloudKit in your own private iCloud database. Apple stores it under your Apple Account. The developer cannot access it.
What your partner can see
Partner mode is optional. It only starts when you send an invite and your partner accepts it. While it is on, your partner's iPhone receives, through a private iCloud share you control:
- alerts, such as a partner code being used, a block being turned off, or SFirewall losing a permission;
- a short status for each of your devices, such as when it last checked in;
- your Safari browsing list (addresses and titles) for the last 7 days.
With the Mac app, alerts can also be sent as text messages to the partner phone number you enter, through Messages on your Mac. You can stop partner mode at any time with the partner code, and your partner is told when it stops.
Services SFirewall contacts
- Apple: iCloud (CloudKit) for sync and partner mode, and the public App Store search and lookup service when you search for an app to block. Only your search words or the app's store ID are sent.
- Public adult site lists: both apps download public lists of adult websites once a day to keep the adult block current, from raw.githubusercontent.com (the StevenBlack and HaGeZi lists) and from dsi.ut-capitole.fr (the UT1 list of the Université Toulouse Capitole, used under CC BY-SA 4.0). Nothing about you is sent beyond a normal web request.
- Cloudflare on the Mac: the Mac app answers your Mac's website lookups through Cloudflare for Families (1.1.1.3) over encrypted DNS, which also filters malware and adult sites.
- Cloudflare on the iPhone (Filter every app, optional): SFirewall can run a small VPN on your iPhone that only handles DNS, the lookups apps make to find websites. Each site name is checked on your iPhone against SFirewall's lists and your own settings; blocked names are answered with an error on the device, and the rest are sent over encrypted DNS to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 for Families resolver (1.1.1.3, 1.0.0.3, family.cloudflare-dns.com), which answers them and blocks adult and malware sites. No other traffic goes through this VPN. Blocked names are kept in SFirewall's History on your iPhone for 7 days and, if you invited a partner, shared with them like the Safari pages you visit. In the lighter mode, iOS sends every lookup to the same Cloudflare resolver through DNS Settings instead. You can switch either off in Settings (your partner is told) or remove it in SFirewall with the partner code.
- SFirewall and its developer never see these lookups. Cloudflare handles them under its own 1.1.1.1 privacy policy.
Deleting your data
- Delete SFirewall from your iPhone to remove everything stored on it.
- Remove SFirewall's iCloud data in Settings, your name, iCloud, Storage (Manage Account Storage), SFirewall.
- Stop partner mode in the app to end sharing. Your partner's copy of your browsing list expires within 7 days.
- On the Mac, use Uninstall SFirewall in the Blocks window. It needs the partner code.
Children
SFirewall is not directed at children under 13, and the developer knowingly collects no data from anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.
Contact
Questions or requests: open an issue on GitHub.