Privacy Policy
In short: WhoNew reads your recordings entirely on your iPhone. Your recordings are never uploaded, your scans are never sent to us, and the app has no account, no ads and no tracking. It never connects to Instagram. Payments are handled by Apple, and a record of each purchase is kept by our payment service, RevenueCat. The app also sends anonymous usage events (like “scan finished”) to Mixpanel to help us improve it, and you can turn these off in Settings.
1. Who we are
WhoNew is made by Beau Lawson, an independent developer based in the United Kingdom (“we”, “us”). For any question about this policy or your data, email support@whonewapp.com.
2. What happens on your iPhone
You make a screen recording with your iPhone’s built-in Screen Recording, then choose it in WhoNew. WhoNew uses Apple’s photo picker, so it only receives the recording you select. It doesn’t ask for access to the rest of your Photos library.
WhoNew reads the recording on your iPhone using Apple’s on-device text recognition. The recording is not sent anywhere. WhoNew’s working copy is deleted as soon as it has been read; the original stays in your Photos library, where you control it.
To compare one scan with the next, WhoNew saves the following on your iPhone:
- the names you give your profiles (for example “Sam”), which only you see
- the usernames read from the most recent scan of each profile, and the display names shown beside them, used only to tell similar usernames apart
- for each scan: its date, how many accounts it counted, the number Instagram showed, and which usernames were new or no longer in the list
- which scans you have unlocked
This information is stored only in WhoNew’s own storage on your iPhone. We do not have access to it.
3. What we collect
WhoNew has no account system, no advertising and no tracking, and we do not sell data to anyone. Your recordings, scans and usernames never leave your iPhone.
Four things may reach us:
- Anonymous usage events. Counts and app actions, such as a scan finishing or the paywall opening, sent to Mixpanel under a random ID (see Usage events below).
- Purchase records. When you buy something in WhoNew, a record of the purchase goes to RevenueCat, the service we use to manage purchases (see Payments below).
- Crash reports and usage statistics from Apple. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers, Apple may give us anonymous crash reports and app usage statistics. These do not identify you and never include your recordings or scans. You can turn this off in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.
- Emails you send us. If you contact support, we receive your email address and what you write. We use it only to reply, and delete it once it is no longer needed, after at most two years. Please don’t send recordings or usernames unless we ask.
4. Instagram
WhoNew never asks for your Instagram login, never connects to Instagram’s servers, apps or APIs, and doesn’t act inside the Instagram app. It only reads screen recordings you have made yourself. Nothing is shared with Instagram or Meta.
5. Usage events
To understand how WhoNew is used and where it can be better, the app sends Mixpanel short usage events: for example that onboarding was finished, a scan was started or completed, a scan needed another recording, the paywall was opened, or a purchase was made.
Each event can include counts and simple facts about the app: which scan of a profile it was, how many accounts were counted, how many were new or no longer in the list, how long the scan took, how many profiles you have, how many days since you installed WhoNew, whether reminders are on, and whether you have bought Unlimited or a single reveal. Mixpanel also receives basic device details such as your iPhone model, iOS version and app version.
Events never include usernames, display names, the names you give profiles, anything you search for, or anything read from a recording. They are sent under a random ID created by the app, not your name, Apple Account or advertising identifier, and we have turned off Mixpanel’s use of your IP address to estimate your location. The same random ID is shared with RevenueCat so purchase records and usage events can be counted together. We don’t use this data for advertising or share it with anyone else.
You can stop usage events at any time by turning off Settings → Share anonymous usage data in WhoNew. Nothing more is sent after that. We keep usage events only as long as they help us improve the app. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in improving the app, and the UK’s exemption for statistical analytics with a simple way to opt out.
6. Payments
Purchases and subscriptions are processed by Apple through the App Store. We never receive your name, card details or Apple Account details. See Apple’s Privacy Policy.
We use RevenueCat to keep records of purchases, so we can see how WhoNew is doing, handle refund requests and restore purchases. When the app starts and when you buy something, RevenueCat receives a random ID created by the app (not linked to your name or Apple Account), what was bought, its price and currency, the purchase and renewal dates, your country or region, and basic device details such as the iOS and app version. If you installed WhoNew from an Apple Search Ads advert, Apple may also give RevenueCat anonymous information about that advert. RevenueCat never receives your recordings, scans, usernames or profile names. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in running and supporting a paid app.
7. Backups
Like most apps, WhoNew’s saved scans are included in your iPhone’s backups if you use iCloud Backup or back up to a computer. Those backups are handled by Apple or your computer, not by us.
8. Other people’s usernames
Scans contain the public usernames shown in a following list. They stay on the user’s iPhone, are used only to compare that user’s own recordings, and are never sent to us or anyone else. If you are in someone’s list and have a concern, contact us. Because this data exists only on that person’s phone, we can’t see, change or delete it.
9. Keeping and deleting data
Your scans stay on your iPhone until you delete them. Delete a single profile and its scans from its history page, or everything in WhoNew → Settings → Delete all scans. Deleting the app removes everything too.
10. Your rights
Under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) you have the right to access, correct and delete personal data held about you, to object to or restrict its use, and to data portability. The only personal data we may hold about you is your support emails and the purchase records and usage events described above, which are linked to a random ID rather than to you. To use any of these rights, email support@whonewapp.com.
Our legal basis for handling support emails is our legitimate interest in answering your questions.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
11. Children
WhoNew is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly receive personal data from them.
12. Changes
If we change how WhoNew handles data, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change would mean data leaving your iPhone in a new way, we will tell you in the app and ask first.
13. Contact
Beau Lawson, WhoNew
support@whonewapp.com