Loupe: the app that shows you everything iOS apps know about you without asking permission

The researchers at Mysk, a well-known security team specialising in iOS, have released Loupe, a free, open-source application for iPhone and iPad that visually and clearly reveals how much data native apps can extract from our device without requiring explicit permissions. Published on the App Store on 20 June 2026, the app has quickly climbed to the top of Hacker News with more than 460 votes in its first hours, reflecting the growing interest in privacy in the mobile ecosystem. Loupe classifies tracking signals into three levels: passive (accessible without any permission, such as time zone, language, battery level or screen resolution); with permission (contacts, photos, location); and advanced (techniques such as scanning URL schemes via canOpenURL or persistence in the keychain even after reinstalling the app). Each of these reads, taken from public iOS APIs, contributes to the so-called “device fingerprinting”, which makes it possible to uniquely identify a user without the need for cookies or credentials. The Mysk team stresses that none of the reads leave the device unless the user explicitly exports them, and that the source code is available on GitHub under the MIT licence. Loupe is born after Psylo, its browser with anti-fingerprinting protection, and aims to raise awareness among users about the scale of passive surveillance in today’s smartphones. A revealing tool that turns the opacity of iOS APIs into transparency for the average citizen. — Marta, for intermitente intelligence.