Watchlight privacy

Last updated November 10, 2026.

Watchlight is an iPhone app by Benjamin M. Ampel at Georgia State University. It checks messages, links and calls for signs of scams and tells you what it found.

Summary

  • Everything is checked on your iPhone. Watchlight has no server, no account, no analytics, no ads and no tracking. It contains no code from other companies.
  • Nothing is sent to us. Your messages, the numbers they come from, your contacts and your checks never reach us.
  • Some things leave your phone only when you send them: a report to 7726 or a message to someone you trust. Each is listed below.

What Watchlight looks at

  • Texts from unknown senders, once you turn on the filter in Messages (filter button at the top left, then Manage Filtering, then Text Message Filter, then Watchlight). iOS hands Watchlight only texts from numbers not in your contacts, never your iMessage conversations with contacts. For each one Watchlight tells iOS one thing: Junk, Transactions, Promotions, allow, or nothing. Apple’s filter can forward texts to a server. Watchlight does not use that option.
  • Anything you choose to check: a pasted message, a text, link or email you share to Watchlight, a QR code, or a screenshot you pick.
  • Calls: Watchlight gives iOS a list of numbers that many people reported to the FTC, so your iPhone can show a label when one calls. Watchlight never sees your calls.
  • Web pages in Safari, if you turn on the Safari extension: it reads the page’s address and title and whether it asks for a password, to warn you about fake sign-in pages. It reads nothing you type and sends nothing.

What stays on your iPhone

  1. Counts of the messages you checked, by kind, for the stats screen. Numbers only.
  2. Your settings: the campaign-text setting and, if you chose one, your trusted person’s first name and one phone number or email.
  3. A small diagnostic log in the app’s own storage, capped in size: which rules matched, the scores, the verdict and the message length in characters. Never the message or the sender.

Screenshots, QR codes, emails and messages you check are not saved. Deleting Watchlight deletes all of the above.

When something leaves your iPhone

Only when you choose to send it:

  • Report (swipe left on a text or call in Messages or Phone, then Report): iOS sends the text or call details and its sender to your carrier’s 7726 spam-reporting service.
  • Report it to 7726 opens a draft in Messages with the text. You decide whether to send it.
  • Ask someone I trust and Text [your trusted person] open the share sheet or a draft in Messages or Mail with the message and Watchlight’s verdict. You pick who gets it and you send it.
  • Links in the app (sources, the support email, data-broker and breach sites) open in Safari or Mail.

Apple may share crash reports with us if you turned on “Share with App Developers” in Settings, and TestFlight testers can send us feedback. These come through Apple and never include your messages unless you attach them.

Camera, photos and contacts

  • Camera: used only to read the link inside a QR code. Nothing is recorded.
  • Photos: you pick a screenshot through Apple’s photo picker. Watchlight gets only that image, reads its text on the iPhone, and does not keep it.
  • Contacts: if you choose a trusted person, Apple’s contact picker hands Watchlight only the one phone number or email you tap. Watchlight never reads your contacts.

The on-device AI check

For screenshots, Watchlight can ask Apple’s on-device language model (Apple Intelligence) for a second opinion. It runs on your iPhone and nothing is sent.

Children

Watchlight collects no data from anyone, so it collects none from children.

Changes

If this page changes, the date at the top changes. If a future version ever collected data, we would say so here and in the App Store listing before it shipped.

Contact

Benjamin M. Ampel, Georgia State University, bampel@gsu.edu

App Store privacy label

Data Not Collected. Watchlight does its checks on your iPhone and sends nothing to us. Reports and messages you start go to 7726 or the people you choose.