Privacy and your data
You hold a tag against your iPhone and what it holds appears on screen. That reading happens on your iPhone, and the result stays there. Hex NFC has no accounts and no analytics, and the three kinds of request it makes to Hex Pro's own servers carry nothing about you. The full text of the policy is in the app. On the Hex NFC home screen, tap the gear button in the top right. Then under Legal tap Privacy Policy.
What stays on your iPhone
Your scan history and your saved presets live in a local database on this iPhone, and your settings are stored locally too. Deleting an item removes it from that database. Deleting the app removes the app's local data with it.
Tag passwords are held apart from all of that, in the iOS Keychain on the one iPhone that set them. A password is never synced, never written into a file you export, and never sent anywhere. The app files two kinds of item. One is for a tag whose protection a write applied, filed under that tag's UID. That write runs from the Tag screen's Protection card, or from a preset that applies protection. The other item is for a preset that applies protection, filed under the preset. Neither holds anything about you. A password you type into Operations… > Protect with password is filed in neither, so keep your own copy of it. Deleting the app does not take the filed passwords with it, because iOS keeps Keychain items after an app goes. A passport read is kept nowhere at all. What the chip returns is on screen for that session and gone when the session ends. Read a passport describes that in full.
Two things clear a stored password. Deleting a preset drops the password saved with it. That happens whether or not the tag it was written to is still protected. A tag can then be left gated by a password the app no longer holds. The other is turning the protection off on the tag's Protection card and then writing the tag, which Remove a tag's password sets out. Even there, the app drops the password only when it has read the tag back. That read-back has to find both of these:
The protection is gone.
The tag's password is the chip's factory default again.
A removal that proves the first but not the second keeps the stored password. A tag that is open while still holding your password cannot be protected again without it. A removal run from Operations clears nothing from the Keychain. Any item already filed for that tag stays where it is.
Nothing in Hex NFC lists the tags it holds a password for. A tag you cannot tap again cannot have its stored password cleared from inside the app. That Keychain item stays on this iPhone unless a later removal clears it, or you erase the iPhone.
iCloud sync starts off, and the switch takes effect the next time you open the app. With it on, your presets and scan history are mirrored to your private iCloud database, which Apple operates and your Apple ID protects. Hex Pro cannot read it. Tag passwords stay out of it either way. The switch is in Settings.
Turning sync off stops the mirroring only once you close Hex NFC and open it again, as Close and reopen the app describes. Going back to your iPhone's Home Screen leaves the app running and the mirroring with it.
Stopping the mirroring is not the same as removing what iCloud already holds, and deleting the app does not remove it either. To take that copy away, open the Settings app on your iPhone. Tap your name at the top, then tap the iCloud row. Work through the storage it lists, where the data each app keeps can be deleted.
The three times the app reaches Hex Pro
None of these runs in the background, and none of them carries anything that identifies you.
The home screen fetches one public figure about the project's development costs from api.apps.hex.pro. The request contains no personal data.
A station-name suggestion goes out when you tap Submit on an unknown stop from a transit card. Tapping the keyboard's send key while the name field is open sends it too. It carries the line, station and area codes, the card's system code, and the name you typed. The card's serial number, balance and travel history are not part of it, so keep personal details out of the name field.
The More from Hex Pro card fetches a banner for another Hex Pro app from api.p.hex.pro. The request sends this app's bundle identifier, the platform and a slot name. The answer names an image or a video, which the app downloads from a second address and keeps on your iPhone. Everyone sees the same banner. No ad network, tracking identifier or personalisation sits behind it.
iCloud sync is the other thing that uses the network, and the exception to the paragraph above. With it on, your presets and scan history travel between your iPhone and Apple in the background. None of that reaches Hex Pro.
Any internet request shows your IP address to the server that answers it. Hex Pro keeps short-lived operational logs and does not use an IP address to identify or profile anyone.
What each permission is for
Hex NFC asks you for two permissions. NFC is the one it cannot work without, and iOS gives you no switch for it. The camera is optional, and iOS asks for it the first time you scan a QR code. What either one captures stays on your iPhone.
The Privacy Policy in the app describes three more, for contacts, location and Bluetooth. Nothing in the app asks for those three, so iOS never prompts you about them.
| Permission | What it is used for |
|---|---|
| NFC | Reading and writing tags, only while a scan or write screen is open. |
| Camera | Scanning a QR code you choose to turn into a record. Frames are never saved or uploaded. |
What Hex Pro never does
Hex NFC carries no analytics or telemetry SDKs and no third-party advertising, and nothing in it fingerprints your iPhone. Hex Pro does not sell, rent or share personal information. There are no accounts, so no Hex Pro server holds a profile of you. A file you export holds the records and presets you picked, and never a tag password.