The OPS Detector

Effective date: November 4, 2026  ·  Publisher: Cognito Agora, Inc.

This policy describes The OPS Detector for iPhone and its Mac App Store edition. Both are designed to be local-first, user-controlled, advisory, and non-destructive. It explains risk and lets you mark what you find — it does not silently take control of your device.

Plain-English summary

On iPhone, The OPS Detector helps you check a suspicious message and decide a safer next step. On Mac it also helps you check the wording of a pasted link or of fake support or terminal instructions, check a file by its name, try a practice run with harmless examples, mark what you find as a scam, trusted or not sure, and create a report you can share. Everything stays on your device unless you explicitly share or export it.

The iPhone app

• Messages you check: the text, and any context line you add, is checked on your device. This includes text you share to Run a Threat Check from Safari or Notes. It is not saved by the app and it is not sent to us or to anyone else.
• Remembered scams: if you tap “Yes, this was a scam”, the app keeps on your device the date, the result’s summary line, and short markers from that message: the last ten digits of phone-number-shaped numbers and web addresses. It does not keep the message, but a card number followed by extra digits (or a long number that is not a valid card number) can have its last ten digits saved in this list; they stay in the same file on your device and are not sent to us, and Forget removes them. They stay on your device, are excluded from device backups, and you can remove each one with “Forget”.
• Your Circle: the names, relationships and phone numbers, emails or notes you type in are saved on your device in UserDefaults, which iPhone backups normally include. They are not sent to us. The app never calls or messages anyone for you. You choose if and when to call or share a result.
• Sharing: nothing leaves your device unless you use a share sheet or Copy, or tap Call, which opens the Phone app with the number you saved. A shared result contains the result, its warning signs and any context line you typed. It does not contain the message you pasted.
• No analytics, no advertising, no tracking: there is no account, we use no analytics or advertising tools, we do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not sell or share personal information.
• Apple services: if you install through TestFlight or the App Store, Apple may collect usage and crash information under Apple’s own terms and settings. Apple may pass crash reports to us if you choose to share them; we use them only to fix problems.
• Your choices: deleting the app removes its saved data from your device. Inside the app you can remove saved people and remembered scams.
• Children: the app is not directed to children under 13.

Mac App Store edition: data on your Mac

• Saved on your Mac: your optional local profile (display name, device nickname, and trusted-contact note).
• Saved on your Mac: what you mark as a scam, trusted or not sure (a short description of the finding, its title, your choice, the date, and the recommended action). For a file, the description can include the file’s name.
• Held only while the app is open, and not written to disk by the app: the message, link text, or support/terminal instructions you enter; the names of files you choose and the findings about them; practice-run and sample results; and report text you generate.

Data not collected by the developer

Your control

• Link and terminal-scam inspection runs only on text you enter — the app does not execute pasted commands.
• Checking a file runs only on a file you choose through the system file picker, and looks at its name, not its contents.
• Exporting or importing what you marked runs only through file dialogs you control.
• What you marked can be removed one at a time (Remove), or cleared entirely (Clear What I Marked).
• The report, the note to your trusted person, and Copy Safe Steps are handed to the macOS share sheet or clipboard only when you choose them, and none of them includes the message you pasted. A report can include the names of files you checked.
• This edition does not auto-delete, auto-quarantine, block, or silently repair files.

Security boundaries

• No self-propagation and no hidden lateral movement.
• No unauthorized remote-agent deployment.
• No root escalation in the Mac App Store edition.
• No Endpoint Security or Network Extension system extensions in this edition.
• No Homebrew dependency in the Mac App Store edition.

App Store privacy answers

• Data linked to you: none in the current iPhone app or Mac App Store edition.
• Data used to track you: none.
• Diagnostics: none from the app itself; Apple may collect usage and crash information under Apple’s own terms and settings.
• User content: not collected by the developer — the messages you check, link text, file names, and what you save or mark are processed and kept on your device and not transmitted.

If a future version adds optional cloud, support, threat-intelligence, or account features, those will be opt-in and documented before release.