How to read your app’s network log
A network log is a list of every server an app has connected to and, ideally, why. It is the one piece of evidence that turns a privacy promise into a fact you can check. Very few apps show one. This article explains what to look for in one, what the entries mean, and how to check an app that does not offer a log at all.
Updated
- A network log lists the servers an app’s own code contacted; a good one says why.
- In Sfuma only sfuma.cam can appear, and only after you send feedback.
- Traffic iOS makes outside the app, such as App Store purchases, is not in any app’s own log.
- For apps without a log: airplane mode, the privacy label, the tracking prompt and iOS’s App Privacy Report.
What is a network log?
Every time an app talks to the internet, it opens a connection to a hostname: apple.com, an analytics service, an ad network, the developer’s own server. Sfuma’s log shows each hostname with its purpose and a count, because a hostname alone does not tell you whether a connection was a purchase, an upload or a tracker.
In Sfuma the log is written by the app’s own network layer, so a feature cannot quietly skip it. What it cannot see is traffic iOS makes outside the app’s process, such as App Store purchases.
How do you read Sfuma’s log?
Open Settings → Network activity. There are only two things you should ever see.
| Entry | What it means | When it appears |
|---|---|---|
| “No network activity — as promised.” | The app’s own code has never connected to anything. | Fresh install, and for as long as you only edit |
| sfuma.cam, “Feedback you sent” | A feedback report you wrote was uploaded. | After you press Send, then each time you open the app while a sent report is listed |
Anything else in that list would be a bug, and one we want reported.
Proof: the app has no analytics, ad or crash SDK and does not include Apple’s tracking framework, so nothing else has a reason to connect.
What should you look for in any log?
- Connections you did not cause. You opened the app and edited. If the log shows traffic, ask what it was for.
- Analytics and crash services. Hostnames belonging to analytics vendors mean usage data is leaving the phone, even if photos are not.
- Ad networks before any ad was shown. Many ad stacks phone home at launch to fetch an advertising identifier and a profile.
- Image uploads. Large transfers to the developer’s server right after you opened a photo mean the editing is not on-device.
- A purpose column. A log that explains itself is a log the developer expects you to read.
Read a real one: in Sfuma, open Settings → Network activity. On a phone that has never sent feedback, it says “No network activity — as promised.”
How do you check an app that has no log?
- Airplane mode. Turn it on and use the app’s main features. What still works is on-device. What fails or spins needs a server.
- App Store privacy label. Scroll to “App Privacy” on the listing. “Data Not Collected” is the cleanest statement. “Data Used to Track You” means an advertising identifier or cross-app tracking.
- The tracking prompt. If the app asked “Allow this app to track your activity?”, it uses the advertising identifier. An app with no tracking never shows that prompt.
- iOS App Privacy Report. Settings → Privacy & Security → App Privacy Report shows network activity per app, with domains contacted. Turn it on, use the app for a day, read the list.
- Account required? Sign-in before editing usually means a server with your photos on it.
Why does Sfuma show its log?
Because “we don’t track you” is the sentence every app says. A promise you cannot check is marketing. A list you can open in Settings is evidence. Sfuma was built so that the list stays empty while you edit, and so that the only exception, sfuma.cam after you send feedback, is something you did on purpose.
Sources
- Apple Support. About App Privacy Report. How to turn on iOS’s own record of the domains each app contacts.
- Apple. App privacy details on the App Store. What each privacy label category means.
- Apple. App Tracking Transparency. The framework an app must use to show the “allow tracking” prompt.
Open Sfuma, go to Settings → Network activity, and read it yourself. How privacy is built into Sfuma.
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