What Pulse sends, what it keeps, and what it never has.
Last updated 15 October 2026.
Pulse has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no trackers. It does not have a server that holds your data. Your measurements are stored on your device, and synced — if you turn that on — through your own iCloud, which we cannot read.
One feature sends data off your device: the AI diagnosis, and only when you ask for it. It is described in full below, and the app asks your permission before the first one.
Web check (Pro) also loads the page you ask for the way a browser does, so that site — and the sites it pulls in, including its own analytics or advertising — sees the visit; see Web check below.
Every run you make — pings, traces, path MTU searches, Pulse sessions, DNS and WHOIS lookups, certificate checks and health checks — is stored locally on your device, along with the network conditions at the time (interface, Wi-Fi name, gateway, resolvers, public address) and any place label you typed.
If you turn on iCloud sync, that history is copied into your own private iCloud database so your devices share it. It is held by Apple under your Apple Account. The developer has no access to it and no way to request it.
Deleting the app removes the local copy. Removing the data from iCloud is done in iOS Settings under your Apple Account.
Pinging a host contacts that host. The same is true of traceroute, path MTU, DNS, certificate checks and the rest. That is the app working, and the operator of the host you chose sees the traffic as they would from any other client.
To keep the Home Screen and Lock Screen widget current, the app can check the network in the background: a few ICMP echoes to the router and to one public host (1.1.1.1 by default) whenever iOS wakes it. The result is stored only on the device — in the app's shared container, so the widget can read it — and nothing is sent anywhere else. Settings › Live Activity & Widget › Background checks turns it off.
With Pulse Pro, the certificates you check are watched. About twice a day, whenever iOS allows, the app re-checks each watched certificate from your device: it connects to that host, as a certificate check you ran yourself would. The list of watched hosts is stored on the device, and in your own private iCloud database if sync is on. Alerts are local notifications scheduled on the device; nothing about them is sent anywhere. Settings › Certificate alerts turns them off, and swiping a certificate in the Watching list stops watching it.
With Pulse Pro, Web check loads the address you type in a private browser session on your device. It connects to that site and to every site the page pulls in — fonts, scripts, images, and the site's own analytics or advertising — exactly as a browser would, and the site's scripts run while it loads. It may then send one more request to the site's server, to time the connection. The session keeps nothing afterwards: no cookies, cache or storage. Nothing about the check is sent to the developer. The result, including a small picture of the page, is stored in History on your device, and in your own private iCloud database if sync is on.
To show your public IP address and who it belongs to, the app requests
cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/trace and
stat.ripe.net. This happens when the app opens, before you
do anything. Neither request carries an identifier, and neither service
is told anything about you beyond the address the request came from — which
they can see because you connected to them.
A WHOIS lookup asks IANA which registry is responsible, then that registry — over RDAP where one is offered, or a port 43 server where it is not. Those operators see the name or address you looked up.
When you open a terminal, Pulse connects directly to the host you entered, over SSH or telnet. Everything you type and everything the host prints travels only between your device and that host. Nothing from a terminal session is sent to our servers or included in an AI diagnosis. Saved passwords and keys are stored in this device's Keychain and are not synced in this version.
With Pulse Pro, the commands you type can be kept for search: on this device, and in your private iCloud only if you turn Sync command history with iCloud on in Settings. Alongside each command Pulse keeps how many times you have run it on that host, when it was first and last seen, and whether you pinned it. Anything that looks like a password or a token is never kept, and you can clear the history at any time.
The history has a Share button, which hands what the list is showing to whatever you choose to send it to — a mail, a note, a ticket. That is the one way these commands leave your device without iCloud, it happens only when you tap it, and what it sends is exactly the list in front of you.
The optional shell integration adds a few lines to a host's shell profile so it reports each command exactly. What it adds is shown there in full, and it sends nothing anywhere but to your own session.
With Pulse Pro, a transferred file travels between your device and that host only, and a download is written into the app's own folder, which the Files app shows.
Share session sends a Pulse session only when you tap it, and only
to whoever you choose in the share sheet. The session travels inside the
link itself or as a file. Pulse uploads nothing: the part of the link that
carries the session comes after the #, which browsers never
send to a server, so the page on peltriaux.com that the link opens never
sees it. Messages, Mail or any other app you send it with handles it as it
handles anything else you send.
Your Wi-Fi network's name, your public address, the place label and any AI diagnosis are never in a shared session, and the names of devices on your home network are removed from the path. What stays is what a comparison needs: the routers along the way, the networks they belong to, your provider's name, the figures, and the name you chose to share under. A session someone sends you stays on your device, and is never sent to the AI diagnosis.
Pulse Pro is sold through Apple's App Store and its status is checked through RevenueCat, which receives an anonymous identifier for the purchase and the subscription state. Payment details never reach the app or the developer; Apple handles them.
Asking for an AI diagnosis sends that run to
peltriaux.com, a machine the developer operates, which adds
the model key and forwards it to Anthropic. It happens only when you tap
the button, and the app shows you this list and asks before the first
time.
What is sent, for the run you asked about:
A random identifier for your installation accompanies the request so the free allowance can be counted and abuse limited. It is not your name, your Apple Account or your device's serial number, and it is not linked to anything else.
peltriaux.com keeps nothing: the run is passed straight
through and is never written to disk there. The answer comes back and is
saved on your device. Anthropic processes it to produce that answer and
does not train models on it; their own retention policy governs what
passes through their API.
What peltriaux.com does keep is a count: which
installation asked, how many times, and on which day, so the free
allowance can be counted and abuse limited. Not the run, not the host you
asked about, not any address.
If you never tap the button, none of this leaves your device.
Location permission is used for two things.
The first is the Wi-Fi network's name: Apple requires location permission before any app can read the SSID and access point address at all.
The second is the place label. When you arrive on a network Pulse has not seen, it can offer a name for it — "you look like you're at North Narrabeen". To do that it asks iOS for your position at kilometre accuracy and turns it into a suburb name. You choose whether to accept the suggestion, and you can type any label you like instead, or none.
Your coordinates are never stored and never leave the device. Only the label does, and only in two places: it is saved with your runs on your device (and in your own iCloud, if sync is on), and it is included when you ask for an AI diagnosis, as listed above. A suburb name is coarse by construction — it is the same for everyone in it.
Declining location leaves the Wi-Fi row reading "Requires location access" and the place label entirely manual. Nothing else changes.
Pulse asks to send notifications only when you turn on certificate alerts. They are scheduled on your device and carry nothing off it. Declining leaves certificates watched, with no alert.
Finding the other devices on your network, and the link test between two of your own devices, need iOS's local network permission. That traffic stays on your network.
Pulse is a diagnostic tool for network and IT work. It is not directed at children and collects nothing about them.
If this policy changes in a way that affects what leaves your device, the change will be described here with its date, and the app will ask again where consent applies.
Questions about this policy: support.