PrivacyScan questions, answered honestly

Not by itself, no. It can find devices announcing themselves over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and it can help your own eyes with a torch and the camera view. Anything offline has to be found by looking, which is what the checklist is for.

No. Nothing on the App Store can, because the iPhone has no radio receiver an app is allowed to read for a sweep. When you see a radar screen or a signal meter in some other app, that is either an animation or a magnetometer reading — the compass sensor, reacting to any metal nearby, camera or not.

It does exactly what it claims and nothing more: it shows the back camera's live view so you can see whether it picks up a TV remote's infrared, and the app says on screen that this is not camera detection. Most iPhone cameras filter out the 940 nm band most covert cameras actually use, so a dark screen here proves nothing either way. Lens reflections are a different tool — Lens Finder, not this one.

No sign-up, no account, and scan results never leave your phone. The free tier does need a connection to load ads and will ask for tracking permission for them — say no and every feature still works exactly the same.

Quiet, mostly. Pro drops the banner, app-open and interstitial ads and the upgrade screens that interrupt a scan. The scanning itself was never limited — paying does not change what it finds. Reports and PDF export are shown on the upgrade screen but do not exist in this build, so I would not pay expecting them.

No, not yet. There is no way to save or share a scan report; close the app and the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth results are gone. Only the inspection checklist sticks around on the phone.

Menus, tabs and most buttons follow your phone, across 34 languages. One catch: the checklist items and tips, the Camera Tools steps, the Privacy Guide articles, the scan status lines and the Scan Network / Scan BLE buttons stay in English no matter what language the rest of the app is in.

No, and this trips people up. It only lists devices advertising one of 15 Bonjour service types — camera streams, web and file sharing, SSH, AirPlay, printers, HomeKit, music sharing. A silent device never appears. There is no MAC address lookup, no manufacturer ID, no port scanning underneath it.

Client isolation, most likely — a lot of hotel networks block guest devices from seeing each other on purpose. An empty list in that setup is normal and tells you nothing, so lean on the Bluetooth scan and the physical check instead.

No, and it should not be treated that way. High just means it advertises a service IP cameras use (RTSP, ONVIF) or carries a camera-style word in its name — doorbells and video recorders score exactly the same. Take it as a lead: go find the physical device, do not stop at the badge.

No, it was never built to. A tracker advertising over Bluetooth might show up in the list, usually as Unknown Device, but nothing flags it as a tracker.

Just for the live view and torch inside Camera Tools — nothing gets recorded or saved. One oddity: the permission text itself mentions inspection photos, but there is no photo feature anywhere in the app.

Right at first launch — the Bluetooth scanner starts up with the app itself. Switch Bluetooth off and you will just see Bluetooth is off. Enable it in Settings to scan.

29, split into 5 groups: 8 electronics and fixtures, 8 decor and furniture, 5 bathroom, 5 ceiling and walls, 3 entry and common areas. Some copy inside the app rounds that up to 30-plus; the actual count is 29.

No. It only saves ticks and your overall progress. If you want evidence of anything, shoot it with the regular iPhone Camera app.

Only the most recent one — the Inspect tab reopens it, and Recent Activity on the Scan tab shows it too. Anything older is stuck where it is: no browsing, no deleting from inside the app.

Yes, it is a universal app — same scanners, checklist and camera tools, and all four orientations are supported on iPad.

Leave it alone — do not touch or unplug it. Photograph it yourself, get out of the room if you feel unsafe, then report it to hotel management or the booking platform. The app will not contact anyone on your behalf, and it is not giving you legal advice here.