Nothing leaves your street. Not even to us.

Last updated 13 October 2026

1. Who we are

Lantern is published by Matt Fleming (“we”, “us”). If you have a question about this policy or your data, email support@lanternmesh.net.

2. What we collect

Nothing, from the app. Lantern has:

• no account, sign-up, email address or phone number;
• no server: Lantern itself makes no internet connections (news you choose to send out goes through Apple's Messages app, see section 5);
• no analytics, crash-reporting, advertising or tracking code, and no third-party SDKs;
• no access to your location, photos or microphone, and no access to your contacts list. If you pick someone to send news to, iOS gives Lantern only the number or email you tapped.

The only ways information about you reaches us are the ones you choose: emailing us, sending us a report (section 6), or Apple's own reporting if you've allowed it (section 7).

3. What stays on your phone

Lantern keeps what it needs to work on your iPhone, and nowhere else.

Private message text only goes to your watch while Settings → Apple Watch → Private messages on Apple Watch is on. It's on by default; turn it off and the watch shows who wrote and how many are unread, but not what they said. Your watch's passcode and wrist detection protect what it shows. The watch sends your check-ins and replies to your iPhone, which sends them on.

What widgets show is up to you in Settings → Widgets & controls (names and notes, names only, or counts only), and it never goes beyond your Lock-screen previews setting. With App lock on, they show counts only. On the Lock Screen and in StandBy, names and notes stay blurred until the iPhone is unlocked. I'm OK (from a widget, Control Center, the Action button or Siri) sends a street check-in without opening Lantern. Need help never sends from a widget or control: it opens Lantern and asks you first. If you use Siri, Apple handles your voice request under its own privacy policy; Lantern only receives the action.

4. What other phones receive

Lantern works because phones pass messages to each other. That means some information about you goes to other people's phones. This is the part to read carefully.

Anyone with Lantern nearby

That's phones within Bluetooth range, and phones up to 7 relays away. They receive:

• your street name (your house's name, or your name and your house's, like “Sarah · Mill Cottage”, if you're in a household), your public keys and the short ID made from them;
• your street messages and check-ins (“I'm OK”, “Need help”, “Have generator” and any note), in readable form. These are signed so nobody can fake them, but they are not encrypted. A help request is more useful when everyone nearby can see it. Treat the street like talking out loud on your street;
• when you send household or private messages: that your phone sent one, when, roughly how big it was, and for private messages which phone it's addressed to. Not what it says;
• which phones share a household, because household messages carry a household ID that every phone can see. Nearby phones use it to draw your household as one house. They can't read the household's name, messages or statuses from it.

Your household

Household messages, check-ins and member names are encrypted with a key that only phones in your household hold. Other phones carry them without being able to read them.

One-to-one private messages

Private messages are end-to-end encrypted between your phone and the other person's. Only the two of you can read them, and that includes us: we can't. Phones in between see only the details listed above.

Phones you pair over Wi-Fi Aware

On iPhone 12 and later you can pair phones through Apple's own Wi-Fi Aware pairing sheet. Lantern then sends those phones the same signed and encrypted packets over Wi-Fi, directly phone to phone, as well as over Bluetooth. Nothing goes through a router or the internet.

When you ask someone to send news for you

If your phone has no signal, you can ask a neighbour you've paired with, or someone in your household, to send a message on to someone outside the street. The request travels end-to-end encrypted. But that person sees the message, and the name and number or email it's for, because it goes out from their phone, through their Messages app. The request stays in both of your private conversations.

When you invite neighbours

Your invite (the QR code, link, printed door card or NFC sticker under Street milestones → Invite neighbours) holds your street name, your public key and how many homes your street has. Anyone who gets it can see those and pair with you on their phone, just as if they'd scanned your code in person. It holds nothing else: no location, no phone number, no messages. Put it where your neighbours will see it, and remember that anyone passing can too.

When a contact finds you nearby

A paired neighbour or someone in your household can ask to find you, for example in the dark. Lantern asks you first. If you've asked for help and left When I ask for help, contacts can find me on (in Settings → Private messages), it agrees without asking, so someone can reach you if you can't answer. Your phones then swap one-off Ultra Wideband tokens through your end-to-end encrypted private conversation, and Apple's Nearby Interaction measures the distance and direction between the two iPhones, phone to phone. Only that person sees it, only while Lantern is open on both phones, and for at most 10 minutes. Nothing is stored, and it doesn't use GPS or your location. Where Ultra Wideband isn't available, Lantern shows warmer or colder from Bluetooth signal strength instead.

Anyone with a Bluetooth scanner

While the radio is on, your phone advertises the word “Lantern” and a Lantern service ID over Bluetooth, so someone nearby with a Bluetooth scanning tool can tell that a phone running Lantern is in range. The advertisement doesn't include your house name or ID, and iOS rotates the phone's Bluetooth address.

Your phone carries other people's messages

By default, your phone relays messages for the street and keeps recent ones for 12 hours, so late arrivals catch up. It can't read encrypted ones. You can turn relaying and store-and-forward off in Settings → Mesh & radio.

What nobody can take back

Once a message reaches another phone, neither you nor we can recall or delete it from that phone. There's no server to delete it from. Think before you post to the street.

5. Permissions Lantern asks for

• Bluetooth (required). This is the radio. It's used to find nearby Lantern phones and exchange messages with them, including while your screen is locked.
• Notifications (optional). Used to alert you to help requests and messages when Lantern isn't on screen. You choose what the lock screen shows in Settings → Notifications. Help requests are marked time-sensitive, so they can reach you through a Focus that allows time-sensitive notifications.
• Camera (optional). Used to scan a neighbour's or household code, and, while you're finding a contact nearby, to help work out which way they are. Images are processed on the phone and never stored or sent.
• Nearby Interaction (optional, iPhones with Ultra Wideband). Used only while you're finding a contact, or being found by one, after one of you has agreed. See section 4.
• NFC (no permission prompt). Used only when you choose to write your invite link onto an NFC sticker. Lantern never reads tags in the background.
• Contacts picker (no permission needed). If you choose someone to send news to, iOS's contact picker gives Lantern only the number or email you tap. Lantern can't see the rest of your contacts.
• Messages. Lantern prepares a text and Apple's Messages app opens with it. Nothing is sent until you tap Send. Apple and your mobile network then deliver it by SMS or iMessage, or by satellite on iPhones and in regions where Apple offers that. Apple's and your network's privacy terms cover that message.
• Wi-Fi Aware (optional, iPhone 12 or later). Pairing uses Apple's system sheet. You can remove a pairing in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security.
• Face ID, Touch ID or passcode (optional). Used only if you turn on App lock. iOS handles this, and Lantern never sees your face or fingerprint data.

Lantern never asks for your location.

6. Reports and emails you send us

If you use Report… in the app, Lantern prepares a message for you to send. It contains the reason and details you give, the reported person's house name and ID, their street messages you received, and, only if you choose to include them, private messages from them. Nothing is sent until you send it. The app also blocks that person on your phone, unless you turn that off.

When you email us, or send us a report, we get your email address and whatever you include. We use it only to reply to you and to look into the report. We delete reports within 90 days of dealing with them, and other support emails within 12 months, unless the law requires us to keep something longer. We don't share them with anyone, except where the law requires us to, for example in response to a valid request from the police.

Because Lantern has no servers, we can't delete anything from other people's phones or remove someone from the mesh. Blocking someone hides them on your phone straight away.

7. Apple, the App Store and TestFlight

If you open an invite without Lantern installed, iOS may show the Lantern App Clip, a small part of the app that Apple downloads for you. It shows who invited you and the size of their street, and keeps the invite on your phone so that, once you install Lantern, it can ask whether to pair you. It makes no network connections of its own, and iOS removes it if you don't use it.

Apple handles downloads, and gives us only aggregated statistics such as how many people installed Lantern. If you've turned on Share With App Developers in iOS Settings, Apple may send us anonymised crash reports and usage data. If you join the TestFlight beta, Apple shares with us the name and email address you joined with, and any feedback or screenshots you choose to send. Apple's own privacy policy covers how Apple handles this.

8. This website

These pages use no cookies, no analytics and no advertising, and load nothing from third parties. Fonts and scripts are served from this site. Like any website, our hosting provider processes your IP address to deliver the page and may keep it briefly in server logs for security. We don't use those logs to identify you.

Invite links (/join) put the inviter's name and public key after the # in the address. Browsers never send that part to a web server, so our host doesn't receive it. The join page reads it in your browser and sends it nowhere.

9. Children

Lantern isn't meant for children under 13. Street messages come from anyone nearby, so if a child uses Lantern, set it up with them, and consider limiting the street to paired neighbours and household in Settings → Security & privacy.

10. Your rights and deleting your data

Data protection law, including the UK GDPR, EU GDPR and California's CCPA, gives you rights to access, correct and delete your personal data, and to object to how it's used. Because we don't hold any data from the app, there's usually nothing for us to give you, correct or delete. For emails and reports you've sent us, write to support@lanternmesh.net and we'll answer within one month.

To delete everything Lantern keeps on your phone, use Settings → Data & storage → Erase everything. It removes your keys, household, pairings, the people you send news to, private conversations and settings, clears what your widgets show, and starts Lantern again with a new identity. Wi-Fi Aware pairings are kept by iOS: remove them in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security. Copies already on other people's phones, such as street messages you sent, can't be removed.

We never sell or share personal information for advertising. If you're in the UK and unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. Elsewhere, you can complain to your local data protection authority.

11. Changes and contact

If we change this policy we'll update this page and the date at the top, and mention meaningful changes in the app's release notes. If Lantern ever started collecting anything, we'd say so here first, and ask you in the app.

Questions: support@lanternmesh.net.