Privacy and security

Your calls and texts

Calls and texts travel between your gateway and your iPhone over your own network. They don’t pass through LineFerry’s servers. Today, early access doesn’t run any LineFerry servers for calls at all.

Apple’s push service

To wake your iPhone for a call, the gateway sends a push notification through Apple. That message includes the caller’s number and the name from your contacts, so the call screen can show who’s calling. Texts and missed calls are announced the same way.

Pairing and encryption

Only iPhones you pair can connect to your gateway. Pairing uses a one-time code inside the QR code the gateway app shows; the code expires after 10 minutes and works once, so keep the pairing screen to yourself. You can remove a paired iPhone in the gateway app at any time.

Everything between your gateway and your iPhone is encrypted: call audio, texts and control messages (ChaCha20-Poly1305, with fresh keys for every connection and every call). The phone call itself, between the gateway’s SIM and the other person, is protected by your carrier like any mobile call.

On the gateway phone

The gateway keeps a short log to help with troubleshooting. It’s capped in size, so older entries are deleted automatically, and it never leaves the phone unless you send it to us.

The waitlist

We keep your email, the phone model you chose and, if you gave it, your SIM’s country. We use them to send your invite and to decide which phones to support next. We don’t sell or share them.

For the full picture, see the security model and the draft privacy policy.