Last updated: 1 November 2026

Porthole is an app for iPhone and iPad for browsing and managing Kubernetes clusters. It is made by LINDS, an independent developer (“I” below). This page explains what happens to your information when you use it.

In short

• Porthole collects nothing. I don’t run any servers for it, and nothing you do in the app is sent to me.
• No accounts, analytics, advertising or tracking. The app contains no third-party code that collects data.
• Your credentials stay on your device, in the iOS keychain, and are only ever sent to the cluster they belong to.

What Porthole keeps on your device

• The clusters you add. For each one: its name, the API server’s address, the certificate authority to check that server against, a default namespace, whether you marked it read-only, and the credentials you gave it (a client certificate and key, a token, or a user name and password). These are kept in the iOS keychain, which encrypts them and only makes them available while your device is unlocked. They stay on this device: they aren’t synced through iCloud Keychain and don’t move to a new device.
• Settings, such as whether the app lock is on, in the app’s own preferences on the device.
• The demo cluster. “Try the Demo Cluster” starts a simulated cluster inside the app. Its sample data is made up, is kept in memory, and is discarded when you reset it or the app closes. It never uses the network.

Porthole reads a file from your device only when you pick one, for example a kubeconfig to import or a file to upload into a container. Logs, files and manifests you save or share go wherever you choose to send them. Porthole doesn’t access your contacts, photos, location, camera, microphone or health data.

Who Porthole connects to

Porthole connects directly from your device to these, and only when you use them:

• The Kubernetes API servers you add. Your credentials for a cluster are sent only to that cluster’s server. What you browse and change goes to and from it. If the server is on your local network, iOS asks your permission first.
• Ports you forward. A port you forward opens in Porthole’s browser, which loads the page from your cluster through the forward.

These servers are run by you or your organisation. What they record, such as a cluster’s audit log, is governed by your arrangements with whoever runs them. Nothing goes through a server of mine; there isn’t one.

Face ID and Touch ID

If you turn on the app lock, iOS checks your face, fingerprint or passcode. Porthole is only told whether the check succeeded. It never sees biometric data.

What Apple shares with me

Apple handles downloads from the App Store under its own privacy policy. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers (Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements), Apple may show me crash reports and usage statistics in App Store Connect. They come from Apple, not from Porthole, and they describe the app and the device, for example where a crash happened, not your clusters or credentials.

Removing your information

• To remove a cluster and its credentials, swipe it in the cluster list and choose Delete.
• Deleting the app removes its settings. iOS can keep an app’s keychain items after the app is deleted, so delete your clusters in Porthole first if you want to be sure their credentials are gone. If you install Porthole again, it first removes anything an earlier installation left in the keychain.

Because I don’t hold any of your information, there is nothing for me to send you, correct or delete on request. Everything Porthole keeps is on your device, under your control.

Children

Porthole is a tool for people who run Kubernetes clusters. It isn’t directed at children.

Security

Credentials live only in the keychain. Porthole checks each server’s certificate, against the certificate authority you gave it for that cluster when there is one, unless you or your kubeconfig turn that check off for the cluster, which Porthole then marks “TLS not verified”. Porthole changes nothing in a cluster marked read-only, and opens no shells or file transfers in it. Port forwarding stays available, and what you do through a forwarded port is up to the service behind it. If you find a security problem, please email me at jayden@linds.com.au rather than reporting it publicly.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new date, before the version of Porthole it applies to is released.

Contact

LINDS, jayden@linds.com.au