Last updated: 31 October 2026.
Packet Echo is a diagnostic tool that runs on your machine and looks at your customers' networks. What it sees is not ours and does not come to us. Nothing about a network you scan or a capture you open is ever transmitted — no packets, no addresses, no hostnames, no topology, no findings. That is true of the free edition and the paid one, on every network, with no setting to change.
What the desktop application sends
Two things, and only when you cause them.
| When | What is sent | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You click Check for updates | Two separate requests. One asks for the update manifest and identifies nothing. The other sends your licence key and a device identifier derived from Windows. Your IP address is visible to the server on both, as with any web request. | To see whether a newer version exists, and to confirm this machine still holds a seat — so that a seat you free in your account actually takes effect here. |
| You activate a licence | Your licence key and a device identifier derived from Windows. | To claim a seat, and to count the devices a licence is used on. |
The application never contacts us on a schedule, on startup, or in the background. If it cannot reach us, it carries on working — an unreachable server never costs you your licence, and only a clear answer that the seat is gone will change anything.
The consequence worth stating plainly: because nothing is checked in the background, freeing a seat in your account does not take effect on that machine immediately. It takes effect the next time somebody there checks for updates. That is the trade for a program that does not phone home on a timer, and we would rather name it than have it discovered.
Packet Lens capture analysis
Capture analysis inside the Windows application is local, like the rest of Packet Echo. The browser edition, Packet Lens Web, also processes the file on your machine, holding it in browser memory for analysis. Opening it checks your membership using your account sign-in; that check carries your sign-in, never the capture. Neither this website nor we receive your captures.
What the website and account area store
Signing in at your account creates a record. It holds:
- Your email address, so you can sign in and we can send your licence key.
- Your licence, and how many devices it is active on.
- A device identifier and a machine name for each activation, so you can tell your own machines apart when freeing a seat.
- The IP address an activation came from, and a log of activations and seat changes.
- A record of each time a licence key is displayed in the account area, and to whom.
There is no password. Signing in sends a one-time link to your email address, so there is no credential for us to store or for anyone to steal.
What this website measures
The public pages use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views, referring sites and page load times. It sets no cookies, does not fingerprint you, and does not follow you across other sites; we see totals, not individuals. We also count clicks on the download button, as a number. There is no advertising and no advertising tracker anywhere on the site or in the application.
Visiting any page also sends normal web requests to our hosting provider, which processes request information such as your IP address to deliver and protect the site.
Payments
Payments are processed by Stripe on its own checkout pages. We never see or store your card details; we receive your email address, what you bought and whether payment succeeded. Reading the pricing pages starts no payment and no subscription: that happens only when you complete checkout. If you arrived from one of our tagged links, such as a social post, checkout also carries that link's campaign tag (for example, that it came from Reddit) so we can see which posts lead to sales. The tag says nothing about you.
Who processes it for us
We do not sell, share or rent your data. A small number of providers process it only to run the service:
- Cloudflare: hosting for this site, Packet Lens Web, Packet Blueprint and the installer downloads, protection against abuse, and the page-view counts described above.
- Supabase: the account database and the one-time sign-in emails.
- Stripe: checkout, payments and subscriptions.
- Microsoft 365: the mailbox that receives what you send to our support and privacy addresses.
None of them receives anything from a network you scan or a capture you open, because none of that leaves your machine.
How long we keep it
Account and licence records are kept while your licence exists, because a perpetual licence has no end date and you may need it re-sent years later. Activation logs are kept for two years. Ask us to delete your account and we will, though that also ends our ability to recover your licence key for you.
Screenshots and sample files
Identifying information in the Packet Echo screens has been redacted, and the topology example uses anonymised labels. The downloadable PCAP and the Packet Lens screenshots use synthetic traffic with documentation addresses, not customer traffic.
External links
Packet Blueprint runs at blueprint.packetecho.net and keeps your diagrams in your own browser. Checkout opens on Stripe (buy.stripe.com), and the installer downloads from updates.packetecho.app; both are covered by this policy as described above, and Stripe also applies its own privacy policy to payments.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of what we hold, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Emailprivacy@packetecho.net and we will respond within 30 days.
Contact
Packet Haven · privacy@packetecho.net