Questions & answers
Straight answers about what Patch does, how it protects your privacy, and how to handle the moment something feels wrong.
Chrome says my password was found in a data breach. What should I do?
It means that password showed up in a known data breach, so any account using it could be at risk. The fix is to change it everywhere you've reused it, starting with the accounts that matter most, like your email and banking.
Patch is built for exactly this moment. It checks your saved passwords against known breaches, finds the ones that were exposed or reused, and walks you through changing them one at a time, on your Mac and iPhone. Your passwords never leave your device: to check one, Patch sends only the first five characters of a one-way SHA-1 hash — directly to Have I Been Pwned, never through Patch's servers — and matches the result on your device.
What is Patch?
Patch is a personal security app for Mac and iPhone: a security center that checks your saved passwords for breaches and reuse, helps you freeze your credit and remove yourself from data-broker sites, and includes a security advisor that answers your questions and helps you tell whether a message or photo is a scam. It's made for people who'd rather do anything than deal with internet security.
Is my data stored on Patch's servers?
No, Patch has no database of your passwords or personal data. The scanning happens on your device, and when you sync between your Mac and iPhone, the data goes directly from one to the other over your own Wi-Fi — or through your own iCloud when they're not on the same network. Either way it never passes through Patch.
The one exception is the advisor. When you ask it a question or send it something to check, that goes through our service to Anthropic, whose Claude models answer it. We don't store it — our service passes it along and forgets it. Anthropic deletes it within 30 days, and it's never used to train an AI model. That's the only place anything you send leaves your devices.
Can Patch tell me if a message or photo is a scam?
Patch's advisor helps you think it through. Paste in a suspicious message, email, or screenshot and the advisor points out the red flags and explains why something looks off, so you can decide. It won't pretend to be certain; it helps you be careful and spot the next one.
What does the advisor see?
The tab you're on and the question you ask. If you're looking at a specific site, it sees that site's name so it knows what you're asking about. It never sees your passwords or your list of accounts.
When you paste something in to check, that's what gets looked at — exactly as you sent it, nothing added. The advisor runs on Claude, made by Anthropic, so what you send passes through our service to them. We store none of it. Anthropic deletes it within 30 days, and under their terms it's never used to train an AI model.
Is Patch safe to use?
Yes. The Mac app is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS verifies it hasn't been tampered with every time it launches. Your passwords never leave your device, and there's no account, no user database, and nothing stored on our servers — so there's nothing for Patch to leak.
Is Patch free?
Yes, to start. The free version checks an email address and your saved passwords against known breaches once a month, and gives you two scam checks to try the advisor. No account, no credit card.
If you want the whole thing — data-broker removal, credit freezes, unlimited checks, and the advisor whenever you need it — there's a paid version starting at a couple of dollars a month, and you can try everything free for seven days first. One subscription covers your Mac and your iPhone.
What do I need to run Patch?
The Mac app requires an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later), which is most Macs from 2020 onward; Intel Macs are not supported. The iPhone app requires a recent version of iOS. Both install quickly.
Who is Patch for?
For everyday people who got a breach notice, a scam text, or an "is this real?" moment and didn't know where to start. You don't need to be technical. Patch is designed to feel warm and reassuring rather than alarming, and to walk you through each step.