Sieve
A web filter only an administrator can loosen.
Sieve blocks sites from well‑known public blocklists, right on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Allowing a site, removing a block or pausing the filter takes a removal key that never lives on the device, so the person using it can’t quietly switch it off.
Private betaiPhone, iPad, MacNo tracking
What it protects against
The sites, and the off switch.
Sites you don’t want reached
Adult content, gambling, and services built to get around filters, from public blocklists that update themselves every day. Add social networks or other lists, your own sites, or a whole domain ending like .xyz.
Being switched off
Most filters can be turned down by whoever is holding the device. Sieve can always be made stricter, but loosening it in any way needs the removal key, and the filter itself checks that key, not just the app.
How it holds
Loosening needs a key kept somewhere else.
The built‑in lists can’t be removed or allowed past. If Sieve’s files change without the key, it shows a warning only the key can clear, and a pause ends when the device restarts.
Behind the key
Removing, allowing and pausing all need the removal key.
The key stays off the device
Sieve checks it, uses it for that one change, then forgets it.
Proof it’s working
Test a site confirms the filter is blocking, without ever contacting the site.
How it’s set up
A profile turns it on. The key stays away.
- A configuration profile switches it on
- Installing the app isn’t enough on its own. An administrator adds a small configuration profile to the device, which turns Sieve’s filter on. The profile also holds what’s needed to check the administrator’s removal key, but never the key itself.
- iPhone and iPad must be supervised
- Apple only allows this kind of filter on supervised iPhones and iPads: devices an organization manages through Apple Business. Supervision also lets the organization lock the profile so it can’t be removed on the device.
- On a Mac, management is optional, and it’s the strongest setup
- Sieve can run on a Mac with just its profile. For the strongest protection, the Mac is also managed through Apple Business, so the profile can’t be removed from the Mac’s settings, even by someone with an administrator account on that Mac.
- The key stays with the administrator
- Anything that loosens the filter, like allowing a site or pausing, needs the removal key, and the key is kept off the device.
Where it fits
Anywhere a device should stay filtered.
A family iPad
Shared by young children, with a parent holding the key.
School and library devices
Staff hold the key, so students can use the device but not its settings.
A workplace’s Macs and phones
The same filter on every device, copied from one to the next by AirDrop.
Devices on loan
Handed out by an organization and expected back exactly as they went.
Also on Mac
The same filter, in a window.
Sieve for Mac has the same lists, the same removal key and the same test, in a window of its own.
Privacy
It doesn’t watch the person it protects.
- Nothing collected
- No accounts, no analytics, no tracking.
- Fingerprints, not names
- Sites you block yourself are stored as fingerprints, not readable addresses.
- Testing stays quiet
- Checking whether a site is blocked never contacts it.