How To Use the Privacy Facility

Set Up Your Privacy Patterns

The overall idea of the privacy facility is that you will assign privacy levels to 'tic-tac-toe' (or 'noughts and crosses') patterns, and later use these to quickly raise the privacy level and thus reveal hidden trackers.  Trackers and tracked items within them can have individual privacy levels, and will not be visible unless rTracker's privacy level is high enough.

The intention is to hide your more private trackers and tracked items from casual observers or those to whom you might want to show some of your other trackers.

This privacy feature does not itself provide encryption (full security) for your tracked data however, as of version 2.0, rTracker uses the full iOS encryption as configured for your phone. To enable this, simply set a passcode and auto-locking in System Settings.

Click the sunglasses button in the lower right of the main tracker list to get started.
 
 click the sunglasses icon to start

A password is required the first time you set up privacy, but not in normal use.  Don't worry, you can change it later, or just set a new one if you forget.
 An initial password is required

This is the normal privacy usage view. 

Tap the 'Setup' button to configure your privacy levels and access.  Normally the password will be required to enter the setup mode, but not in the case where a new password has just been created.

 See the usage screen, click 'setup'

The privacy Setup view is the control panel where the password can be changed, new privacy patterns can be set, and existing privacy patterns can be reviewed and modified.

The first step is to create a pattern, and assign a privacy level to it.
 The setup screen is mainly for pattern configuration

Each tap of a square will change it in the pattern X - O - + - <blank>.  When the desired pattern has ben set, choose the associated privacy level on the left using the slider at the bottom.

Here a relatively low privacy level of 25 is linked to the pattern of one 'X' in the uppler left corner.

Tap 'save' to store this association.
 setting a pattern for a low privacy setting of 25

Here the pattern shown with two X's is linked to the medium privacy level of 50.

Tap 'save' to store this association.
 setting a pattern for medium privacy setting of 50

Here the pattern of three X's is linked to the relatively high privacy level of 75.

Tap 'save' to store this association.

Tap 'Lock' to exit the Setup mode and return to the normal use mode.
 setting a pattern for a higher privacy setting of 75

Set Up A Private Tracker



To create a private tracker or tracker value, first raise the privacy level to a value at least as high as the hidden item will be. 

This is important, as rTracker will not allow a tracker or value to be set 'more private' than the current privacy level.

Tap the sunglasses button again to hide the privacy panel.
 Set a privacy level higher than the secret tracker will be

Observe that the sunglass lenses are now 'shaded' to indicate that the privacy level is raised.  When privacy is disabled, the lenses will be opaque, and when the password has been accepted the lenses will be clear (see the rTracker screenshots above).

Now tap the 'edit' button to modify an existing tracker, or the '+' button to create a new tracker.  See how to create a tracker for details on this.
 Once the privacy is raised, now add (+) or edit your private tracker

Navigate to a screen showing the configuration 'i' in the lower left corner, and tap this button.  This screenshot shows the 'Add tracker' screen for configuring the items within a tracker, but the same option is in the lower left corner when creating or configuring each individual tracked item.

Tap the 'i' button to access the configuration options.
 From the tracker or item configuration screens, click the 'i' button to access options

Set the privacy level to the desired setting.  Once again, a setting higher than the current rTracker privacy level will not be accepted.

Tap the appropriate buttons at each step to confirm and save the changes at each step as you return to the main tracker view.
 Set privacy level for tracker or item, limited to current privacy level


Use Your Private Tracker



Click the sunglasses button to bring up the privacy 'use' screen.
 main tracker list, click the sunglasses button

Tap in the pre-set pattern for the desired privacy level.  All trackers and values with a privacy setting below this level will be shown.

Tap the sunglasses button again to hide the privacy panel.
 input your pre-set privacy pattern

Observe that the lenses on the sunglasses are now shaded to indicate a raised privacy level.

Also note that the 'secret tracker' is now visible in the tracker list.
  main screen, privacy is raised and secret tracker is visible

Tap the sunglasses button again to bring up the privacy panel, and tap the clear button to wipe the pattern clean.

Shortcuts: double-tap the sunglasses button (bring the privacy panel up and down quickly), or just leave the rTracker application to clear the privacy setting.
 clear the privacy pattern to disable private trackers

Observe that the sunglasses lenses are opaque again, and the 'secret tracker' is not visible.
 main screen, no secret tracker is seen


I Forgot...

My privacy patterns



Use the arrow buttons on each side of the slider to review the privacy patterns you have set earlier.
 review saved patterns with <,> buttons

My password

Go the the system Settings application, and find the rTracker settings.  From here you can reset (clear) the saved password, and you will set a new password the next time you use the privacy facility.  All of your patterns  and tracker privacy levels will  remain the same.
Clear the password using the iOS system Settings