# TextNow privacy rating

Free, ad-supported phone number service from TextNow, Inc. in Waterloo, Canada, offering US and Canadian numbers for calls and texts over Wi-Fi or its mobile network, with paid options to remove ads.

## Summary

TextNow scores 19 out of 100 (grade F) on the virtual phone numbers criteria. It meets 1 of 8 criteria: TLS configuration. It partly meets transparency report. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit, tells users about requests and security headers. It is based in Canada: Five Eyes member. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade C.

- Website: https://www.textnow.com
- Jurisdiction: Canada. Five Eyes member.
- Platforms: Web, Android, iOS
- Home page trackers: Cloudflare Web Analytics (cookieless analytics), Google Tag Manager
- Category: [Virtual phone numbers](https://privacyratings.com/virtual-phone-numbers/)
- Grade: F (19/100)

## Criteria

| Criterion | Answer | Note | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | No | Closed source. |  |
| No trackers or telemetry | No | The Android app includes 19 trackers, among them Google AdMob, Facebook Ads, AppLovin and AppsFlyer. | https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.enflick.android.TextNow/latest/ |
| No ads or data sales | No | The free service is funded by in-app advertising from several ad networks. | https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.enflick.android.TextNow/latest/ |
| Independent audit | No | No independent audit is published. |  |
| Transparency report | Partial | Law enforcement guidelines explain how legal orders are handled. No request counts are published. | https://help.textnow.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052815653-Submitting-Orders-Requests-To-TextNow |
| Tells users about requests | No | The guidelines state users are not notified of law enforcement orders. Only civil requests may be notified. | https://help.textnow.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052060674-Non-Disclosure-Requests |
| TLS configuration | Yes | Grade A+ | https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=www.textnow.com&hideResults=on |
| Security headers | No | Grade C (55/100+) | https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/observatory/analyze?host=www.textnow.com |
| Modern web standards | Not tested yet | Not tested yet. |  |

Source: https://privacyratings.com/virtual-phone-numbers/textnow/
Edit: https://github.com/privacyratings/privacyratings.com/edit/main/ratings/virtual-phone-numbers/textnow.md