Getting Started

What is Kiren?

Online scams have never been more convincing. A store that looks real but never ships the order. A video of someone who never said those words. These are not rare events anymore, and they are not aimed only at the careless. They are built to catch anyone, on an ordinary day, in the middle of an ordinary purchase or message.

Kiren is an iPhone and Android digital safety app made for exactly these moments. It helps tell what is real from what is fake.

Before money changes hands, Kiren checks whether an online shop can be trusted. A good deal stays a good deal. It spots deepfakes and manipulated images used in scams, and it keeps watch over personal information, raising a warning the moment any of it appears in a data breach.

The rest of this guide explains how each of these features works and how to set them up.

Signing in

Kiren uses an email address to sign in. There are no passwords to remember. To confirm the user's identity, a one-time code is sent by email, and entering it completes the sign-in.

1. Open Kiren and tap Let's get started. On the phone's home screen the app icon is labeled F‑Secure Kiren. Tapping Let's get started opens the sign-in screen.

2. Enter an email address. Any email address can be used, as long as it can be opened right now, since this is where the code is sent. Tapping Log in sends a 6-digit code to that address.

3. Retrieve the code from the email. Open the inbox and look for the message from Kiren containing the code. A few tips can help here:

   • If the message does not appear, check the junk or spam folder in case it was delivered there.
   • When signing in on the same phone that receives the email, and email notifications are turned on, the code often appears as a suggestion just above the keyboard. A single tap enters it automatically.
   • To copy and paste instead, copy the code from the email, return to Kiren, and tap the first number box. The full code drops into place automatically.

4. Enter the code to verify. Type or paste the 6 digits. There is no button to tap: the code is checked as soon as the last digit is entered. If it does not match, the screen reads "That code didn't match. Please try again.", the boxes clear, and the code can be entered again.

A few other messages can appear on this screen:

• "Too many incorrect attempts. This code no longer works." appears after too many wrong entries. The boxes turn gray and stop accepting input, and waiting does not bring the code back. Tap Request a new code to return to the email screen and have a fresh code sent. While the resend countdown is still running, the screen shows how many seconds remain before a new code can be requested.
• "Too many tries. Wait # seconds and try again." means attempts were made too quickly. The code is still valid. Wait for the countdown to finish, then enter the same code again.
• If the email has not arrived, or the wrong email address was entered, wait for the 30-second countdown shown as "Wait # seconds to try again." The prompt "Haven't got the email? Click here to resend." then appears. Tapping it returns to the email screen, where the address can be corrected and a new code requested. Requesting another code for the same address within about half a minute shows "We already sent you a code a moment ago. Check your inbox, or wait to request a new one." The code already sent still works and can be entered.

5. Accept the terms and conditions. After the code is verified, the app displays its terms and conditions. Review them, then tap Accept and continue.

6. Setup is complete. Kiren opens to the main screen, and protection is active.

Finding your way around

Kiren is built around three main screens. Swipe left or right to move between them, or tap the names at the top of the screen to jump straight to one.

The three screens are:

• Overview is the home screen and the first thing shown after signing in. It gives an at-a-glance picture of overall protection and news and information on data breaches and scams.
• Activity page shows protection actions such as the scam and deepfake image scanner and the Link Checker.
• You focuses on personal information, showing data that is being monitored for data breaches and checking whether an email address has been compromised in a data breach.

Kiren has two subscription levels, Free and Plus. The tables show which level each feature belongs to.

Overview

Activity

You

The side menu

The menu icon (☰) in the top left corner of the Overview screen opens the side menu. It holds the settings and support items that are not part of the three main screens:

• Account shows the sign-in email address and whether the account is Free or Plus, with Restore purchase, the terms and privacy policy, privacy settings, and account deletion.
• Feedback & bug reports sends feedback or a bug report, with an optional screenshot. The screen also shows the app version.
• Help & Support opens the Kiren support site.
• Licenses lists the open source licenses used in the app.
• Notifications sets which alerts arrive by email and by push notification.
• Language changes the language the app is shown in. See Changing the app language below.
• Log out signs out of the app.

Changing the app language

Kiren can be shown in English, German, Spanish, French, or Japanese. The app starts in English on every phone and does not follow the phone's language setting. To use another language, choose it once:

1. Tap the menu icon (☰) in the top left corner of the Overview screen.
2. Tap Language.
3. Tap the language to use.

The change applies immediately. There is no need to restart the app or sign in again, and the choice is kept after signing out. It is stored on the device, and a second device needs its own choice.

German, Spanish, French, and Japanese are automatic translations and can contain mistakes or odd terms. The Language screen says this in a note headed "Automatic translation", with a Send feedback link for reporting a term that seems off.

Two parts of the protection are not covered by this setting. On iPhone, the Kiren Browsing Protection extension in Safari is shown in English. On Android, the page that Browsing Protection shows when it blocks a website in Chrome follows the phone's language instead of the app's.