---
title: Are photo vault apps safe? Five things to check in 2026
canonical: https://mavaul.com/guides/are-photo-vault-apps-safe/
description: Some photo vault apps encrypt every file. Others only add a lock screen and track you. Five things to check in the App Store listing before you trust one with your photos.
format: text/markdown
generator: scripts/generate-llms.js
---
# Are photo vault apps safe?

_By [Diogo Ferreira](/about/), founder & engineer_

Some are, some aren't. A safe vault encrypts every photo on the phone, doesn't track you, and doesn't need an account or a cloud you didn't choose. Plenty of popular vaults only put a PIN screen over ordinary files, and some list tracking on their App Store label. You can check all of it in two minutes.

## Five checks
1. Encryption. Does the listing name it? "AES-256-GCM" is a real answer. "Military-grade" isn't. Silence is worse.
2. Tracking. On the App Store page, scroll to App Privacy. "Data Used to Track You" in a vault is a bad sign.
3. Account and cloud. Do photos leave the phone by default? Do you need to sign up?
4. Recovery. If you forget the passcode, how do you get back in, and who else could?
5. Ads. A vault that shows ads is sharing data with ad networks.

## How Mavaul answers them
- AES-256-GCM on the iPhone, with PBKDF2 passcode keys.
- No tracking on its privacy label.
- No account, no Mavaul cloud. Backups go to your own storage, encrypted first.
- A 24-character recovery key, which only you have.
- No ads.

## What no app can promise
Privacy labels are filled in by each developer, who is responsible for keeping them accurate. A vault also can't protect a photo that's still in Photos, in Messages, or in Recently Deleted. Move it, then clean up.

## Questions
### Can a photo vault app see my photos?
If it encrypts on the phone and has no server holding your files, no. Mavaul can't.

### Do photo vault apps upload my photos?
Some do, to their own cloud. Check the listing. Mavaul only uploads if you turn on backup, to storage you choose, encrypted first.

### Which vault apps track you?
Check each App Privacy section. In our Fall 2026 ranking, Private Photo Vault, Keepsafe and KYMS listed tracking.

## Sources
- [Apple Developer: App Privacy Details](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/)
- [Apple: App Store privacy labels](https://www.apple.com/privacy/labels/)
- [NIST FIPS 197: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/fips/197/final)
- [NIST SP 800-38D: Galois/Counter Mode (GCM)](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/38/d/final)
- [NIST SP 800-132: Password-based key derivation](https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/132/final)

## Read next
- [The best photo vault apps for iPhone: Fall 2026](/best-photo-vault-iphone/)
- [What is a photo vault app?](/guides/what-is-a-photo-vault-app/)
- [On-device encryption](/features/on-device-encryption/)

## Try Mavaul
[Download Mavaul on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/pt/app/mavaul-photo-video-vault/id6759567727?l=en-GB)