Court Papers and Legal Files on Your iPhone: Keep Them Private
You photographed a court notice, a settlement letter and your ID so you could send them to your lawyer. Months later they are still in your camera roll, next to holiday photos. Anyone who borrows your phone, or sees it at the wrong moment, can scroll straight to them.
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What do I need to know?
- Photos has no real lock for documents. Hidden is a filter, not encryption.
- Copies spread. One scan can sit in Photos, iCloud, a backup and a message thread.
- A vault keeps one locked copy. Delete the others once you have checked it opens.
What should I do today?
You need about 20 minutes.
- Find them. In Photos, search for "document", "letter" or the case name. Scans of paper often show up as documents.
- Check Files and Notes for PDFs and scanned pages.
- Check Messages and Mail. Attachments you sent stay in those threads.
- Move the files into a vault that does not open with your passcode.
- Delete the originals, then empty Recently Deleted in Photos and Files.
- Lock sensitive notes. Tap the share button, then Lock Note.
- Turn on Advanced Data Protection if you keep other copies in iCloud. See Apple's guide.
Short on time? Do steps 1, 4 and 5.
What if the papers are for a lawyer?
Send them through whatever channel your lawyer asks for. Then remove your own spare copies from chat threads. Keep one locked copy and your lawyer's copy.
What if someone asks to see my phone?
You may be asked to unlock it in a dispute, at a border or by a partner. Your rights depend on who asks and where you are. A lawyer can tell you what applies to you. A vault does not give you a legal right to refuse.
What this doesn't protect against
A vault does not stop a court order, and it does not erase copies you already sent. It does not help if someone watches you draw your pattern or if malware is on your unlocked phone. A pattern is weaker than a passphrase, so use 8 or more cells. If you lose the pattern and the recovery phrase, the vault is gone.
Do it with Cryptile
Cryptile stores documents and photos encrypted with AES-256-GCM. The key is made on your phone from a pattern you draw. There is no account and no server, so the developer never holds your keys. Search inside the vault reads text from your scans and PDFs on the device and is part of Plus.
Cryptile is free for up to 2 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos, with files, notes and folders unlimited. Plus removes the limits for $19.99 a year (7-day free trial) or $39.99 once, for one person. The price is the same every day.
Cryptile Send, Files-app access and shared vaults are coming and are not available yet.