Security and privacy

No analytics.
Your photos stay yours.

What VEIL does, what it refuses to do, and exactly what leaves your device.

What VEIL never does

  • Collect usage data, crash reports, photos, file names or anything about your libraries. There is no analytics or advertising code.
  • Ask you to create an account, or send anything to a server I run. There isn’t one.
  • Keep a master key, a reset password or a reviewer-only way in.
  • Ask for access to your whole photo library to import. The system picker gives VEIL only what you choose.
  • Pretend to be a different app.

What leaves your device, and when

Every network connection VEIL makes
WhatWhere toWhen
Encrypted backup snapshots (already encrypted on your device)Your own iCloud Drive, in VEIL’s app folderOnly if you turn on iCloud backup (VEIL Plus)
An encrypted library transferYour other device, on your local networkOnly while you run VEIL Transfer on both devices
Purchase and restoreAppleWhen you buy or restore VEIL Plus

Security model

  • Content: AES-256-GCM with a separate key for every item; videos in authenticated chunks, so a damaged or altered chunk is rejected.
  • Passphrase: Argon2id, memory-hard, with parameters tuned so each guess is slow on any hardware.
  • Face ID and Touch ID: a Secure Enclave key on this device wraps the library key, with access tied to the current biometric enrolment.
  • Key file: a fixed set of equal-size slots, so its size does not reveal how many libraries exist.
  • Storage: iOS Data Protection on top, and files excluded from unencrypted device backups.
  • Backups: encrypted before upload; Apple stores data it cannot read. Restoring needs your passphrase or recovery key.

Limits

No app can protect photos on a device that is already compromised, or from someone who can force you to unlock it. The alternate library helps against a casual look, not a forensic examination. The encryption design has not yet had an independent security review; that is planned before launch, and this page will be updated.

Report a vulnerability

Please email security@veilapp.eu. I reply within three working days. Please give me 90 days before publishing. See also security.txt.

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