Is a vault app really encrypted, or does it just hide your photos?
Short answer. Hiding only moves a file out of sight; anyone who knows where to look can still open it. Encryption turns the file into unreadable data that needs a key. ZeroBox encrypts: every photo and video is sealed with AES-256, and so is the list of your files. Hiding the app icon is a separate feature and does not touch the files.
Hiding and encrypting are different things
A “hidden” photo is normally the same readable file, kept in a place the gallery does not show. A file manager, a computer connected by cable or another app with storage access may still find it. An encrypted photo is stored as scrambled data. Without the key there is nothing to look at, wherever the file sits.
Five questions to ask any vault app
- Does it say what it uses? “Secure” and “military-grade” are not an answer. A named method (for example AES-256) is something you can check.
- Are the files encrypted, or only moved? Ask what a file manager would show if it could see the app's folder.
- What about names and the file list? Encrypted photos with a readable list of file names still tell a story. ZeroBox seals the list too.
- Where does the key live? In ZeroBox the key is tied to your phone and your PIN and never goes to a server. There is no account to reset it through.
- What happens to the original? In ZeroBox, after encryption the originals in your gallery are deleted. Files picked from other apps stay where they are.
What ZeroBox does
- Photos and videos are kept encrypted inside ZeroBox's private storage, not in the gallery. Other apps and the file manager do not see them.
- Screenshots and screen recording are blocked inside the app.
- Everything stays on the phone. The app has no internet permission, so there is no online copy to breach.
- Hiding the app icon (the disguises) is separate from encryption. It changes how the app looks on your home screen, not how your files are stored.
What encryption does not protect
Encryption guards the files while the vault is closed. If someone holds your phone while the vault is open, or knows your PIN, they can see what you can see. A PIN that is easy to guess weakens the whole thing, and a lost PIN with no recovery key means the photos cannot be opened by anyone, you included.
A quick check you can do yourself
After you add a photo, look for it in the gallery and in a file manager. For photos from your gallery it should be gone from both. Then ask the app what it stores and how it protects it: a vault that cannot answer that clearly is probably only hiding.