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Medical papers and test results on your phone

Updated 3 November 2026 · By the FirstHour team

Short answerIt's fine to have them, but they're best kept somewhere with its own lock, not loose among your holiday photos. Medical papers show private details and often an insurance number. Keep what you need, delete what you don't, and be careful who you send them to.

This guide is about keeping the pictures private. It isn't medical or legal advice. Ask your doctor about anything in the papers themselves.

Why people keep them

A lab result to show a new doctor, a prescription to show a pharmacist, a photo of an insurance card for the clinic's front desk. All sensible. They tend to stay long after the appointment.

Why they deserve care

In the Philippines, the Data Privacy Act (Republic Act No. 10173) lists information about a person's health, and health records, as sensitive personal information. In the US, the FTC describes medical identity theft: someone using your personal information, to get care, prescriptions or claims paid in your name. It says to keep medical records, insurance records and other documents with medical information in a safe place. Other countries have their own health privacy rules, so look up your national regulator if you want to know yours.

What to do

  1. Find them. Here's how to look. Look through your screenshots and any photos you took of papers at the clinic or pharmacy.
  2. Delete what's finished with. Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and with iCloud Photos on, deleting applies to all your devices. Empty Recently Deleted to remove them sooner. That can't be undone, so check you have what you need first.
  3. Lock away what you need. The Vault can hold pictures and PDFs behind its own pattern or PIN, separate from your passcode. Here's how the options compare.
  4. Ask the clinic for a fresh copy when you need one. You may be able to ask the clinic or your patient portal for results again, instead of keeping every copy. That's our advice.
  5. Cover details when you send. When a form only needs part of a page, send a covered copy. Here's how.

If one was seen or shared

You can't take back a picture someone else holds. If you think your information was misused, the FTC says to ask each provider, insurer or pharmacy where it may have been used for your records, check them for errors, and report mistakes in writing. It also says to make a recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov. The FTC's page is written for the US, so check what applies where you live.

How FirstHour helps

This is a place where FirstHour has real limits. Protect has no group for medical papers, and it doesn't look for lab results or prescriptions as such. A medical paper may still turn up under IDs and passports if it shows enough personal details, such as your name, birth date and sex, but don't count on that. Most won't be found. It may notice some health insurance cards: a PhilHealth ID, or an Australian Medicare number that comes with the word "Medicare". Those appear under IDs and passports.

Tidy up may sort photos of medical papers into a group called Documents and papers. That's a tidy-up group, not a warning, and sorting can be wrong, so look through a group before you delete anything. You can always move a picture to the Vault by hand. FirstHour's checks don't read PDFs or videos, or pictures in your Hidden album, and can miss handwriting, so a handwritten prescription may be missed. Nothing is uploaded.

Questions

Is it all right to keep a vaccination card photo?

It's your choice. Treat it like any other personal paper: if you need it, lock it away, and send a covered copy when someone asks.

Can the Vault hold a PDF of my results?

Yes. The Vault can hold PDFs and other files from the Files app, and the original stays in Files, so delete that one yourself if you want it gone.

Sources

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