How FirstHour checks your pictures without uploading them
What happens during a check
- You give permission. iPhone asks whether FirstHour can see your photos, and you decide how much.
- Your iPhone reads each picture. Apple's Vision tools find text and QR codes, and label what a picture looks like, on the device.
- FirstHour looks for known patterns. For example, a long number counts as a full card number only if it passes the standard check real card numbers pass, and a recovery phrase has to be words from the list wallets use. FirstHour also flags pictures that look like a card when a digit is misread or no number can be read, so expect the odd false alarm.
- Results stay on your iPhone. Pictures that need a look show up blurred in Protect until you're ready, unless you've turned blurring off in Settings.
- You decide what happens next. FirstHour doesn't delete or move anything by itself.
Why on-device matters
If pictures were checked on a server, your IDs and card photos would have to leave your phone first, the very thing you're trying to avoid. Here, the check makes no copy on anyone else's computer to be leaked, hacked or handed over.
If you use iCloud Photos
Your iPhone may download a picture from your own iCloud so it can be read. That's a download from Apple, not an upload.
The one part that talks to FirstHour's server
Theft Lock, which isn't in the app today, and only if you turned it on. It lets you mark this iPhone as lost from another device, and FirstHour locks itself on that phone. It locks FirstHour, not the iPhone or your other accounts. To do that, it sends your iPhone's model and asks whether it's been marked lost. If you also turn on Recovery location, it sends the places your iPhone noted, how accurate they are, the times and a rough battery level. It never sends pictures, the Vault, or anything FirstHour finds. The picture check doesn't use it.
What it can't do
- It can miss things, especially handwriting, blurry pictures and unusual documents. "Nothing found" means nothing obvious, not "safe".
- It can flag things by mistake. That's why you always get the final say.
- It doesn't check videos or your Hidden album.
- It only looks in this iPhone's photo library. It can't see pictures you've sent to other people.
Questions
Can I check this myself?
Yes, roughly. Turn on Airplane Mode and run a check. Pictures on your iPhone are still read. Some stored only in iCloud are counted as "only in iCloud" and skipped until you're back online.
Does Apple see my pictures during the check?
FirstHour doesn't send them to Apple. It uses Apple's tools on your iPhone. If you use iCloud Photos, your pictures are in iCloud because of that setting, separately from FirstHour.
Why does a first check take a while?
Because your own iPhone does all the work, one picture at a time. Here's what to expect.
Sources
- Vision framework, Apple Developer
- Text Recognition in Vision Framework, Apple WWDC 2019