What FirstHour can and can't see

Updated 3 November 2026 · By the FirstHour team

Two different questions

"Can FirstHour see my pictures?" can mean two things. Can the app on your iPhone look at them? And can the people behind FirstHour look at them? The answers are different, so here they are one at a time.

What the app sees, on your iPhone

• Your pictures, once you allow it in iPhone's Photos question. It reads the words and shapes in them using Apple's tools, on the phone, to spot things like card numbers and IDs. Here's how that check works.
• What it finds, such as "looks like a card". That list stays on your iPhone.
• The Vault's contents, while it's open. The app has to open your pictures to show them to you, just as you would. When the Vault locks, it forgets the key.

What its makers can't see

• Your pictures. The check runs on your iPhone, and nothing is uploaded to us.
• The Vault. Photos, videos, files, notes and their small previews are sealed on your iPhone with AES-256-GCM. The key that opens them is never sent to us.
• Your pattern, PIN and recovery phrase. We never receive them, which is also why we can't look them up or reset them.
• Your Plan B details, such as the providers you tick, the numbers you add, and your IMEI and serial number.

For the Vault, this is how FirstHour is built, not a promise made on trust alone: there is no copy on our side to hand over. The privacy policy sets it out in full.

The one optional feature that uses a server

Theft Lock isn't in the app today, and it would be off unless you turned it on. It isn't finished, so treat this as a description of the current design. It would let you mark your iPhone as lost from another device. It would keep an account for your iPhone on our server, plus your iPhone's model, not your name, whether it's marked lost, and a record of security events. If you also turn on Recovery location, our server would keep the places your iPhone noted, and we could read them. It never sends pictures, the Vault, or anything FirstHour finds. If you also turn on Recovery location, it sends the places your iPhone noted. It never sends pictures, the Vault, or anything FirstHour finds.

Who else can see things

• Apple, for anything you've chosen to keep in iCloud. If you use iCloud Photos, your pictures are in iCloud because of that setting, separately from FirstHour. Your iPhone may also download a picture from your own iCloud so FirstHour can read it. That's a download, not an upload. More on what Apple can see.
• Anyone holding your unlocked iPhone, or looking over your shoulder when the Vault is open.

What this doesn't promise

• It isn't a promise about every possible attack. A hacked iPhone, or someone who watches you draw your pattern, can get past it. The full list is here.
• Some temporary unlocked copies exist. To show most files, or to save or share a file or note, FirstHour makes one temporary unlocked copy and removes it afterwards. Files sent from another app wait as unlocked copies until the Vault opens.
• It doesn't cover copies already elsewhere, such as pictures still in Photos, in iCloud, or sent to other people.
• There's no outside audit yet. FirstHour's Vault has had its own security checks, but no independent review, so you're taking our description alongside the design, not a verdict from someone else.

Questions