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Privacy & security
The iPhone & iPad companion app is not released yet — it isn't on the App Store, and this guide describes the builds in development.
The Android companion app is not released yet — it isn't on Google Play, and this guide describes the builds in development.
LocalPhotos has no account, no cloud, and no analytics. The only network traffic the apps create is between your own devices. The site-wide privacy policy is the formal version; this page is the practical one.
- Your photos and all derived data (faces, places, search text) live in the folders you chose, on your own disks.
- Companion Sync runs over TLS with a pre-shared key, plus a per-device pairing token — an unpaired device can’t read anything.
- Synced libraries: thumbnails and metadata in the app’s private storage; full originals only if you download them.
- The pairing token lives in the Keychain — never in plain files.
- Device-made libraries: the index and thumbnails; your photos stay in the folder you picked.
- The pairing PIN rotates every 30 seconds and is never stored.
- Synced libraries: thumbnails and metadata in the app’s private storage; full originals only if you download them.
- Pairing tokens and NAS passwords: in encrypted storage backed by the Android Keystore — never in plain files.
- Phone-made libraries: the index and thumbnails; your photos stay where they are.
- The pairing PIN rotates every 30 seconds and is never stored.
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