Pic-Safe review

We put our iPhone's pictures under lock and key as we review the security app Pic-Safe

To say we're so fixated by security and protection these days, there's one aspect of privacy we rarely consider. Not everyone's got a smartphone - some folk can't let go of the 20th Century - but pretty much everyone has got a camera phone.

Pictures are being snapped every second of every day, and as search engines begin to roll out image-based searches, we might be surprised where we crop up online.

There's really very little you can do about this, of course, aside from wearing a paper bag or adopting religion, but you can at least put your iPhone's pictures under digital lock and key using apps such as Pic-Safe.

This application builds a level of security around your photos, should you want to avoid prying eyes in your Camera Roll. The app begins with a password entry and a custom password recovery question and answer - a welcome safety feature not often seen in on-device security.

Pic-Safe has the obligatory 'unsorted' folder, which is accessible at all times, without a password entry. You can then add as many custom folders as you like, and either leave them unlocked or apply an individual password to each one. Any photos imported into that folder are then locked away, until you enter the correct code. Even the thumbnails are removed when a folder is under password protection.

Photos are individually imported from the iPhone's Camera Roll (or any other photo albums you might have), and land in Pic-Safe's unsorted folder. A simple, and well-designed drag and drop interface then let's you move them where ever you want.

Of course, there's every chance you'll eventually want to extract your photos from the app, which is achieved by emailing them directly from the locked folder, assuming you've unlocked it first.

For full security, you have to manually go back into the Camera Roll and delete the originals after importing them into Pic-Safe. There's no real way around this for the app, as the limitations are imposed by iOS, but it's still a bit of a chore and if you happen to overlook this aspect the whole premise of Pic-Safe falls apart.

Another surprising omission is the lack of an option to take new photos from within the app and save them straight to a secure folder. Any photography has to take place first and then be moved over into the secure area. Again, this isn't a deal breaker, but it's one of those small gaps in the fence that compromise an otherwise great app. Indeed, an app that some - in just the right situation - will find to be utterly essential.

If that's you, don't let these minor problems stop you from testing out Pic-Safe (or Pic-Safe Lite, at the very least), which does what it promises with just enough style and substance to make it money well spent.

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