Terms of use.
In plain English.

01About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Harry Zachariou, the individual developer who makes Vault (“we”, “us”, “our”). They cover the Vault iPhone app and this website. By installing or using Vault, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.

Please read the sections on your pattern, recovery words and backups, and on duress mode, with particular care. They explain situations in which your files can become permanently unavailable, and why we cannot get them back for you.

02What Vault is

Vault is an iPhone app for keeping encrypted copies of your photos, videos and other files on your device. It works locally. There is no Vault account, no Vault server that holds your files, and no advertising or analytics in the app. The core vault does not need an internet connection.

Vault encrypts the files you import, and the index of their names, types, dates and sizes, on your iPhone. You open each vault with a pattern you draw together with Face ID, Touch ID or your iPhone passcode. Each vault also has its own 12 recovery words. The Security & limitations page explains how this works and where the protection stops. Please read it before relying on Vault.

03Availability

Vault is available on the App Store for iPhone. An independent security review and testing across a range of physical devices have not yet been completed.

The app can change between versions. A new version may store vaults in a format that earlier versions cannot read. Do not use Vault as the only place you keep files that matter to you. Keep your originals and a verified encrypted backup.

04Your licence to use Vault

We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use Vault on iPhones you own or control. Where you get Vault through the App Store, this is subject to Apple’s App Store Usage Rules. Vault is licensed to you, not sold. We and our licensors keep all rights in the app, its design and the Vault name and marks.

You must not:

• copy, modify, rent, sell or redistribute the app, except as the law allows;
• reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the app, except to the extent the law allows you to despite this restriction;
• use Vault to keep or share content in breach of the law, or in a way that infringes anyone else’s rights;
• use Vault where encryption software is restricted, or in breach of export control or sanctions laws that apply to you.

Vault includes open-source software, such as the Swift Sodium library, which is provided under its own licence terms.

05Your files stay yours

You own the files you put into Vault. We never receive them, and we have no way to see, access, scan, moderate or recover them. Vault does not upload them anywhere. Files only leave your iPhone when you export them, share them, or save an encrypted backup to a location you choose.

You are responsible for the content you keep in Vault, and for having the right to keep it.

06Your pattern, recovery words and backups

Only you hold the means to open your vaults. We do not store your pattern or recovery words. There is no password reset and no back door. This is what keeps your files private. It also means that if you lose your means of access, nobody, including us, can restore it.

Your files may become permanently unavailable if, for example:

• you forget a vault’s pattern and no longer have its recovery words;
• you delete Vault, erase your iPhone, or lose or replace your iPhone, without an encrypted backup and the recovery words used when that backup was made;
• you arm duress mode in a vault and then open that vault with its pattern;
• a backup was made before you added some files, or a backup is lost, damaged or incomplete.

If you turn off your iPhone passcode, iOS removes the device key that Vault relies on. You will then need each vault’s recovery words to set up access again.

Recovery words restore access to vault files that are still on your iPhone. They are not a copy of your files. Backups are manual: Vault does not back up automatically. A backup covers only the files present when it was made, and it needs the recovery words that belonged to that vault at the time. Vault asks iOS to leave its storage out of iPhone backups, and its device key never leaves your iPhone, so an iPhone backup or a transfer to a new iPhone should not be expected to bring your vaults across. Use Vault’s encrypted backup instead.

You are responsible for keeping your recovery words safe outside your iPhone and separately from your backups, and for making and verifying backups as often as you need to.

07Exports, backups and other services

Exporting an original creates an unencrypted copy. Previews also use temporary decrypted copies, which Vault removes when you close them or when the vault locks. Once you save or share a file outside Vault, the destination controls that copy, and Vault cannot delete or revoke it.

When you save an encrypted backup to iCloud Drive or another storage provider through the Files app, that provider’s terms apply. A successful save in Files does not confirm that an upload to the cloud has finished. We are not responsible for services provided by others, including Apple’s Photos, Files, iCloud and Shortcuts.

08Duress mode and other protective features

Duress mode is optional and off unless you arm it. If you arm it in one vault, the next time that vault is opened with its pattern, every other vault on the iPhone is permanently deleted, without a further warning. This cannot be undone, and recovery words cannot bring those vaults back. Encrypted backups and copies outside Vault are not affected. The decision to arm it is yours.

Duress mode, decoy vaults, hidden vaults and alternative Home Screen icons are privacy features, not personal safety tools. They cannot guarantee that anyone will accept a decoy, stop looking, or be unable to find out that Vault or other vaults exist. Examining the iPhone’s storage can reveal that encrypted vaults exist, how many there are and how large they are. Deletion does not guarantee that data cannot be recovered forensically.

Alternative icons only change how Vault looks on your Home Screen. They open Vault’s lock screen, not a working calculator or other utility, and Vault still appears by name in the App Library, Settings and search.

If you are in danger, please contact the emergency services or an organisation that can help you.

09Security has limits

We design Vault carefully, but no software is perfectly secure. Vault does not protect against someone who can see your screen while a vault is open, someone who knows your pattern and can authenticate on your iPhone, someone who has your recovery words and your vault files, or an iPhone whose operating system has been compromised. It cannot prevent screenshots, screen recordings or photographs of your screen.

Please report suspected security issues to us privately, using the contact details below, rather than publicly.

10Privacy

Vault does not ask for your name, email address or phone number. The app contains no analytics, advertising or tracking, and we do not collect information about you or your files through it.

If you choose to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone’s settings, Apple may provide us with crash reports and aggregated usage information. These do not include the contents of your vaults.

If you contact us, we receive the information you choose to send, such as your email address and message, and use it to reply and to improve Vault. This website does not use cookies or analytics. Our hosting provider processes technical information, such as IP addresses, to deliver and protect the site.

11Purchases

Vault does not currently offer any purchases. If paid features are offered in future, they will be sold through the App Store. Apple processes the payment, Apple’s terms apply to the purchase, and refund requests are handled by Apple. We will explain what a purchase includes before you buy it, and any limits on the free version will be shown in the app.

12Updates and availability

We may update, change or stop offering Vault, or any of its features. Where we reasonably can, we will give notice of significant changes. Updates may be needed to keep Vault working with new versions of iOS. If we stop offering Vault, a version already on your iPhone may continue to work, but we cannot promise that it will keep working with future versions of iOS. Keep a current encrypted backup and its recovery words.

13Our responsibility to you

We will provide Vault with reasonable care and skill. Apart from that, and to the extent the law allows, Vault is provided “as is”, without any promise that it will be uninterrupted, free of errors, or suitable for a particular purpose.

We are not responsible for losses caused by you losing, forgetting or disclosing your pattern, recovery words or iPhone passcode; by not keeping a current backup; by arming duress mode; or by events outside our reasonable control. We are not responsible for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable, or for business losses, because Vault is provided for personal use.

If we are responsible for a loss, our total liability to you is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Vault and £50.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law. Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer.

14Ending these terms

You can stop using Vault at any time by deleting it. Deleting Vault deletes the vaults stored on that iPhone, so back up or export anything you want to keep first. We may end your licence if you seriously breach these terms. Sections that by their nature should continue after these terms end, including those on our responsibility and on law and disputes, will continue to apply.

15Apple

If you get Vault from the App Store or through TestFlight:

• these terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are solely responsible for Vault and its content;
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for Vault;
• if Vault fails to meet an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the price you paid for it, if any. To the maximum extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for Vault;
• we, not Apple, are responsible for dealing with any claims relating to Vault or your use of it, including product liability claims, claims that Vault fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, consumer protection claims, and claims that Vault infringes someone else’s intellectual property;
• you confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a US Government embargo or designated by the US Government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties;
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms, and Apple may enforce them against you.

16Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You can bring legal proceedings about them in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts. If you live elsewhere, you keep any protection given to you by the mandatory laws of the country where you live.

If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. If we do not enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else. We may transfer ours to someone who takes over Vault, and this will not reduce your rights. Apart from Apple, as described above, no one else has the right to enforce these terms.

17Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example to reflect new features, purchases or legal requirements. We will publish the updated terms on this page with a new date, and tell you about significant changes in the app or on this site. If you do not agree to the updated terms, you can stop using Vault.

18Contact

Questions about these terms, support requests and security reports can be sent to hczdev1@gmail.com. Please never send your pattern, recovery words or passcode. We will never ask for them.