Now You Can Have an Encrypted Backup for Your iPhone Photos

iPhones have automatic photo backup to iCloud, but that's not an encrypted service, but if you want to increase the security of those pictures, you can always add a third-party that offers encryption.

According to Proton's newest announcement, sent to Lifewire via email, you now have the option to backup your iPhone photos in the encrypted Proton Drive. Statistics show that we take more than 5 billion photos per day, and many of them contain sensitive information, so backing them up to an encrypted drive makes good sense from a security standpoint.

The new Proton Drive capability requires setup, but once you've turned on the photo backup feature, then your iPhone photos will automatically back up to Proton Drive. You can even designate photos that you would like to be available offline so you can access them even when you don't have internet access. And, of course, the photos will be fully encrypted, whether you're online or not. Proton promises that it can't access your images (or anything else stored in your Proton Drive).

Proton also assures that photo management in Proton Drive will be easy to use, including a Photos tab to easily access your photos,

Proton Drive is available as a free service with 5GB storage, but if you need additional space, Proton also offers a subscription service with several tiers, including Drive Plus, a $3.99/mo subscription that gives you access to 200GB storage space, Proton Unlimited with 500GB per month storage and a subscription to Proton VPN, Proton Mail, and Proton Pass premium features for $9.99/mo, and Proton Family that gives you up to 3TB shared storage, all the benefits of Proton Unlimited, and the ability to share access with up to 6 other users. It also offers a monthly grid to help you easily organize your photos and intuitive controls to preview and download your images.

Proton Drive photo backup for iPhone is available now. The Android version of this feature was released in December 2023.