Photo app privacy ratings
Photo libraries and backups.
12 photo management are rated against 4 public criteria, and 12 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 6 with a known jurisdiction, 4 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 6 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Open-source photo management only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gallery and metadata explorer for Android that handles images, videos and formats such as multi-page TIFF, SVG, motion photos and panoramas, with albums, tags, maps and search. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Desktop photo management app from the KDE community for importing, organizing, tagging, searching and editing large photo libraries, including RAW files, face recognition and metadata editing. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Offline photo and video gallery for Android with albums, a basic photo editor, EXIF metadata removal and hidden folders. It does not request internet access. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Self-hosted photo and video management server with a web interface, timeline view, multiple users, face recognition, object and scene detection, semantic search and automatically generated event albums. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Self-hosted photo management and sharing app with a web interface for uploading, organizing and sharing albums. An optional paid Supporter Edition adds extra features such as watermarking and statistics. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
End-to-end encrypted photo and video backup and sharing, with apps for mobile, desktop and web. The server is open source and can be self-hosted. |
Grade C | 70 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Self-hosted photo and video backup and management server, with automatic mobile upload, timeline view, albums, search and facial recognition. |
Grade C | 65 | 100% | – | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
Photo gallery software for publishing and managing large photo collections on the web, with albums, tags, user permissions, plugins and mobile apps. It can be self-hosted or used as a paid hosted service from its developers. |
Grade C | 65 | 100% | France Nine Eyes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
Apple's photo and video library sync built into the Photos app on Apple devices, with iCloud for Windows and web access. Photos are end-to-end encrypted only with the optional Advanced Data Protection setting, which is off by default. |
Grade C | 60 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | Yes | Yes | Partial |
Self-hosted photo management app with a web interface that indexes a photo library and adds automatic tagging, face recognition, maps and search. A free Community Edition is available, with paid memberships adding extra features. |
Grade D | 50 | 100% | Germany Fourteen Eyes | Partial | Partial | Yes | No |
Google's photo and video backup and sharing service, with automatic phone upload, face grouping, search and editing tools. |
Grade F | 20 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | Yes | No |
Amazon's photo and video backup and sharing service, with automatic phone upload, image search and a shared Family Vault. Storage comes with an Amazon Prime membership or a paid storage plan. |
Grade F | 0 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | No | No |
Questions
What is the most private option among photo management?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are photo management rated?
Each entry answers 4 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.