The Safest Way to Store and Share Your Nudes

Listen, if you’re going to take them, follow these precautions so they don’t go anywhere you don’t intend them to.
An eggplant emoji inside a safe.
Illustration: WIRED; Getty Images

Last week, Google announced a handy new upcoming feature for Google Photos: the ability to hide your sexy photos in a Locked Folder where friends can’t accidentally swipe to it. OK, sure, Google didn’t come right out and say that’s what it’s for, but we all know it’s not for photos of your secret dog. However, a hidden folder is only one part of a balanced privacy diet. Here’s how to be safe from start to finish if you decide to take and share photos of yourself.

Before we get started, a disclaimer: The surest way to ensure that nude photos of you never end up somewhere you didn't intend is to not take nude photos. Just like the surest way to avoid pregnancy or STIs is to never have sex. But it's important to recognize that abstinence-only education is incomplete. So, while remembering that not taking nude photos is an option (and no one should ever pressure you to take compromising photos of yourself), this guide will focus on how to stay safe without resorting to digital abstinence.

Make Sure You Trust the Recipient

As with any intimate act, sharing nude photos or videos of yourself requires trust. It’s a good idea, before you even take the pictures, to know whether the person you’re sending them to might share them with someone else or keep them longer than you agree to, or whether they can be trusted to delete them if you ask.

Unfortunately, figuring out how to trust another person is a bit too complicated for a guide like this, but here are a few red flags that might indicate it’s better to hold off:

  • You’ve only known them for a short time. Hormones can make anyone seem better, safer, and more exciting than they actually are. If you just met someone and you don’t yet know a whole lot about them, it’s never a bad idea to wait.
  • They’re pressuring you to do things you’re uncomfortable with. If you’re not comfortable taking photos of yourself, and your partner's response is, “C’mon baby, I need to see you!” that’s a big red flag that they don’t respect your boundaries.
  • Your personal or professional reputation would be harmed if the photos got out. Depending on the industry or community you work in, it might not be much of a scandal if photos of you got out. In fact, some communities exist to support people voluntarily sharing their photos with strangers. However, you are never required to be part of that group. If you think your work, family, or friends could be affected, it might be safer to skip the sharing, even if you trust your partner.

No matter what, remember the number one rule: You should always be able to say no. Not just to taking or sharing the photos initially, but anything that comes after. If you don’t want a partner to share your images, post them online, or store them somewhere unsafe, or if you want them to delete the photos at any time, you should be able to ask for that. If someone tries to take that option away from you, they’re not respecting your consent and they might not be a good person to share sensitive images with.

Crop Out or Hide Identifying Features (and Data)

It’s entirely possible, even with a partner you trust, for photos of you to get out. Your phone or your partner’s phone could get hacked, a wayward gallery app could be left open, or someone who used to be trustworthy could break that trust. Regardless of the circumstances, one key way to minimize harm if that happens is to make sure the pictures you take have as little identifying information in them as possible.

This can include cropping photos to cut out faces or identifiable parts of the background. If you crop out your face but there’s an artwork on the wall that your family knows is yours, the picture could still be traced to you. Blurring or censoring tattoos is a good idea (your phone usually has tools you can use to draw over images), but also keep in mind that the location of tattoos itself can be used to identify you. 

Also, don’t forget to remove identifying data. If your phone’s camera automatically adds location data to your photos, turn that off. Photos also come with a ton of other embedded information called EXIF data. Stripping that information from your photos before sharing them will help ensure that no one else can figure out when, where, and how a photo was taken.

Turn Off Cloud Backups, and Store Photos Privately

Once you take photos, you’ll want to keep tabs on where they end up. This can be tough if your phone is backing them up to your desktop, tablet, and the cloud before you’re even done taking them. To avoid this, you have two options: Either turn off cloud backups or use a different app that doesn’t automatically back up photos. For example, while Snapchat has its own cloud backup features, taking photos with Snapchat won’t automatically back up to Google Photos. So you could take normal photos with your regular camera app, but take more risqué photos using Snapchat and save them locally just to your phone.

This is also where features like Google’s Locked Folder or Apple’s Hidden albums come in handy. Google’s version will only keep a copy of anything in the Locked Folder on your phone, which prevents it from accidentally showing up elsewhere. While Apple still allows iCloud to sync files that are in a Hidden album, those files will stay hidden on all the devices they’re synced to.

If your phone or device doesn’t already have a feature to hide photos, you can still keep them stored safely on your own. A password-protected folder on your device or even external storage like an SD card or USB drive can be a safe place to store photos once you’re done editing and sharing them.

Use Secure Messaging Apps (Read: Not Facebook) to Send Photos

Once your nudes leave your phone, it’s no longer entirely in your control who sees them. Any server where they’re temporarily (or permanently) stored could be a potential place where photos get leaked or stolen. One of the best ways to avoid that problem is to use encrypted messaging apps like Signal or Telegram.

These apps encrypt any messages or photos you send between devices, so even if someone snooped on your data as it's traveling to its destination, they wouldn’t be able to see what it is. Only the device sending the data and the device receiving can see the photos. Both apps also allow you to create self-destructing messages that will delete themselves after a certain amount of time.

Of course, it’s important to remember that if someone can see it, they can copy it. Encrypted messaging is good for making sure some third-party doesn’t find your photos, but even with messages that self-destruct, it’s always possible for the person you share with to take screenshots, take photos of their screen with another camera, or save copies that can still leak long after you think the message is gone. Once again, make sure you trust the person you’re sharing with before you send those pictures.

Lock Your Phone and Set Up Remote Tools

For all our focus on hackers trying to steal compromising photos from a mainframe, ultimately one of the biggest threats to your privacy can come from inside your own home. A nosy family member, a curious child, or a houseguest with boundary issues could all end up picking up your phone, thumbing through your gallery, and seeing something not meant for their eyes.

To prevent this, it’s a good idea to set up security on your phone. (Actually, that’s a good idea regardless.) At the very least, make sure your phone is protected by a PIN. Most modern phones have either fingerprint or facial ID that can even more securely lock your phone. A family member could look over your shoulder and memorize your PIN, but they can’t memorize your fingerprint. This extra layer of protection will help keep prying eyes away, and it might even be required for some security features, such as Google’s new Locked Folder.

Also be sure to set up remote tools to locate and lock your phone. Both Apple and Google have built-in features that let you find a lost phone with GPS, lock it remotely, and even erase the phone if you really need to make sure no one can get at the files stored on it. Ideally, you won’t need this feature 99 percent of the time (especially just for regular nude-sharing). But the one time you need it because you think someone took your phone and might get access to your photos, you’ll be glad you had it.


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