The photos you back up might capture quiet moments at home, your child’s school projects, and screenshots of personal information, but they can also leave unintentional data trails. And what seems like harmless storage can reveal far more than you intend, such as habits, routines, and relationships.
Once your files leave your device, they can be scanned, profiled, used to train algorithms, or flagged in ways that trigger law enforcement(nuova finestra) — sometimes with no way to appeal or recover what you’ve lost.
Knowing the stakes helps you take the necessary steps to back up your photos using platforms that don’t compromise your privacy, such as Proton Drive.
Why your photo backups need strong privacy
Your photo library can include personal memories, creative projects, and sensitive documents — like ID scans, receipts, or tax records captured with your phone.
While it’s important to guard against data loss from device failure — since hard drives crash and files can be deleted without warning — backups alone aren’t enough. Without strong privacy protections, your photos may be vulnerable to:
- Breaches, where weak security or hacked accounts can expose your entire archive — as seen in Dropbox’s 2012 breach.
- Scanning and tracking by platforms that analyze your images to build ad profiles.
- AI training without consent, including facial recognition models used for commercial or surveillance purposes.
- Third-party sharing with advertisers, data brokers, or undisclosed partners.
- Account termination or legal investigation, as platforms like Google may scan your photos, flag content, and lock or delete your account — even if you’ve done nothing wrong.
5 ways to safely back up your photos
While World Backup Day serves as a good annual reminder, your photo backup strategy should work year-round. Here’s what you should do:
1. Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule
The 3-2-1 rule is a proven method for long-term data safety, giving you resilience against anything from spilled coffee to ransomware:
- 3 copies of your data — the original and two backups
- 2 different storage types, such as a cloud backup and an external hard drive
- 1 offsite copy to protect against physical damage or theft
2. Use end-to-end encrypted cloud storage
Backing up your photos to the cloud is convenient, but it can expose your images to scanning unless your service uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Without E2EE, the cloud provider can technically access your files, scan them, or share them with third parties.
Proton Drive provides end-to-end encryption by design. Your photos are encrypted on your device before they’re uploaded, and only you and those you choose to share them with can see them.
That’s different from services like Apple’s iCloud, where E2EE was removed in the UK under government pressure. And, in the unlikely event that Proton is hacked, your content stay protected.
3. Enable two-factor authentication
No matter how secure the platform is, your account and photo backups are only as strong as your login credentials. Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of protection by requiring a second step to access your account, like a one-time code or security key. If someone steals your password, they still can’t get into your backups without this second factor.
You can set up 2FA for your Proton Account to verify your identity using an authenticator app, security key, or both.
4. Organize and automate your backups
Backing up your photos is easier when you approach it an organized, systematic way and have an automated system in place.
Here’s what you can do:
- Use structured folders to organize your pictures by year, event, or category — such as
Photos > 2025 > May. A good file management system goes a long way. - On Windows and macOS, copy photos to your Proton Drive folder, and they will automatically be backed up to your encrypted cloud storage. If you lose internet access, Proton Drive will sync your files once you’re back online.
- On Windows, select any folder on your computer you want to back up. Proton Drive will sync all existing files and automatically back up any new ones you add.
- On iOS and Android, enable automatic photo backup to your encrypted cloud storage.
- With the Proton Drive web app, mark pictures as favorites, use filters to quickly identify photos by type (such as Bursts or RAW), and create albums to group related photos together so they are easier to browse.
5. Turn on file versioning
You may accidentally overwrite a photo or replace a full-resolution image with a lower-quality version. File versioning protects you from these moments, allowing you to restore a previous state of a file — days, months, or years later. It’s especially useful for photographers who frequently edit images and need to recover originals.
Proton Drive supports version history for up to 10 years, so you can safely revisit earlier versions of your image files long after they’ve been updated or replaced.
Back up, share, and protect your photos with Proton Drive
Beyond backing up your photos with Proton Drive, you can:
- Preserve full quality with no forced compression so your images stay sharp and untouched.
- Share albums or folders with fine-grained access controls — choose between viewer or editor access, invite via email, create secure public links, add password protection, or set expiration dates.
- See and manage shared items in a dedicated space, where you can revoke access anytime.
- Invite others to contribute their own photos so you can build collaborative family albums or gather shots from an event.
- Access your backups anywhere — from desktop, mobile, or web. Even folders synced from your computer are visible on your phone.
Everything is protected by end-to-end encryption. Plus, Proton Drive is open source and independently audited, so anyone can verify our apps have no ads, no data mining, and no hidden catches.
