NortonLifeLock’s SafePic App Protects The Digital Photos You Don’t Want Others To See

Most of us have perhaps experienced a time when we showed our vacation pictures to our colleagues, and they scrolled one more picture to the left, revealing an embarrassing or private image. In addition to private pictures, our phones also hold images of documents like passports, tickets, tax forms, and medical prescriptions.

Every day, sensitive and private information about us finds its way into our devices through our pictures, making us susceptible to hacking, theft, accidental disclosure, and ransom.

Introducing SafePic by Norton Labs
Norton Labs has developed a solution to this problem in the form of a new iOS app called SafePic. SafePic uses machine learning to discover and help protect potentially sensitive images such as passports, social security cards, passwords, credit cards, and private photographs.

In its discovery phase, SafePic identifies these sensitive images, copies them to a separate secure vault, and depending on the user’s choice, either deletes the original images from the device’s photo library or replaces them with corresponding blurred placeholders.

Original images can only be accessed through SafePic's vault, or by selecting a placeholder in the device photo library and unblurring it with the help of SafePic’s extension.

Access to the vault or any unblurred image is permitted only if the user successfully authenticates with FaceID or their device passcode. When the user is not accessing the vault, images are encrypted with state-of-the-art cryptography to prevent backdoor access.

While certain pictures require privacy from accidental disclosure, they do not merit the high-grade security of SafePic’s vault. For such images, we have developed a novel solution called PhotoBlur, which creates a blurred version of the photo when a user is swiping through the photo library. The user can then reveal the original, unblurred photo when they press and hold the screen.

SafePic delivers on Norton’s vision to protect and empower people to live their digital lives safely and provides customers with an innovative solution to help keep their private photos private. For more information about SafePic, visit https://www.nortonlifelock.com/blogs/norton-labs/safepic-app-launch

SafePic by Norton Labs is now available for download in the New Zealand App Store.

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