Vaultron vs Private Photo Vault: Authenticated Encryption vs Ad-Supported Lockers
Many early App Store photo lockers monetize free tiers with banner and interstitial ad networks, running third-party ad SDK code inside the same app sandbox as your private photos. Vaultron contains zero ads, zero third-party SDKs, and encrypts every item on the Free and Pro tiers alike with 256 KB AES-256-GCM chunks.
Capability Matrix
| Capability | Vaultron | Private Photo Vault |
|---|---|---|
| Per-file AES-256-GCM encryption | Active on both Free (220 items) and Pro tiers | UI passcode lock with paid security add-ons |
| In-app ads & ad-network SDKs | Zero ads and zero third-party SDKs | Ad-supported free tier with tracking SDKs |
| Plausible deniability architecture | Cryptographic Slot 7 Decoy + Slot 6 Duress Wipe | Basic decoy password |
| VisionKit PDF scanner & private notes | Included on Free and Pro | Primarily photo/video focused |
| Offline desktop `.vaultbackup` decryptor | Included (CSP: default-src 'none') |
Not available |
1. Keeping Ad SDKs Out of Your Security Boundary
Third-party ad and attribution SDKs execute with the exact same iOS sandbox permissions as the host application. Vaultron links exclusively against Apple system frameworks (CryptoKit, Security, CloudKit, StoreKit, VisionKit, AVFoundation).
2. Ciphertext on Disk vs Unencrypted Sandbox Folders
Apps that merely place a PIN screen in front of plain JPEG or MOV files inside their sandbox expose those files to unencrypted computer backups or forensic filesystem extraction. Vaultron writes only 512-byte sealed VFIL headers and authenticated AES-256-GCM ciphertext chunks.