September 7, 2026
Photo backup apps throw around security phrases, and "encrypted in transit" is one of the most common. It sounds reassuring, but it's worth knowing exactly what it does and doesn't promise.
It covers the journey. When a photo leaves your phone and travels to the cloud, an encrypted connection protects it along the way — like a sealed envelope in a courier, so nobody can read the contents while it's moving. "In transit" is the travel leg of the trip, not what happens once it arrives.
It does not cover the files sitting in storage. Encryption at rest — where the stored copy can only be read by someone holding a private key — is a separate, stronger claim. It's also separate from end-to-end encryption, where even the service itself can't read your data. A genuinely honest app tells you which of these it means. If one says only "encrypted in transit," that's the scope of the promise.
In-transit encryption stops someone from intercepting your uploads on a public network, and it's the baseline any serious backup app should meet. If an app doesn't even secure the upload path, that says something. But it's a floor, not a ceiling.
GramPhoto encrypts photos and videos in transit during upload — and says exactly that, without implying at-rest or end-to-end encryption that doesn't ship. The wording is the scope. If you want the longer version, here's how photo backup works, and the FAQ answers what we can and can't claim.