Why Clann is different
We get it. With apps similar to ours out there, what makes Clann different? To make your decision easier without adding more noise to the sea of options, here’s why Clann is your go-to for your family needs. The short answer: your photos and videos are end-to-end encrypted, and further down this page you can lock one yourself and see what our servers actually receive.
End-to-End Encrypted Photos and Videos
Your photos and videos are locked on your phone before they are uploaded, and the key that opens them lives only on your family's devices. Not a vault we promise not to open - a vault we have no key to.
- Every family created from August 2026 onwards is end-to-end encrypted by default, with nothing to set up
- Photos, videos and even the small thumbnails are encrypted - our servers hold scrambled files and no key that opens them
- Location data is stripped from the photo on your phone, before the upload happens at all
- Families created before August 2026 stay unencrypted until an admin switches it on for everyone, which then converts the existing library too
- The encryption itself is open source and published, so you don't have to take our word for any of this
We Don't Use Your Data - Seriously
Your photos and personal information belong to you. We're committed to keeping it that way.
- We never sell your data - Your information is never sold to third parties, advertisers, or data brokers
- No AI training - Your photos are never used to train artificial intelligence models
- No advertising - We don't use your data for targeted ads or marketing purposes
- No data sharing - We don't share your information with other companies or services
- Your data is yours - We only use your data to provide the service you signed up for: sharing memories with your family
Family-Only Access
We believe your family memories should stay within your family. (Or friends you consider family!) We've designed our system so that your data is only accessible to people you explicitly invite.
- All content is restricted to your family group members
- Invite-only access ensures strangers can't view your photos
- Can create more than one family group for different child profiles
Ongoing Security and Protection
We continuously work to keep your data safe with regular security updates and best practices. This includes:
- Regular security audits and updates
- Secure data transmission using HTTPS encryption
- Secure server infrastructure with industry-standard protections
What Encryption Doesn't Cover
Encryption is not invisibility, and every honest system has edges. Here are ours, in plain terms:
- We can see basic file facts - that a file exists, who uploaded it, when, which family it belongs to, its size, and whether it is a photo or a video
- Encrypted photos and videos open in a browser only after you approve that browser - the key never reaches our servers, so a relative viewing on a computer is approved once from a family member's phone
- Older families aren't encrypted until an admin turns it on - every member's device has to hold a key first
See It for Yourself
Every family photo app says it keeps your photos and videos private. Rather than ask you to believe ours, here is the encryption itself, running in this page. Pick a photo, watch it get locked, then try everything you can think of to get it back - including us looking at it. Videos are sealed the same way, just decrypted piece by piece as they play.
Pick a photo and watch it get locked
It never leaves this page — the locking happens right here in your browser, using the same encryption the Clann app uses on your phone.
No photo yet
On your phone
The photo is locked here, before anything is uploaded.
Nothing stored yet
On our servers
All we ever receive is the locked version.
On your family’s phone
It opens only on a phone that holds your family’s key.
Show the technical detail
This page imports @clann/e2ee, the open-source package our app’s encryption is built on, so the file produced above is a real CLN1 envelope: a 32-byte header followed by the photo sealed in chunks with AES-256-GCM in the OAE2 STREAM construction — a counter nonce per chunk with the final one flagged, and the header used as authenticated data so it cannot be edited independently of the body. That is why editing the label or shuffling the pieces breaks the file.
Lock a photo above to see the real header bytes it produced.
This simulator runs on @clann/e2ee, the same open-source library the Clann app encrypts with.
Nothing you pick here is uploaded anywhere - the locking happens in your browser, using the same open-source library the app encrypts with. Read how Clann's encryption works →
See How Clann Compares
Compare Clann with popular family photo apps to see why families are switching:
Download Clann - the private family photo sharing app.
