The guarantor needs the lease. The mechanic wants a picture of your insurance card. The landlord asks for "a copy of your ID." Each request is reasonable — and each one tempts you to do the fast thing: snap a photo and text it.
The safer version takes about two extra minutes: send a PDF, of only the pages and fields they need, through a channel you can control. Here's how to do each part, and why the fast way costs more than it looks.
Why texting a photo of your full ID is risky
A photo of your driver's license isn't just a picture. It's your full legal name, date of birth, home address, signature, and ID number in one frame — most of what someone needs to open accounts in your name or talk their way past a "verify your identity" question.
And once it's sent as a photo, you've lost track of the copies:
- One stays in your camera roll, mixed in with lunches and sunsets.
- One lives in the message thread — on your phone and theirs — indefinitely.
- Both phones likely back those up to a cloud you don't control on the other end.
- The recipient can forward it in one tap, with no record that they did.
None of this means the mechanic is out to get you. It means the photo will outlive the errand by years, sitting in places nobody is guarding. The goal isn't paranoia; it's not leaving copies of your identity lying around as a side effect of getting your brakes fixed.
Share a PDF, not a photo
A PDF is better for sharing than a bare photo for practical reasons: it looks deliberate, multi-page documents stay together in order, and it doesn't land in the recipient's camera roll the way an image can. It also nudges you to prepare the document instead of firing off whatever's in Photos.
Two built-in ways to get one:
- Scan straight to PDF. Open Notes, tap the camera icon → Scan Documents, and capture the lease or card. Share the scan and it goes out as a PDF. (Wondering whether scanning apps in general are trustworthy? Here's how to judge a scanner app.)
- Convert photos you already have. Select the pages in Photos, tap Share → Print, and share from the print preview — you get a single PDF. The full walkthrough is in our guide to turning photos into a PDF on iPhone.
If you keep your documents in Paperlock, this step disappears: any document in your vault exports as a PDF whenever you choose to share it. One clean file, no print-preview trick.
Crop and redact what they don't need
Before anything leaves your phone, ask one question: what does this person actually need to see? Then remove the rest.
Crop first. The mechanic needs your insurance card, not the kitchen counter behind it — and often just the front. A guarantor needs the lease terms and signature pages, not necessarily every addendum. Cropping is the easiest redaction there is.
Black out the rest properly. Open the image, tap Markup (the pen tip icon), and cover sensitive fields with solid black:
- Use the pen at full opacity or, better, add a filled black shape — never the highlighter, which is see-through and trivially reversed by turning up the brightness.
- Cover the whole field generously: ID numbers, barcodes, account numbers.
- Take a screenshot of the marked-up image and send the screenshot. A screenshot is flat pixels — there's no layer underneath for anyone to peel back.
That last step is the one people skip. A see-through "redaction" is worse than none, because it looks safe while hiding nothing.
Expiring links vs. attachments
The channel matters as much as the file. Your two real options:
| Attachment (text/email) | Shared link (iCloud, Drive) | |
|---|---|---|
| After it's sent | A copy exists on their end forever | The file stays with you; they view it |
| Taking it back | Impossible | Stop sharing anytime |
| Effort for them | None — it's just there | One tap to open |
| Best for | Routine, low-stakes paperwork | IDs, contracts, anything sensitive |
For the lease you're sending a guarantor, a link from iCloud Drive or Google Drive is the grown-up move: they get what they need this week, and next month you turn the link off. In the Files app, long-press the PDF → Share → Collaborate or Send Copy — choose collaborate-style sharing to keep control, and remove access later from the same menu.
For the insurance card at the repair shop? An attachment is honestly fine. Match the effort to the stakes.
Keep the master copy somewhere guarded
All of this gets easier when your documents have one proper home instead of living loose in your camera roll. A photo of your ID sitting in Photos is visible to anyone you hand your unlocked phone, and to every app you've given photo access — which is why documents belong behind Face ID, not next to your screenshots.
That's the arrangement Paperlock is built around: your documents sit encrypted on your phone in a vault that locks with Face ID, sensitive ones like IDs show blurred thumbnails until you re-confirm it's you, and nothing is shared with anyone unless you export it — as a PDF, on purpose, one document at a time. Sharing stays a deliberate act instead of a standing risk. You can see how it works here; it's coming soon to iPhone.
The two-minute checklist
Next time someone asks for a document:
- Ask what they actually need — which pages, which fields.
- Crop and redact the rest (opaque black, then screenshot).
- Send a PDF, not a loose photo.
- Use a link you can revoke if it's an ID or a contract.
- Delete the stray copies from your camera roll and the message thread afterward — the errand's done; the copies don't need to be.
The person on the other end gets exactly what they asked for. You keep everything they didn't.