Freelancers and unreleased client work
How freelancers can keep unreleased designs, photos, and drafts private on a phone, respecting NDAs and client wishes.
A friend asks what you are working on, and you reach for your phone to show them something harmless. Three photos later, there is the unreleased logo your client asked you to keep quiet. Freelancers carry client work everywhere, and the phone is where it slips out most easily.
Right after a shoot or meeting
- Move client files out of the camera roll if you can. A swipe through the gallery should show your life, not your NDA.
- Check whether the camera roll syncs to a cloud shared with family or a partner. Shared libraries can show new photos to everyone in them.
- If the client gave you ID or contracts, keep those apart from the creative work. The guide on storing ID documents covers that.
Showing work without showing everything
When you show a client a draft on your phone, open just that file. If they want to keep it, send a proper copy instead of handing over the phone. For portfolio pieces you are allowed to show, keep a separate album.
Sharing drafts
Read what your contract says about where files can go. Many clients have their own sharing tools. If you send something yourself, a link that expires or a read-only copy is gentler than a file that lives forever in someone's chat.
VaultWell, coming soon, can make read-only .vwshare copies that stop opening after a set number of opens or a date, with a separate share phrase. Anyone with the phrase could still copy what they see, so it limits spread rather than preventing it.
When the project ends
Archive what you need off the phone and delete the rest, including from Recently Deleted. Old client files are a quiet risk you can simply remove.