Prioritize your immediate safety. A vault feature cannot guarantee that another person will stop demanding access, and destructive controls can cause irreversible loss.
Do not turn an emergency into a product test
If a person is pressuring you, a new app, changed access or unexpected deletion may affect their behavior. Technical instructions cannot predict that response. Where possible, use a safer device to seek help appropriate to your circumstances. The Safety Net technology-safety plan explains why the timing of device and access changes matters.
Before it happens: prepare quietly
- Decide, at a calm moment, whether a decoy makes sense for you. For many people a decoy alone is enough.
- If you use one, set it up with ordinary content and practise opening it, so it feels natural.
- Keep your private pattern different from your phone passcode, and never draw it where it can be seen.
- Make an encrypted backup and keep the recovery phrase somewhere safe off the phone, so you don't lose everything if the phone is taken.
- Don't rehearse destructive options with anything you can't afford to lose.
In the moment
Your safety comes first. You don't have to explain how your apps work, and you don't have to argue. If it feels safe, opening an ordinary decoy may end a casual demand. If it doesn't feel safe, do what keeps you safe; content can often be dealt with later, people can't be replaced.
Afterwards
- If someone saw a pattern, change it as soon as it's safe to do so.
- Check whether anything was copied, sent or photographed while the phone was out of your hands.
- If this is part of a pattern of control, talk to a support service before making big changes to your devices.
If it's an official search
Rules for police, border or other official searches differ by country, and this page isn't legal advice. A vault can't change what the law requires of you. If you expect a search, for example when traveling, read protecting files before travel and consider leaving what you don't need at home.
Understand the controls while it is safe to prepare
| Control | What to distinguish |
|---|---|
| An ordinary decoy | Opens a selected separate space; it is not automatically a destructive action |
| A configured duress vault | Can remove access to other local vaults when opened |
| A local wipe | Does not retrieve copies already exported or erase every remote backup |
| A recovery phrase | Requires the relevant surviving data and recovery process |
Do not use irreplaceable material to rehearse emergency behavior. If documents may be needed later, consider their preservation before enabling a destructive control.
NullVault's limits remain part of the decision
NullVault documents decoy vaults, duress behavior and panic wipe separately. Opening one pattern without a master vault list changes the normal interface; it does not promise that hidden content is undetectable or that an observer will believe an explanation.
Read the security limitations before relying on these features. A product comparison is not a personal safety plan, and an installed vault cannot repair a device another person already controls.