Samsung secure folder is good for privacy?

I am thinking in using Samsung’s secure folder but is it good from privacy and security perspective?

P.s I blocked its access to internet and now it is completely offline.

You may want to consider reading through this thread as there is a pretty in-depth discussion on the secure folders.

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I wouldn’t call it in-depth :joy:

It’s pretty clear from the security and privacy standpoint that using it is better than using your app normally due to the flowing obvious reasons:

  • It requires a different set of password from your lock screen. So, you can protect app access regardless of the availability of the built-in app’s lock screen.
  • Clipboard protection.
  • Notification content protection.
  • Files protection.
  • It doesn’t add a chain of trust along with permission grants to a 3rd party admin app.

It’s clear that Secure Folder (that’s downplay in that thread) has clear advantages. It’s no brainer, unless one’s allergic to Samsung.

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Yes, it’s just a work profile (with added questionable samsung crap). You should treat it as a work profile

You can also use Island/Shelter to get access to a work profile

Secure Folder predates work profile feature in Android, but the implementations are pretty similar. On Samsung phones, you can use both simultaneously (work profile + secure folder). Also OneUI has no user profiles (except tablets), so work profiles + secure folder are the only ways of compartmentalisation. You can also access “Maintenance mode” to temporarily use your phone without leaving obvious traces, but I do not know how this mode is implemented and if it really deletes data on exit from it.

Secure Folder may be created only if you connect the phone to Samsung account, and this is a huge risk for privacy. If you try to create the Secure Folder and then delete your Samsung account or log out, you will lose access to your secure folder.

It is better than nothing in many ways, but you should not rely on it as it does not have proper strong encryption. Everything in Secure Folder is easily accessable to state-level actors using forensics (e.g border checks). It is also safe to assume that Samsung has a backdoor to it and that it routinely collects some kind of telemetry and metadata about your activity in it.

TLDR : SF is better than nothing, but it is both not sufficiently secure or private. But Samsung users have only this as an option, it can be used for basic protection and compartmentalisation.