My Secret Folder review [iPhone]

You can lock your iPhone behind a passcode or a password, so no one can open it and tinker with anything without knowing your digits. Unless they wipe its memory first, of course, but your data is just as safe when it's been through the iTunes shredder.

But otherwise, the iPhone is surprisingly lax in terms of security. If your device isn't behind the rather inconvenient passcode lock, which it probably isn't given how many times you turn it on and off every day, anyone can dip in and out of digital life at will. Indeed, this is becoming a growing issue with the world's favourite digital assistant, Siri.

My Secret Folder is your first, and possibly best, line of defence when it comes to keeping photos and videos secure, even without the built-in passcode lock on your lock screen. This app is not only secure, but wonderfully cunning.

First and foremost it puts any images and videos you snap from within the application behind a four digit code. Simple, and not too imaginative. You can also import any existing photos and videos from the iPhone's camera roll, though you'll have to remember to delete the unsecured versions so My Secret Folder can't be circumvented.

It's not so much the security lock that makes this app so clever, but its surveillance and camouflage techniques. Primarily, the app hides itself in plain sight on your Home screen by using an icon that looks like a folder with a few apps inside. Of course, this isn't a folder at all, but placed in the middle of other, real folders it disappears from notice.

And you don't just set up one passcode. Chances are you have someone who is going to request to look inside it one day, so the app has an ingenious option for opening it while under duress. A second code is added as a decoy, and the app operates seemingly as normal - unlocking after the decoy code is entered - and displaying a second set of photos and videos in their own folders. This alone is a brilliant expansion of typical security, as there's no better way to distract someone than by letting them think they've beaten the system.

The app is also conscious that you may want to know if anyone's been tampering, and brings the forward-facing camera and GPS into play. Alongside a log of successful and unsuccessful login attempts, the app takes a photo of whoever enters a code and records their GPS co-ordinates. Later on, you can not only tell that someone's tried to get into your secret photos, but you get a picture of they trying.

My Secret Folder also records the code they tried to use, which can be very useful when it comes to setting up your decoy code if it happens to be someone you know. Swap the decoy to whatever they were trying, and next time the sneak a go on your iPhone they'll believe they got in. Simple, but amazingly inventive security.

On top of all this, the app is a great photo and video organisation system. You can export easily to the camera roll or email, making this a very practical - and most of all secure -- alternative to the native Camera app.