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u/TRDVentures

r/apps r/DigitalPrivacy r/IdentityTheft r/IMadeThis r/Appstore
▲ 60 r/IdentityTheft

The back of your U.S. license has a barcode with everything the front does — covering the front isn't enough (a prevention PSA)

This sub sees the aftermath of identity theft, so I want to share an upstream thing a lot of people don't realize.

A huge amount of ID exposure happens through totally normal requests: a landlord, a marketplace buyer, a rental host, or a "verify yourself" step asks you to text or email a photo of your driver's license or SSN card. You send the whole thing — and now a full image of your ID (name, DOB, ID number, address, signature, photo) is sitting in someone's inbox, chat history, CRM, or camera roll. If any of that gets breached, forwarded, or the person asking was sketchy to begin with, it's a goldmine for a thief.

Two things people routinely miss:

  1. The back of a U.S. license has a PDF417 barcode that holds the same personal info as the front — name, DOB, address, license number, all of it. Covering the front but sending an uncovered back photo hands it right over. If you cover the front, cover the barcode too, or don't send the back at all.
  2. Photos carry metadata. A straight photo of your ID often includes the date and GPS location where it was taken — frequently your home. The original usually has it even if screenshots don't.

Practical prevention:

  • Send only what the request actually needs. Many "send your ID" asks only need to confirm one thing (your name, or that you're over 18) — you can cover the rest.
  • Cover the sensitive fields and the back barcode before sending.
  • Strip metadata — re-exporting or flattening the image usually drops EXIF/GPS.
  • Delete old ID photos sitting in your camera roll and in sent messages. Those are a standing liability if your phone or cloud is ever compromised.
  • Be suspicious of who's asking. "Upload your ID to verify" is a common phishing setup — confirm the request is legit before you send anything.

You can do all of this by hand: screenshot it, mark it up in Photos or Preview, re-save, and delete the original.

Full disclosure, I'm the developer of a small on-device iOS app that does exactly this, which is why I know the barcode/metadata details. The manual method above works fine and costs nothing — happy to point to the app in a comment if that's within the rules, but I'm not here to pitch it.

Stay safe out there.

reddit.com
u/TRDVentures — 2 days ago
▲ 8 r/Appstore+2 crossposts

I made CoverTrace — an iOS app that covers the sensitive parts of your ID before you send it, 100% on-device

Every time a landlord, Airbnb host, rental counter, or gig app asks for "a photo of your license," you hand over your address, DOB, ID number, and full face — all sitting in someone's inbox or camera roll forever, when they usually only needed one or two of those.

So I built CoverTrace (iOS). You photograph or import an ID/document, cover the fields the recipient doesn't actually need (box, blur, or pixelate), and export a clean, flattened JPEG or PDF with the original photo metadata stripped out. The tagline I kept coming back to: send only what they need.

The part I'm proudest of: it's 100% on-device. No account, no servers, no analytics, no third-party SDKs — your documents and photos literally never leave your phone. The only network call in the whole app is Apple's billing. (App Store privacy label is Purchases + Identifiers, nothing else.)

What it does:

  • Auto-detects sensitive fields (name, DOB, ID/SSN/card numbers, address, the photo) with Apple's on-device Vision, so covering is a couple of taps
  • Recipient "templates" — roughly what a rental host vs. a payment app tends to ask for — so you don't over- or under-cover
  • Scans your camera roll (on-device) for old ID/card photos you forgot were sitting there
  • Optional encrypted, Face ID–locked vault for documents you keep
  • Optional: an invisible mark you can add so your own private, on-device log can tell you which copy surfaced if one ever leaks — nothing phones home

Solo dev, and it was a road getting it through review (Apple had… opinions).

Would genuinely love feedback, especially on the field-detection accuracy and whether the templates match what places actually ask you for.

u/TRDVentures — 1 day ago
▲ 1 r/IMadeThis

I made CoverTrace — an iOS app that covers the sensitive parts of your ID before you send it, 100% on-device (free month for the 4th)

Every time a landlord, Airbnb host, rental counter, or gig app asks for "a photo of your license," you hand over your address, DOB, ID number, and full face — all sitting in someone's inbox or camera roll forever, when they usually only needed one or two of those.

So I built CoverTrace (iOS). You photograph or import an ID/document, cover the fields the recipient doesn't actually need (box, blur, or pixelate), and export a clean, flattened JPEG or PDF with the original photo metadata stripped out. The tagline I kept coming back to: send only what they need.

The part I'm proudest of: it's 100% on-device. No account, no servers, no analytics, no third-party SDKs — your documents and photos literally never leave your phone. The only network call in the whole app is Apple's billing. (App Store privacy label is Purchases + Identifiers, nothing else.)

What it does:

  • Auto-detects sensitive fields (name, DOB, ID/SSN/card numbers, address, the photo) with Apple's on-device Vision, so covering is a couple of taps
  • Recipient "templates" — roughly what a rental host vs. a payment app tends to ask for — so you don't over- or under-cover
  • Scans your camera roll (on-device) for old ID/card photos you forgot were sitting there
  • Optional encrypted, Face ID–locked vault for documents you keep
  • Optional: an invisible mark you can add so your own private, on-device log can tell you which copy surfaced if one ever leaks — nothing phones home

Solo dev, and it was a road getting it through review (Apple had… opinions). It's live now, and since it's Independence Day weekend I'm giving away a free month of Pro — call it taking back a little independence over what you share:

→ https://apps.apple.com/redeem?ctx=offercodes&id=6779474126&code=COVERMONTH
New subscribers, good through Jul 31. Free month of the monthly plan; renews at $4.99/mo unless you cancel. The free tier — scanner, editor, one export — needs none of this.

Would genuinely love feedback, especially on the field-detection accuracy and whether the templates match what places actually ask you for.

u/TRDVentures — 2 days ago
▲ 1 r/IMadeThis

I got tired of habit apps that punish you for one bad day, so I built one with "forgiving" streaks

I'm a solo dev. I don't have ADHD, but the same complaint kept showing up in reviews of every popular habit app: break a streak and the app basically rubs your face in it, so people quit the week they slip once. That all-or-nothing loop seemed like a design problem worth fixing, so I built Momentum.

The core idea is a "momentum" score instead of a fragile streak. Miss a day and it dips gently — it doesn't reset to zero and make you feel like you blew it. The whole thing is built to get you to come back tomorrow, not to be perfect.

A few other things it does:

  • One-tap check-offs — no menus, no friction.
  • A calm, low-clutter layout so today's list is readable at a glance (screenshot attached).
  • Home-screen widgets so your routines are visible without opening the app.

It's free with up to 3 routines, enough to actually live with it for a while. There's an optional upgrade for unlimited (one-time lifetime option, not just a subscription) if it sticks.

I'd really value feedback from this sub on the approach. Does a "forgiving streak" actually help you stay consistent, or do you need the hard streak to stay motivated? Genuinely curious which camp people fall in. Happy to answer anything about building it too.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/momentum-adhd-routines/id6776038685

u/TRDVentures — 6 days ago