Is It Safe to Record a Video of Your Home?
Your walkthrough shows your rooms, your belongings and the details you want to remember. It is your content. A tool that helps you document it should make it easy to understand where every part of it goes.
The first question is simple: what actually leaves your phone? Encryption and deletion matter, but the clearest answer is the list of what is sent, to whom, and whether it is kept.
Start with what leaves the phone
Many inventory tools upload your video or photos so a server can look at them. An encrypted connection protects them in transit, but the service still receives and reads your home. Encrypting the finished inventory afterwards does not change that.
WHIG works differently. Your iPhone records the video and audio, and they are never uploaded. Apple’s on-device speech recognition turns what you say into text on the phone. Each item’s photo is taken from your own video, on the phone.
The one thing that leaves the phone is the text of what you said, with timings. It is sent over an encrypted connection to WHIG’s reading service, which uses Anthropic’s Claude to find your belongings, write short descriptions, pick categories and choose a price bracket. The reply goes straight back to your phone. WHIG does not store the transcript or returned inventory, and our logs hold counts and timings only. Anthropic processes the text under its commercial API terms: by default it does not train on API data, and it deletes inputs and outputs within 30 days, except where it must keep them longer for legal or safety reasons.
Before your first walkthrough is read, the app asks your permission and explains this. You can withdraw it in Profile, Privacy. You choose whether to keep a copy of your video in Photos or Files on your iPhone.
Your content and service data are different
An inventory app still needs an account. WHIG holds account and contact details, country and property profile, consent choices, recording status and your processing allowance. Those are separate from the list of what you own.
Ask any app whether item names, individual values, your transcript or photos go into its database. In WHIG’s case, they do not.
Also ask about statistics. WHIG’s regional statistics are on by default and can be switched off in Profile, Privacy. Once per account, for a whole-home walkthrough, the app sends only standard category totals, a household total and counts of spaces and items. Never item names, brands, words, photos or individual values.
Keep a copy off the phone
A record that exists only on a lost phone may be lost with it. Keep a copy somewhere you choose.
With WHIG, that copy is your saved Evidence Package. It holds your documents and a full copy of your inventory, and it restores WHIG on a new phone. Save it again after big changes.
Exported documents can contain readable information. Privacy means understanding those choices, not pretending every file will always remain on one device.
A date without a copy of your home
A local fingerprint can help identify a record and detect changes, but it does not establish an independent date.
WHIG is designing a separate online timestamp around an opaque cryptographic fingerprint. The proposed service would receive the fingerprint and sign its receipt time, without receiving your transcript, photos or item list. That would establish that a matching record existed by the receipt time. It would not prove when the video was filmed, ownership or the accuracy of values. This service is still in development.
How WHIG works
WHIG is coming first to iPhone. Your video, audio and photos stay on your phone. Only a text transcript goes to the cloud, where powerful AI turns it into a detailed, priced inventory in minutes, and WHIG does not store the transcript or returned inventory. Your inventory is encrypted on your phone with a key WHIG never receives. Android is a later release.
The security page explains each step, and the privacy policy lists the service data WHIG holds.
Your home. Your phone. Your business. Join the iPhone launch waitlist.
Frequently asked questions
- Does a home inventory have to upload my video?
- No. WHIG never uploads your video. Your iPhone records it, writes down what you say and takes each item’s photo from it, all on the phone. Only a text transcript of what you said goes to the cloud, where powerful AI turns it into a detailed, priced inventory in minutes, and WHIG keeps none of it. You choose whether to keep a copy of your video in Photos or Files on your iPhone.
- Does that mean WHIG has no data about me?
- No. WHIG holds account and contact details, your country and property profile, consent choices, recording status, your processing allowance and anonymised regional totals. It never holds item names, values, transcripts, photos or video.
- What if I lose my phone?
- Save your WHIG Evidence Package somewhere other than your phone. It holds your documents and a full copy of your inventory that restores WHIG on a new phone. Saving or sharing a file sends it where you choose, so keep it somewhere private.
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