How safe is saving screenshots of useful information and BTC transactions?

[livingfree]

If they're just transactions, I think that's fine as most people that do transactions are keeping a copy for themselves and that's how easy it is to do.

But, one thing is your concern about the phone falling into the hands of the wrong person when someone oversees it and starts to think of a bad plan because that person might think that your friend has got a lot of money.

That's why for me, it's best to keep these transactions private and never show it to anyone and don't show anything that might give them a motivation to do something bad.

[1715326615]

1715326615

[Woodie]

* My question is, how safe is it to keep screenshots of Bitcoin/crypto transactions and useful information, on ones device?

Like your buddy, I personally do take screenshots of things I believe are important and would want to revisit at a later time which isn't a bad thing, and besides content could be deleted and you won't find what you looking for, or perphaps you could use this as evidence in case someone says a transaction never happened...
If you ask me, it's actually a good habit as compared to relying on your biological memory which can forget if it wasn't interested in something.

* How do I go about letting my friend know about such a habit of taking and keeping screenshots on his device that I have observed and warn him about it, without looking like I sense bad days coming?

If it's something sensitive such as a mnemonic or some private keys his keeping as screenshots here you could tell them that should you lose your device or should it remain unattended to someone else could have access to this information which could lead to him losing valuable items and to avoid this he better find other means to store such data.

But if it's nothing too personal and private, I think there is nothing to worry about and nice looking out for your friend;)

[Questat]

Well, I agree with everyone here. Carelessness ends up in regrets and disappointments and this kind of habit ( screenshots of wallet keys or important accounts and passwords) is not a good practice if we want to keep safe. We can't just ignore what hackers can do and what if our phones are lost.
We don't just wait to become a victim before we correct our actions and the way how to take care of our funds. We don't stay ignorant in this case since we hear a lot of stories talking about this.

If I were in your place, I would suggest to my friend not to do that anymore or not make it a habit as this will only give easy access to the wallet. 

[Marvell1]

I think almost all of us who are connected online have to store their important information and also if he is a crypto currency investor then he has to store the private key of his wallets and various investment stuff sometimes be it screenshot or some times through note pad. I'd say if he stores screenshots of the private key without any privacy then I'd say it's nothing but stupidity. I think it is important to maintain privacy and then store it on screen or notepad.  For this I will tell you to ask your friend to use encryption method to store all this important information.

Saving private information such as the private key or seed phrase through screenshots is not advisable, and even if someone is saving their backups or writing them down, I wouldn't recommend any online services for that. Google Docs can be useful in this regard but in rare cases, they can also be compromised either by hacks, exploits, or scams that you might encounter while you are in the cryptocurrency industry.

I know that a lot of people take a lot of screenshots mostly because they want them as proof if they need it anytime in the future. People who do a lot of P2P trades tend to have this habit very much because they might have to face a lot of scammers and stuff and they can use those screenshots to convince customer service agents that they are being scammed.

If you are against storing private keys/seed phrases and don't want to give any online services then why are you mentioning Google Docs? It is no more secure than any other online storage service and is even riskier when you store seed phrases/private keys on centralized online services.
For me, offline storage is always the only option, although they also have certain limitations but it is definitely easier to control the situation than online.

[ancafe]

If you are against storing private keys/seed phrases and don't want to give any online services then why are you mentioning Google Docs? It is no more secure than any other online storage service and is even riskier when you store seed phrases/private keys on centralized online services.

Online storage is much more at risk of hacking and we will most likely be negligent in maintaining it. When someone chooses a safe place to store their Seed phrase then they should understand the impact of such storage so that they have a decision before taking action. The decision to save the Seed Phrase will be our responsibility as owners and if we are not able to maintain it we will be at risk.

For me, offline storage is always the only option, although they also have certain limitations but it is definitely easier to control the situation than online.

Apart from offline storage, I also prepare it in written form and I save it in a place that no one knows about. Sometimes writing the Seed phrase can be a solution when we want to give a will to someone we trust so that they can take the writing after we tell those we trust.

[freedomgo]

If they're just transactions, I think that's fine as most people that do transactions are keeping a copy for themselves and that's how easy it is to do.

But, one thing is your concern about the phone falling into the hands of the wrong person when someone oversees it and starts to think of a bad plan because that person might think that your friend has got a lot of money.

That's why for me, it's best to keep these transactions private and never show it to anyone and don't show anything that might give them a motivation to do something bad.

Transactions that involved money and your bitcoin hodlings are definitely not advisable to take screenshots. Regardless if your seed phrase is not visible there, but the fact that your bitcoin hodlings might be visible for others if ever you misplaced your phone and someone who’s well aware about crypto might found it, then you are risking your bitcoin investment and most especially you are putting your life in danger. So as much as possible, chose the safer way, minimize or certainly avoid taking screenshots when sensitive information are involved.

[oktana]

What else does he use the screenshot for? Doesn’t his device’s storage get filled up with it or something? Once he’s done with the transaction and it has served its purpose, he should delete it. Also, about his phone getting into the wrong hands, it’s not possible for me because I don’t let anyone have access to my device. And when I’m not with it, it is always locked. If your phone gets stolen and you’re scared it could be unlocked, you can always erase the data in it remotely.

[Richbased]

I think almost all of us who are connected online have to store their important information and also if he is a crypto currency investor then he has to store the private key of his wallets and various investment stuff sometimes be it screenshot or some times through note pad. I'd say if he stores screenshots of the private key without any privacy then I'd say it's nothing but stupidity. I think it is important to maintain privacy and then store it on screen or notepad.  For this I will tell you to ask your friend to use encryption method to store all this important information.

Saving private information such as the private key or seed phrase through screenshots is not advisable, and even if someone is saving their backups or writing them down, I wouldn't recommend any online services for that. Google Docs can be useful in this regard but in rare cases, they can also be compromised either by hacks, exploits, or scams that you might encounter while you are in the cryptocurrency industry.

I know that a lot of people take a lot of screenshots mostly because they want them as proof if they need it anytime in the future. People who do a lot of P2P trades tend to have this habit very much because they might have to face a lot of scammers and stuff and they can use those screenshots to convince customer service agents that they are being scammed.

It's just so unfortunate that we are in a world where people pay less attention to the security of their assets and other valuable personal information but yet as soon as they fall victims, they start looking for who will help them when the deed has already been done. It's important to give the security of our assets utmost priorities because they're where our hopes are bestowed in the future.

It have have been discussed on this forum severally on the risk of taking screenshots of our personal information or even if you must do a screenshot, let it not be sensitive information because literally since your files are being captured on Google cloud especially when you back up your files on Google, it may be vulnerable to scammers to take advantage of it and defraud you unknowingly.

[Vincom]

* My question is, how safe is it to keep screenshots of Bitcoin/crypto transactions and useful information, on ones device?

* How do I go about letting my friend know about such a habit of taking and keeping screenshots on his device that I have observed and warn him about it, without looking like I sense bad days coming?

Our mobile apps and smartphones have already collected a lot of our data, so storing screenshots has no significant impact. When a bad guy gets a smartphone, they will want to steal personal information + private keys to get our assets. There is not much difference between saving screenshots or storing information in Notes.

If he only has screenshots of transactions, addresses and tx, then everything is fine. The only thing I worry about is if he takes a screenshot of the account private key or QR 2FA and syncs it to iCloud/Drive, he will face a big risk if his Apple/Google account is hacked and taken over.

[Bananington]

* My question is, how safe is it to keep screenshots of Bitcoin/crypto transactions and useful information, on ones device?

* How do I go about letting my friend know about such a habit of taking and keeping screenshots on his device that I have observed and warn him about it, without looking like I sense bad days coming?

Our mobile apps and smartphones have already collected a lot of our data, so storing screenshots has no significant impact. When a bad guy gets a smartphone, they will want to steal personal information + private keys to get our assets. There is not much difference between saving screenshots or storing information in Notes.

There's absolutely no much difference between saving screenshots or storing information in notes because at the end of the day, it's still on the device.

If he only has screenshots of transactions, addresses and tx, then everything is fine. The only thing I worry about is if he takes a screenshot of the account private key or QR 2FA and syncs it to iCloud/Drive, he will face a big risk if his Apple/Google account is hacked and taken over.

Many of our modern smartphones automatically sync to an iCloud or Google drive once there's a registered user within access. It could also be much difficult if Google is hacked or iCloud hacked for hackers to gain access to all the details of users, unless they are specifically looking for a match.

[Skybuck]

Having some proof of wealth accumilation is good to fight of law abusers.

[kotajikikox]

I know that a lot of people take a lot of screenshots mostly because they want them as proof if they need it anytime in the future.

let’s be real here lots of people take screenshots because it is easy and convenient and a lot of us are too lazy to actually store them somewhere safe but let me tell you that this laziness will bite you back somewhere in the future and you’d wish you would have stored it safely

[pinggoki]

If that screenshot won't ever see the online space or would be connected to any foreign device then it's going to be totally safe, remember that anything that's never connected to anything is totally safe like those air gapped computers, they're the most safest unless there's another device that would be connected to them then there's no way you can have your information or bitcoin stolen. Regarding your transactions, I don't think you're going to need to be keeping that away because when there's an investigation under your name, you'll definitely going to be providing that addresses and they're still going to know all of the transactions that you've done. But by all I means if you are keeping a record of something, it's definitely advisable to do that, those screenshots will act as your receipt for the transactions that you're going to do.

[Hypnosis00]

I honestly do this often and I do not think this will harm me or it will lead to regrets. Indeed, it was just screenshots of BTC transactions and for me, it was not concerning a lot unless it was a screenshot of our keys/passwords. Whether doing this is a wrong thing or not, the most important is we are aware of what we did and have been concerned about the safety of our wallets.

Proper education is indeed a very important thing here in the crypto space. Keeping ourselves private seems to be a helping way to keep our funds intact and avoid hacking. So if we think doing this could create risks, then must stop it.

[pawanjain]

I have a friend who likes taking screenshot so much that he would take a screenshot of even payment transactions from banking apps and large or small bet winnings. I don't know if he loved to brag with it, but he won lots of arguments with real traders and sellers who accept transfers and claim to have not received it.

Sometime last week, we were having a chat and he mentioned how he wants to buy BTC and become a trader and HoDLer as he makes profit along the way. He said he had been learning on his own by watching YouTube videos and from his colleagues in the office.
I just knew then that he had already done so, and upon further chat, he already did because he wouldn't really tell me what he's up to until he has done it, that's how I have known him for long. He is still oblivious of my membership here, although I would tell him somewhere on his trading journey.

I am concerned now however about his screenshot taking habit, because it would be more problems for him if his phone falls into wrong hands and they see screenshots of Bitcoin transactions mostly.
He may have provided the information or data needed by the wrong hands or It can be assumed that he has so much and who knows what ills can come from thoughts like that.

* My question is, how safe is it to keep screenshots of Bitcoin/crypto transactions and useful information, on ones device?

* How do I go about letting my friend know about such a habit of taking and keeping screenshots on his device that I have observed and warn him about it, without looking like I sense bad days coming?

I don't think that is a good idea because most of the apps in our phones require access to gallery.
We provide access to these apps and so it is not recommended to store screenshots of important information on mobile phones.
Besides that, our photos also gets backed up on cloud and if our account is somehow hacked then our those screenshots will compromise our information.

[yudi09]

* My question is, how safe is it to keep screenshots of Bitcoin/crypto transactions and useful information, on ones device?

How important is it to do. If it's not important, it means it's okay.
For me it's not safe unless he has two smartphones with different functions.

* How do I go about letting my friend know about such a habit of taking and keeping screenshots on his device that I have observed and warn him about it, without looking like I sense bad days coming?

When a cellphone changes hands, not because it is stolen or lost, today's smartphones generally have advanced security for initial access because they have several types of security to be able to open it, from PIN passwords, patterns to face scans. There is another concern if we often take screenshots of important information such as Bitcoin asset information, crypto and other financial transactions that are still private when the person holding our smartphone knows the password to open it.

If the party who takes our smartphone still has no negative intentions, you're lucky. If our smartphone falls into negative hands, woe to us with all the important information we have screenshotted.