How your records are protected

Arms & Ammo Log keeps your records on your phone, encrypted, in an app that can't go online. Here is exactly what that means, including the limits, and how you can check it yourself.

The app can't reach the internet

Android apps need a permission to use the network. Arms & Ammo Log doesn't have it. That includes Google's billing library, which normally brings network access with it. We remove that permission, so purchases go through the Google Play Store app instead.

You can see this for yourself. In Android Settings › Apps › Arms & Ammo Log, the data it has used stays at zero, and the app works exactly the same in airplane mode.

Everything is encrypted on your phone

Your inventory database is encrypted with AES-256 using SQLCipher. Each photo and receipt is stored as its own file, encrypted with AES-256-GCM. The keys are random, created on your phone when you first open the app, and stored only in a form locked by Android's secure key storage, the Keystore, which doesn't let the key be copied off the device. The keys aren't included in any backup.

Photos are also saved again when you add them, which strips out the location and camera details a phone normally tucks into a picture.

The app locks

Opening the app takes your fingerprint, face or PIN. It locks again after you leave it, with a delay you choose. Your PIN is never stored as itself, only as a salted hash that can't be turned back into the PIN.

Hide in recent apps is on from the start. It blanks the app in the app switcher and also blocks screenshots. Serial numbers show as Hidden until you tap Show, and hide again when you leave the page.

Backups stay yours

Android's automatic cloud backup is switched off for this app, so your records never end up in a Google account. Instead, you make a backup when you choose. It's one file, encrypted with a password you pick (AES-256-GCM, with the key derived from your password using PBKDF2 at 600,000 iterations). You decide where it goes. We never see it, and we can't open it or recover a forgotten password.

Exports are plain on purpose

Sometimes you need a file anyone can open, like a spreadsheet of your stock or an insurance report for your agent. Those exports aren't encrypted. The app tells you so before saving, and it leaves serial numbers out unless you switch them on for that file.

What we never get

The app doesn't have accounts or analytics, so we don't know who uses it or what they own. If the app crashes, the report stays on your phone. You can copy it from Settings › About and email it to us yourself, and it contains only technical details, never your records.

The limits

Encryption protects your records from someone who takes the phone or copies its storage. It can't protect against someone who knows your PIN, or who has your phone while the app is unlocked. A phone that's been rooted or infected with malware is outside what any app can defend. Exports you save are readable by anyone who gets the file. And if you lose your phone without a backup, your records can't be recovered, because no copy exists anywhere else.

Found a problem?

If you think you've found a security issue, please email security@armsandammolog.com. Our privacy policy has the full detail of what the app and this website do with data.

More guides for gun owners, or see everything the app does.