How to send your ID to a landlord safely
A rental application can leave a copy of your passport in a stranger’s inbox.
In short
Send as little as you can: a copy cropped to the document, with a visible watermark naming the landlord, the purpose and the date, and with location turned off when you share it. Check the request is genuine first, use an official channel if one exists, and delete your extra copies — including from Recently Deleted — once the application is over.
Key takeaways
- A watermark ties a copy to one landlord and one purpose.
- Turn off Location under Options in the share sheet before sending.
- Delete the copies you made, then delete them from Recently Deleted.
Before you send anything
A fake listing is an easy way to collect identity documents. If a request for your passport arrives unexpectedly or comes with pressure to act fast, Apple’s advice for any unexpected request for personal information applies: presume it may be a scam, and contact the agency or landlord through details you found yourself.
- Ask exactly which documents they need, and at which stage of the application.
- Check whether an official route exists. In England, GOV.UK explains that some tenants can prove their right to rent with a share code, or through an online identity service provider, instead of handing over documents. In France, the government’s DossierFacile service watermarks your documents and shares them through a link you control.
- If the agency has its own portal or app, prefer it to email or a chat app.
Prepare a copy made for this landlord
Work on a duplicate so your original stays untouched: open the photo in Photos, tap the More button, then tap Duplicate. Then, on the duplicate:
- Edit the photo and crop it to the document alone — no table, no room, no other papers in the frame.
- Open Markup and add text across the page, for example “Rental application, 12 Oak Street, Smith Lettings only, 4 Nov 2026”. Keep it clear of your photo and of the details they need to read.
- If some fields are not needed, ask whether you can mask them. The free face blur and redaction tool on this site hides text or areas of an image in your browser, without uploading it.
- When you share, tap Options in the share sheet and turn off Location. “Location Not Included” appears above the Options button.
- If you use AirDrop, leave All Photos Data off. It sends the original file with its edit history, not just the cropped, watermarked version.
Payslips and bank statements
The same approach works for financial documents. Send only the months or pages asked for, watermark them, and prefer the PDF your employer or bank provides over a photo of a printout: it is easier to read, and it was not taken in your home.
After the application
- Delete the duplicates you made in Photos. Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, so open it — it unlocks with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode — and delete them there too.
- Remember the copies you don’t control: the email or message you sent, and whatever the agency saved. You can ask how long it keeps applicants’ documents.
- If you will need the document again, keep one clean copy somewhere other than the camera roll.
Where Latent fits
Latent’s secure camera photographs a document straight into an encrypted vault, so the ID never lands in Photos, iCloud Photos or Recently Deleted. You keep one copy there, tagged “ID” if you like, and share it from the vault only when an application really needs it.