This is why tech-illiterate types should not film themselves having sex...

December 29, 2011 9:41 AM

Best way to save a video of an...um...intimate nature that was taken with phone?

My SO is going to be traveling for work starting next week and so we won't be able to see each other for some time, which is sad. Last night in a fit of hormonal craziness mid-sex SO picked up my phone and started filming, saying we can have the video clip for "inspiration" while we're apart. (Yeah, it's silly but at the time it was really hot. It's not the highest quality video, but it was fun so what the heck.) Problem now? There's this 4 minute long impromptu sex video on my phone. I'd like it to not be on my phone because it seems unadvisable to have it be so easy access (I think in worst case scenarios like what if I leave my phone somewhere by accident and someone goes through it and heyyyy video of me having sex). I'd also ideally like to put it somewhere where we both can access it should we want to, but it's still (more or less) private. I have a private PhotoBucket account but that 1) violates their TOS and 2) putting it on the internet, even "locked" and password protected for "privacy" is still inherently not private, because...it's the internet. I'm not particularly tech savvy so I don't even know how to download the video from my phone (motorola droid 3, if it's relevant) to my computer (macbook pro) just to get it off my phone.

Any suggestions or am I SOL here?

(Anon for what I hope are obvious reasons.)

posted by anonymous to Technology (16 answers total)

There's an app for that. Quite a few in fact. They create an encrypted bucket on your phone where you can move any stuff there that you don't want escaping should the phone fall into thieving hands or prying eyes.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:44 AM on December 29, 2011

Put it in a password protected zip file on drop box.
posted by empath at 9:56 AM on December 29, 2011

And I'd really recommend that you black out or blur out your faces just in case the worst happens.
posted by empath at 9:56 AM on December 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd get it off your phone and keep it off the Internet. Your Droid has a USB cable, no? Plug it in and moving the video to your personal computer should be a drag and drop operation.
posted by COD at 10:17 AM on December 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

TIL geeks have my sexysex times covered.

I love AskMe.

If you have an iPhone, OP, this app looks quite good.
posted by misha at 10:17 AM on December 29, 2011

Oops, saw you have a Droid on re-read, but perhaps other readers were wondering, too.
posted by misha at 10:19 AM on December 29, 2011

Assuming your Droid functions similarly to most Android phones:

Go to your Gallery app, and find the video. Press Menu, select Share. Pick Gmail or Email (whichever one you use), and then email the video to yourself. After it's sent and shows up in your inbox, go back to the video in the Gallery app and go to Menu, and select Delete.

Now you can download the video to your computer from your email, and/or forward it to your SO. Yaaaaaay sex video.
posted by XerxesQados at 10:24 AM on December 29, 2011

I'd look into TrueCrypt and Dropbox. I would under no circumstances send it by email.
posted by desjardins at 10:32 AM on December 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

2) putting it on the internet, even "locked" and password protected for "privacy" is still inherently not private, because...it's the internet.

Encrypted stuff is safe, even on the internet. Trust me, I live there.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:44 AM on December 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

Presumably copying it off your phone to a computer, and from there to a usb flash drive or SD card that you can encrypt would work as well. Just make sure you rename the file to something innocuous so that it doesn't give away anything if someone looks at the file structure but can't actually view the file(s) themselves.
posted by zombieflanders at 10:54 AM on December 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

Go to your Gallery app, and find the video. Press Menu, select Share. Pick Gmail or Email (whichever one you use), and then email the video to yourself. After it's sent and shows up in your inbox, go back to the video in the Gallery app and go to Menu, and select Delete.

This is one option and the path that I normally take, but there is also this which is what COD was talking about, as for making it easily accessible to both of you, just make a copy. That is the joy of digital information. You can have it on your computer and you can have it on his computer with no problem. If you email the file to yourself you can email it to both email addresses and you each have a copy easily. As a note DO NOT use work email or something like that. Use a private email like gmail.


As for keeping it safe on the personal computer I would hide it in a folder. That is what most people do. They name the folder something boring that no one would click on like "system information" or "temp" some people have a complex burying schematic in order to make sure no one accidentally comes across the video on their personal computer.
posted by Jaelma24 at 11:19 AM on December 29, 2011

If you're not going to encrypt it, don't ever take your computer to something like Geek Squad, because they've been known to look for videos and pictures on people's computers and post them on the internet. Which of these groups would you like to have the chance of running across this?

1. your family
2. future boyfriends/girlfriends
3. future/present children
4. future/current employers
5. religious community, if applicable

No offense, but if you do not even know how to password-protect your phone or get the video off the phone and onto your computer, I would really consider deleting it altogether. The risk is just too high.
posted by desjardins at 11:50 AM on December 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

You should put it on a usb stick, delete it from your phone and then hide the usb stick in your drawer.
posted by h00py at 3:23 AM on December 30, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, and copy it on to a usb stick for him, too. For his drawer.
posted by h00py at 3:25 AM on December 30, 2011

so, there are two problems you need to solve here
1) get the video off the phone
2) store the video in a secure way

for 1), you should be able to either run a USB cable from your computer to your phone and transfer the file that way, or link the computer to the phone via bluetooth and then use Browse Device to get to it that way. If you have the USB cable, that is almost certainly easier - if bluetooth is intimidating you can probably order a cable for quite inexpensive (I recommend monoprice.com).

for 2), as other people have mentioned I would put the video in a truecrypt volume placed in a shared dropbox folder. This gets you a nice combination of "really way more work than anyone not the NSA will go through to get to your files" and "really unlikely you will ever accidentally delete this file".
posted by contrarian at 6:26 AM on December 30, 2011

Yes, encryption is the technically correct answer. However, the OP doesn't even know how to move a file from the phone to a PC. There is virtually no chance of this file getting encrypted. It's not going to happen. The real world doesn't work that way.

I'd avoid the USB stick option too. It's way, way too easy to forget what is on that stick and use it for something else in 6 months - like transferring some files to a friend, or your mother.

For this user, deleting it completely is really the best answer. They don't seem to understand this stuff enough to properly protect the file anywhere. If they really, really want to keep it, then putting it on a desktop machine that never leaves the house is reasonably secure. As mentioned, just don't ever let somebody work on the machine, and name it something innocuous that won't attract attention if somebody does get access to the machine.
posted by COD at 8:47 AM on December 30, 2011