Press Information

In one sentence

Private photo and video storage from Europe: end-to-end encrypted, so not even we can see what you store.

What is zeitkapsl?

zeitkapsl is a European alternative for storing and syncing photos and videos, with on-device AI search and end-to-end encryption.

Every photo and video is encrypted on the user’s device before upload. Only the user, and anyone they explicitly share with, can open it. Neither zeitkapsl as the operator nor any third party can read the content.

That security is meant to be invisible in daily use. zeitkapsl is easy to use, works for everyone, and requires no technical knowledge.

The encryption has been independently audited (full report), and every zeitkapsl app is open source on Codeberg under GPLv3.

Why does zeitkapsl exist?

Popular cloud services make it easy to store, share, and retrieve photos, often at the cost of privacy:

Data analysis: AI systems read image content and infer personal details like income, religion, political views, or health.
Foreign jurisdiction: European users keep their memories on services governed by other countries’ laws, with no real control over access.
Access: many providers can read every photo and video stored with them.
Security: hacks and data breaches are routine.
Lock-in: many services don’t work across platforms.

We wanted an alternative that keeps the right to privacy and data protection intact.

📌 Oliver, father of three:

Many children don’t get to choose where their childhood photos end up. I want to protect my children’s digital sovereignty.

📌 Peter kept photos on external drives for years and tried many self-hosting setups:

The data stays private, but it’s a lot of work, and you can’t easily find anything again.

So we built zeitkapsl: end-to-end encrypted, sustainable, and under European law.

Demo and screenshots

Read-only interactive demo of the web app
Short video walking through the main features

iOS app

High-resolution screenshots

Android app

High-resolution screenshots

Desktop app

Command line app

The team

zeitkapsl is made by hardcode GmbH, founded in 2023 and based in Vienna, with roots in Carinthia where the founders are from.

Peter and Oliver met in 2019 on a shared client project and share a passion for lean, sustainable software. Simeon joined in 2024 through a research project and stayed on. Peter and Simeon run development day to day; Oliver, now a father of three, has stepped back but stays close to the project.

Peter Spiess-Knafl

Peter studied computer science at the University of Klagenfurt, graduating in 2016 with a Master’s thesis on automated content analysis of images and video. He has worked as a freelance software developer and system architect since 2017, maintains several open-source projects, and was a Debian Maintainer for several years.

GitHub | Website