Taking Photos Days After the Incident
Evidence captured in the moment is powerful. Evidence from three days later is a story. Courts, insurance, and HR weigh timing heavily. A photo from the day of the incident with an independent timestamp is worth ten photos from the next week.
Sending Evidence Through Social Media
When you send through iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook, or Instagram, the platform compresses and strips metadata. Your photo can lose its original data. Always keep the original files.
Editing or Cropping Photos
The moment you crop, rotate, filter, or annotate, you've changed the file. The digital fingerprint no longer matches. The other side may argue it was altered.
Relying on Phone Metadata
Your phone's EXIF data can be changed by anyone with a free app in seconds. Metadata is context, not a reliable date. An independent timestamp is stronger.
Not Documenting Full Context
A close-up of a wall crack tells no one which wall, which room, which building. Always capture wide shots for context before zooming in. Judges need to understand where they're looking.
Having No Backup
Phones get lost, stolen, broken, wiped. Save copies somewhere safe. SnapProof never receives your photos. Your certified record is available through the verify site. Save or share full copies of anything important.
Waiting Until You Need a Lawyer
By the time you're hiring an attorney, the best evidence window has passed. Start documenting at the first sign. Starting early gives you more to work with.
EXIF metadata edited in 2 clicks with a free app
The Fix
For a deeper walk-through, read how to document evidence that actually holds up.
Use an app that records the time, place and device, gets an independent RFC 3161 timestamp when you certify, gives each snap a Verification ID, and lets you share a PDF certificate. Start on day one.
