Public image host

ImageTome vs Imgur

A lot of people use Imgur as private storage because an unlisted link feels private. It is not, it never was, and Imgur has spent the last few years demonstrating why: it deleted anonymous uploads wholesale in 2023, banned an entire content category, and became unavailable in the United Kingdom in 2025.

An unlisted link is not privacy. It is an address you hope nobody guesses, on a server that can read everything and delete it whenever policy changes.

Side by side

How ImageTome compares with Imgur
Criterion	ImageTome	Imgur
Encryption model	ImageTome End-to-end. AES-256-GCM in the browser, before upload.	Imgur None beyond TLS in transit. Images are stored in the clear.
Who holds the keys	ImageTome You. An RSA-4096 private key generated on your device and never sent to us.	Imgur Not applicable. There is no encryption to hold keys for.
What an account needs	ImageTome A username. No email address, no password, no phone number.	Imgur Optional historically, now effectively required for content to survive.
If you lose access	ImageTome Nothing we can do. Your exported key backup is the only route back in.	Imgur Standard email password reset.
Filenames and titles	ImageTome Encrypted. Tome names, descriptions, filenames, titles and post bodies.	Imgur Fully readable, and indexed.
Content scanning	ImageTome None, and none is possible. Nothing here is detected proactively, because nothing can be read.	Imgur Yes. Automated detection plus human moderation for prohibited content.
Video	ImageTome MP4 and WebM up to 200MB, with thumbnails generated and encrypted in the browser.	Imgur Short clips and GIFs, with strict limits.
Sharing	ImageTome Invite by username. The tome key is wrapped with their public key.	Imgur Public or unlisted links. Unlisted means unguessed, not protected.
Discussion	ImageTome Encrypted comments on posts, images and videos.	Imgur Public comments, visible to everyone.
Verifying the claim	ImageTome Open your network tab during an upload and read what is actually sent.	Imgur Nothing to verify. The model is openly a public host.

CHECKED 30 AUG 2026 · SOURCES LISTED BELOW

Unlisted is not private

An unlisted Imgur link is a URL that is not listed in the gallery. It is still served to anyone who has it, it can be indexed if it is ever posted anywhere a crawler reaches, it appears in browser histories and referrer headers, and Imgur itself can read the file at any time.

This is not a criticism of Imgur, which has always been a public image host and says so. It is a criticism of using it as though it were something else, which an enormous number of people do.

What happened to everything people had stored there

In April 2023 Imgur announced new terms taking effect on 15 May 2023: sexually explicit content was banned, and old, unused content not tied to a user account would be removed. Anonymous uploads going back years were deleted, breaking a large number of links across the web that people had assumed were permanent.

In October 2025, Imgur became blocked in the United Kingdom. Whatever the merits of either decision, the pattern is the one to notice. Content you do not hold the keys to lives at the pleasure of whoever does.

ImageTome cannot moderate your content, because it cannot see it. That means nobody deletes your photographs over a policy change. It also means we cannot detect anything else, and that is a limitation rather than a feature: we act on what is reported to us, removing content and closing accounts when we are told. A tome is invite-only, with no public link and nothing indexed, so it is a poor tool for anyone whose purpose needs an audience.

What you get instead

Images encrypted with AES-256-GCM in your browser before upload, with encrypted filenames and encrypted thumbnails. Video in MP4 or WebM up to 200MB, not a fifteen second clip. Written posts and encrypted comments alongside the media rather than a public comment section. Access granted to named people by key exchange rather than to anyone holding a link.

And no email address, which for anyone who has been uploading anonymously to avoid an account is the same thing they wanted from Imgur in the first place, only actually delivered.

When Imgur is the better choice

If you want an image to be seen by the public, use Imgur. That is what it is for, and we are the wrong tool entirely. Nothing in a tome can be viewed by someone without an account and an invitation.
If you need a direct hotlinkable image URL to embed in a forum post or a README, Imgur gives you one and we cannot, because our files are ciphertext.
It requires nothing of your recipient. No account, no key, no invitation.

ImageTome and Imgur, asked and answered

No. Unlisted means the image is not shown in public galleries. It is still served to anyone with the link, readable by Imgur, and can be indexed if the link is ever posted publicly.

New terms of service effective 15 May 2023 banned sexually explicit content and removed old, unused content not tied to a user account, using automated detection alongside human moderation. A large number of anonymous uploads were deleted.

For sharing with specific people rather than the public, ImageTome encrypts each image in your browser before upload and grants access by key exchange to invited members. There is no public link and no address to guess.

No. Access is granted by wrapping the tome key with a member's public key, so the recipient needs an account with a keypair. That is the cost of there being no link to leak.

Reactively, and we would rather state that plainly than imply we have solved it. Nothing can be scanned, because nothing can be read, so we act on reports by removing content and closing accounts. Tomes are invite-only with no public links and nothing indexed, which removes the audience that most misuse of a public image host depends on.

Sources

Claims about Imgur were checked against the sources above on 30 August 2026. Products change. If something here is out of date or wrong, we would rather fix it than keep it.

Other comparisons

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Try the version where nobody holds your key.

One username, one tome, and a look at your own network tab to check we mean it.

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