26 may 2026
Security is an important factor when considering where and how to store personal and work-related documents. You can keep documents like contracts, medical records, receipts, or notes in paper or digital form, but it’s important to ensure they don’t fall into the wrong hands. iScanner conducted a survey to explore how Americans prefer to store their documents and what security challenges they face.
The survey interviewed 450 Americans between the ages of 18 to 65 and was conducted in May 2026. Here are the most interesting takeaways from the research.
One question in the survey focused on where people save documents. Only 31% of participants say they keep physical documents at home or in the office. The majority prefers to store warranties, insurance documents, and receipts digitally.
The most popular storage option is the cloud, with services like Google Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox used by 60% of participants. More than half of respondents store documents on phones (52%) and on computers (59%). USB drives or external hard drives are less popular, with only 22% of respondents using them. Surprisingly, 33% of respondents said they use emails and messages to store documents. This means that 93% of Americans usually store important documents online, whether in the cloud or in emails and messages.
The survey also revealed why users scan documents and prefer to use digital copies. 57% of Americans appreciate that scanned documents are easy to share with others. 55% use scanned documents for applications, forms, or official requests. 50% use scanned documents because they’re convenient and easy to access anytime. 39% scan documents to edit or sign them. Additionally, 22% of respondents find scanned documents more reliable than paper copies.
Other uses, like extracting text from scans or scanning documents to use with AI tools, reached only 16% and 6%, respectively.
One of the goals of the survey was to determine how many Americans have experienced situations when their paper or digital documents could have fallen into the wrong hands. While 75% of respondents said they have never run into this issue, one quarter of Americans reported that they have.
5% of respondents report leaving paper documents in a public place, such as on public transport or in a café, and 3% confirm their documents were stolen. The situation is similar with digital copies. 5% of Americans have lost a phone or laptop containing documents in a public place, and 4% reported their devices stolen. Moreover, 8% of respondents had their digital accounts (cloud, email, apps) hacked, exposing their files to unauthorized access.
iScanner is a platform for scanning and managing documents, which is why the survey explored which security features respondents find most useful and valuable. Understanding public opinion on document security is an important step toward developing features that help users feel more secure about their files.
58% of Americans consider two-factor authentication the most valuable feature for storing digital documents. 52% of respondents prefer protecting individual documents with a password. 49% of participants prefer locking the app with a password or biometric authentication, and 48% value the ability to remotely delete the app’s data if a device is lost or stolen.
Features such as temporary sharing links that expire after a short period of time and decoy passwords that hide sensitive files and display non-sensitive ones instead were chosen by 30% and 18% of respondents, respectively. While these features ranked lower than the most popular options, they still appeal to some users.
These results show that iScanner’s existing security features already align with many users’ expectations, offering options like remote data deletion, password locks,decoy passwords, and temporarily sharing links. However, until recently, the app did not offer two-step authentication.
In May 2026, iScanner expanded its arsenal of security features to include two-step authentication. The feature is now available for iOS, Android, and Web.
How does the new feature work? Two-factor authentication is a security method that adds a second layer of identity verification. Instead of relying solely on a password, 2FA requires you to confirm your identity using two distinct factors. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access, even if a password is compromised. As the second layer of authentication, iScanner uses authenticator apps like Google or Microsoft Authenticator. This means that, in addition to a username and password, users must enter a code generated by one of the authenticator apps on their phone.
“The security of our users’ documents is one of our core values,” says Matt Svetlak, Product Director of iScanner. “Our app has been on the market for more than 10 years and helps 125 million people manage their documents smoothly and effortlessly. We pay close attention to the security and protection of users’ files in all kinds of situations. If our users lose their phone or password, they can be confident their files will remain safe”.
iScanner is an award-winning scanning and document management app with over 125 million downloads, available on iOS, Android, and the web. The app allows users to convert scans into various formats, edit and sign them, and turn any image into editable documents using OCR. Powered by AI, iScanner delivers high-quality PDFs even if the original is crumpled or broken-edged. Users can also chat with AI to summarize or proofread PDF files.
The iScanner app was developed by BP Mobile (AIBY Group).
