Can AT&T unlock my secret photo vault?

So I'm 17 not allowed to have a boyfriend yet but I do (ik rebel), but in all seriousness I accidentally dropped my phone and the right side of the screen wouldn't work anymore (and a lot of other problems), my dad tried to get it fixed but they said it would be impossible, so he bought a new phone which will be delivered to me in a week.

However the phone that I broke also used to be my moms phone so it had my moms old photos that she needs to recover. My dad said he will bring the broken phone to at&t since they can recover the old photos, but I also have photos I'm another app that's called " Private Photo Vault- Pic Safe" on the iPhone. All the photos of me and my Boyfriend are on that, just him, and his privates. It has a passcode on that app but I'm not sure if at&t can have acccess to that too. Can they?! I'm super stressed and worried. Thanks.

Added (1). Should I just permanently destroy my phone XoX

I'm sure they can. What would happen if you QUIT paying for your 'vault' ? They'd go in & clean-it-out & rent it to somebody else…

There's a huge difference between recovering files, and unlocking files. They might be able to copy everything saved on the phone to a memory card or thumb drive. The locked files likely will remain locked.

ATT are a network provider not a phone manufacturer so they would have no way of pulling photos off the phone, they do have access to photos you've sent and received bit it's too late to get rid of those, in all fairness though network providers very rarely do data pulls unless at the request of the government and even then tower dumps have information from everyone on that network in your region, American providers are monopolies so that's everyone in your area, so the data request tends to look at specific IP addresses as opposed to all the bulk data, as for data on the phone it's doable but technicians won't go beyond the lock screen if they are repairing it

Of course it can. If the iPhone can be unlocked what makes you think your folder can't be unlocked.