In the latest versions of macOS and iOS, Apple has enabled encryption foralmost everything in iCloud.
That gap has now been closed, but you might not want to jump in quite yet.
“Similar to Lockdown Mode, the new Advanced Data Protection comes with trade-offs.
Peter Dazeley / Getty Images
Apple is famously hot on privacy and currently encrypts all kinds of data.
But crucially, your iCloud backups are not encrypted.
Or rather, they’re “encrypted at rest,” but Apple has the keys to unlock them.
Apple
This sounds worse than it is.
At least,not like you do now.
And because your backups include your iMessage history, it gives law enforcement a back door into your messages.
“[Your] data is unreadable to anyone other than the user.
But before you switch it on, it’s worth considering the benefits and the consequences.
Locked Out
Understandably, the FBI is not happy.
Now, even if Apple wanted to unlock your iCloud data, it couldnt.
Apple just cannot unlock that data.
Similar to Lockdown Mode, the new Advanced Data Protection comes with trade-offs.
This is the first consideration you gotta make.
Locking access to your iCloud data is a great feature, but is it worth the tradeoff?
If their accounts are not similarly locked down, then those messages are all still available.
This is why Advanced Data Protection for iCloud is off by default.
And if you do decide to turn it on, Apple forces you to use an alternative recovery method.
You should then put that piece of paper in a safe.
Even if you lose the paper, all is not lost.
The security benefits of Advanced Data Protection for iCloud are significant, but so are the risks.
As always, its a tradeoff, but at least now we have the choice.
