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Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

reuters.com

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Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#301
post #57

Apple has a list for that: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 These are end to end: Home data Health data (requires iOS 12 or later) iCloud Keychain (includes all of your saved accounts and passwords) Payment information QuickType Keyboard learned vocabulary (requires iOS 11 or later) Screen Time Siri information Wi-Fi passwords The messages also end to end but the backup contains the private key. The moral of…

Have they updated that page? Backups are the very first thing on the list.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#302
post #5

Some companies are better than others but there's absolutely no reason to believe any one of them would ever be on "your side" for any reason. You can vote for who makes decisions in government, but you can't vote for who makes decisions in companies.

You vote every time you decide to buy or not to buy.

Except that you only reasonably have two choices in smartphones: Android or iOS. So you can vote between plague and cholera. And, no, you would have to be in a very privileged position already to have any other choice.

The "free market" can't fix things if there are no choices to choose from. Sometimes politics has to fix this instead.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this backup encrypted with? If I lose my phone, what do I need to restore it to a new phone?

Why do people care about phone backups anymore? I don't think I have any apps that don't store everything in the cloud. There's nothing of value that's only on my phone. I could toss it in the bin and set up a new one now and not lose anything.

This is why I don’t use iCloud. I don’t think the benefit is worth making my phone subject to search. But when I lost my phone, I was a little disappointed to lose some of the photos I had never moved. A local backup with zero-effort automation does sound promising, if it’s secure.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how that works at all. You can buy something you need because you need it and that's not at all a vote saying you like the management of how it was produced.

It’s a vote whether you claim it is or not. If you need something but don’t want to support the company, buy it from someone else. And if you can’t find a company that you want to support, then you’ll see it’s just like real politics. You don’t get to only vote for the parts of a candidate you like, you vote for the whole package.

> If you need something but don’t want to support the company, buy it from someone else.

Someone else does not exist. That is like saying you voted for Comcast.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people care about phone backups anymore? I don't think I have any apps that don't store everything in the cloud. There's nothing of value that's only on my phone. I could toss it in the bin and set up a new one now and not lose anything.

Because syncing isn't a backup? What happens when you sync corrupted files? Same reason RAID isn't a backup, yet that one continues to crop up.

iPhone backups are only one snapshot and done semi-frequently so unless you notice the corruption very quickly, it's going to 'backup' that corruption too.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#306
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things: 1) There is no way Apple would be allowed to sell iPhones in China, without China government having access to anything. So, I assume that Apple users in China have e2e encrypted exactly nothing. 2) I have a strong suspicion that those 'enter your Apple ID password because your account needs it' message really means 'a government has requested your data and even though it's encrypted, we will nag you about…

> 2) I have a strong suspicion that those 'enter your Apple ID password because your account needs it' message really means 'a government has requested your data and even though it's encrypted, we will nag you about entering a password, and if you give it, you're a free game'. Haha I hadn’t thought of that. If true, I must have every government requesting my data frequently as I constantly get bombarded to enter my i…

FISA warrants can go multiple hops from the target which with network effects can sweep up tons of unrelated data from random people who happened to interact with someone who interacted with x bad guy.

That’s just for domestic surveillance keep in mind.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. Disclaimer: I work for Apple.

Please elaborate

Everything that happens internally has to be approved by privacy, it’s always part of every discussion (meaning it’s like you’d hope for). There’s no shortage of projects killed or altered because privacy said no.

It’s not just marketing.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#308
post #57

Apple has a list for that: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 These are end to end: Home data Health data (requires iOS 12 or later) iCloud Keychain (includes all of your saved accounts and passwords) Payment information QuickType Keyboard learned vocabulary (requires iOS 11 or later) Screen Time Siri information Wi-Fi passwords The messages also end to end but the backup contains the private key. The moral of…

Have they updated that page? Backups are the very first thing on the list.

The first list is stuff that is encrypted. Farther down the page is stuff that is end to end encrypted. It’s pretty misleading.

Re: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

#309
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this backup encrypted with? If I lose my phone, what do I need to restore it to a new phone?

It's encrypted with a password you type on the computer, but is stored on the phone. Annoyingly, if you lose the password, the only way to change it (even just for future backups) is resetting all settings on the phone.

Sounds kind of goofy. Ideally, I could distrust the computer and consider it keylogged, and the phone would transfer already encrypted data to it.
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