You Can Finally Encrypt Those ICloud Backups
Apple prides itself on being privacy first, and when it comes to devices like the iPhone and Mac, that’s true. But Apple’s iCloud backups are tangled up in a mess of different encryption standards. Some data in iCloud, such as your health data and passwords, is fully encrypted. But many things, like your notes, your photos, and your iMessages (when backed up to iCloud), are not. Now Apple is starting to fix this bug by introducing a way to manually enable end-to-end encryption for many new types of data.
What is Extended Data Protection and how does it work?
These changes come in the form of a new umbrella feature called Advanced Data Protection. Prior to Advanced Data Protection, end-to-end encryption was limited to certain types of data. Others were encrypted when transferred to iCloud and when running on the iCloud server, but Apple always had the encryption key on hand should you need it. This is handy if you’ve lost your password and need Apple to recover your data, but it’s clearly a privacy issue.
Once Advanced Data Protection is enabled, it automatically encrypts device backups, message backups, iCloud Drive, notes, photos, reminders, Safari bookmarks, Siri shortcuts, voice memos, and wallet passes. That’s a lot of data that wasn’t previously end-to-end encrypted, most notably iMessages when backed up to iCloud .
Some categories, such as Mail, Contacts, and Calendar, won’t be supported, according to Apple, “due to the need to interoperate with global email, contacts, and calendar systems.” In addition, there is a limited amount of data that will not be end-to-end encrypted in end- to -end encrypted categories. You can see these elements below:
iCloud backup
- The name, model, color, and serial number of the device associated with each backup.
- List of applications and file formats included in the backup
- Date, time, and size of each backup snapshot
iCloud Drive
- Raw byte checksums of file content and file name
- File type and when it was created, last modified, or last opened
- Whether the file was marked as favorite
- file size
- Signing any application installers (.pkg signature) and package signing
- Whether the synchronized file is executable
A photo
- Raw checksum of photo or video bytes
- Whether the item was marked as featured, hidden, or marked as deleted
- When the item was originally created on the device
- When the element was originally imported and modified
- How many times the item has been viewed
Notes
- The date and time the note was created, last modified, or last viewed.
- Whether the note was pinned or marked as deleted
- Whether the note contains drawing or handwriting
- Raw checksum of content bytes from an imported or migrated note
Safari Bookmarks
- Is the bookmark in the favorites folder
- When was the bookmark last modified
- Whether the bookmark was marked as deleted
Messages in iCloud
- When was the last sync completed and was sync turned off
- Date the content was last modified
- Error codes
- Message type, such as regular iMessage, SMS, or tapback.
Another catch: Advanced Data Protection only works on devices running iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS 13.1. If you have devices that are stuck on older versions, you will have to remove them from your iCloud account. These OS updates are currently in beta and only for users in the United States. The stable version will be released before the end of 2022, and the global rollout will begin in early 2023.
You can try Advanced Data Protection right now by enrolling all devices with your Apple ID in these betas. Although these beta versions are tested late and probably don’t have as many issues as earlier beta versions, there is still a risk of installing beta software on your device. If you’d rather skip the beta, you can wait for Apple to release these latest software releases later this month.
How to enable end-to-end encryption with Advanced Data Protection
Once you have iOS 16.2 running on your iPhone (and all other devices running the latest version as well), you can turn on advanced data protection by going to Settings > iCloud > Advanced data protection .
Here, first click the “Account Recovery” button to set up the recovery system. This step is important because once you enable end-to-end encryption, Apple can’t help if you lose access to your account.
Make sure you have set up a recovery contact (trustee) and complete the authentication. Then click the Recovery Key button to copy the 28-digit recovery key for your iCloud account. Save it in a safe place. You can use this to recover your account and its details if something goes wrong.
Now go back to the iCloud section in Settings and select the Advanced data protection option. Here, turn on the feature, go through Apple’s steps, and you’re done.