iCloud

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Apple uses two different forms of encryption for your iCloud data – a strong form for particularly sensitive data like the Health and Journal apps, but a weaker one for a lot of other data you still wouldn’t want falling into the wrong hands.

Fortunately the company gives you the option of switching to strong encryption for all your iCloud data, and while there are a few steps involved, it’s a worthwhile security and privacy safeguard …

We learned earlier this year that the British government had secretly ordered Apple to create a backdoor into encrypted data for all iCloud users worldwide. Specifically, it wanted a way to see personal data protected by Apple’s introduction of Advanced Data Protection (ADP), which extended end-to-end encryption to almost all iCloud data, meaning not even the iPhone maker could access it.

Apple has been fighting the secret order in secret court hearings, but it now appears that the US government is using technology agreement negotiations to force Britain to back down …

iCloud is currently down for some Apple users, impacting key apps and services like Photos, Mail, iWork, and more. Here’s what we know so far about the outage.

I bet nobody had ‘Meta arguing for privacy on Apple’s behalf’ on their tech bingo cards, but that’s exactly what the social networking company is hoping to do.

Meta has asked the court’s permission to give evidence in support of Apple’s privacy battle with the British government over a feature intended to apply end-to-end encryption to almost all iCloud data …

Hyperspace, the new utility from Macintosh veteran John Siracusa, has been updated a handful of times since we covered its launch in February. If you haven’t tried Hyperspace since it first launched, there are new capabilities that could reveal even more space to reclaim.

A secret court hearing on iCloud encryption began on Friday, amid calls in both the UK and US to make the proceedings public.

The British government is demanding that Apple create backdoor access, not just for the personal data of British citizens, but for all iCloud users worldwide …

It appears Apple will have its day in court to challenge the UK’s not-so-secret-anymore order demanding a backdoor into iCloud.

In a world in which privacy is a hot-button issue, we might have expected Brits to be outraged that their government was responsible for Apple withdrawing Advanced Data Protection from the UK. In reality, it’s gone largely unremarked.

A new Bloomberg piece suggests that’s because people care far less about privacy than they claim. While I do think there’s some truth to that, it’s not the primary reason …

Apple is removing the option to enable Advanced Data Protection for iCloud users in the United Kingdom. This feature let users fully protect their data stored in iCloud with end-to-end encryption. However, a recent UK government order forces companies like Apple to put backdoors in its encryption systems.

Rather than comply and compromise Advanced Data Protection, Apple is left with no choice but to remove the feature altogether. In a statement to 9to5Mac, Apple said that current users of ADP in the UK will eventually need to disable the security feature in order to keep using their iCloud account. Full statement after the break …

It’s being reported that the British government secretly ordered Apple to create a security backdoor into all content uploaded by iCloud users anywhere in the world.

Apple is certain to refuse the demand, leading to the possibility of a similar privacy stand-off to the one seen between the iPhone maker and the FBI back in the San Bernardino shooter case …

Apple officially launched Apple Invites on Tuesday, giving iPhone users a new way to create rich digital invitations for real events.

One day later, Apple released Apple Invites version 1.0.1 with some improvements to the original version of the app.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will be launching a new events and invites service as part of iCloud. This new service will differ from calendar, and will launch as early as “this coming week.”

Apple introduced iCloud back in June 2011, and since then, the free tier of iCloud has remained at 5GB. However, I’m not here to talk about that today. While 5GB of free iCloud is definitely too little for our needs nearly a decade and a half later, I think Apple has a bigger issue to address with iCloud: its paid tiers.

A multi-year attempt to establish a class action lawsuit against Apple over iCloud storage has officially been dismissed.

In a new court filing this week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit tossed out the lawsuit and said the plaintiffs failed to make their case.

As we reported on Monday, Apple has published a new support document confirming that iCloud backup will stop working on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8 or older versions of the operating system. Now we’ve also learned that there will be restrictions on syncing Safari bookmarks as well.

Apple has started notifying users running older software about a very compelling reason to update. iCloud backups will soon stop working—and even be deleted—on devices running iOS 8 and prior.

For the first time, starting in iOS 18.1, Apple will allow users to change their iCloud email address entirely. Previously, users could set an alias to send emails from, but there was no way to outright change or remove whatever you first set your iCloud email as. Now, you can.

Apple is rolling out a design refresh to iCloud.com today. The update includes support for Dark Mode, more customization options, changes to iCloud Photos, and more. Head below for the full details.

A lengthy iCloud Private Relay outage was finally resolved on Sunday morning, according to Apple’s status page – but problems with XCode Cloud remain.

Many users had to disable iCloud Private Relay when the service became slow or completely unusable, with Safari unable to display websites …

If you’re experiencing issues browsing the web on your Apple devices this Thursday night, you’re not alone. iCloud Private Relay is experiencing an outage that may cause the service to become slow or unavailable.

The Apple CSAM controversy doesn’t appear to be going away, as a British children’s charity accused the company of under-reporting incidents on its platforms.

However, the report appears to be based at least in part on a failure to understand how end-to-end encryption works …