Keep you r files encrypted
Lots of messaging apps use end-to-end encryption, but online storage services aren’t as secure. Robert Irvine explains what’s changed and how to protect your files
In February, Apple stopped offering its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature in the UK. This followed an order by the Government, under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, for the company to allow it access to users’ fully encrypted files.
ADP applies end-to-end encryption to data stored in iCloud, so no one but you can access your files. The Home Office reportedly demanded a ‘backdoor’ be built into Apple’s encryption so law-enforcement agencies could gather data that’s otherwise inaccessible to criminal investigations.
Apple said it has “never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will” (www.snipca.com/54156). Rather than compromise its encryption system, it reluctantly decided to withdraw Advanced Data Protection in the UK, though the feature remains available “everywhere else in the world”. Apple has begun legal action against the Government to overturn the demand (see page 8).
How does this affect you?
Advanced Data Protection is an opt-in iCloud feature on iPhones and iPads, but in the UK the option is now unavailable to new users (see screenshot above right). If you enabled the feature before 21 February, end-to-end encryption will still work for the time being (Apple can’t disable it automatically), but you’ll soon need to turn it off to keep using your iCloud account. The change doesn’t apply to Apple tools that have end-to-end encryption enabled by default, such as iMessage and FaceTime. But it does affect nine iCloud categories, including iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes and Safari Bookmarks. Your data will still be encrypted using Standard Data Protection, but this isn’t end-to-end, which means it can be intercepted and decrypted by third parties.