Apple said on Wednesday that it plans to expand end-to-end encryption of iCloud data to include backups, photos, notes, chat histories and other services, in a move that could further protect user data, but also increase tensions with law enforcement around the world. world.
Among the new security tools is a feature called Advanced Data Protection, which will allow users to keep certain data more secure from hackers, governments and spies, even in the event of an Apple data breach. Furthermore, law enforcement would not be able to gain access to this data, even with a warrant. With end-to-end encryption, not even the platform can access the data, only the sender and recipient.
As a result, Apple would be unable to comply with requests to share this cloud-stored data with employees as part of an investigation. The company has previously run afoul of law enforcement over attempts to access data on devices, including an FBI attempt to hack into the iPhone of one of the gunmen behind the 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California.
In recent years, Apple has increasingly made privacy a central pillar of its discourse to users through a combination of new tools, including a feature designed to protect journalists and human rights defenders from spyware. The company framed the latest move as part of an effort to combat “increasingly sophisticated and complex” threats to user data from malicious actors, as well as an increase in the number of data breaches.
Privacy groups have been calling for Apple for years to increase encryption for iCloud backups. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said that some of the steps taken more than a decade ago to design iCloud and the way it encrypts your data were “necessary precursors to getting to to that moment. ??
In a post on its official blog, Apple said that iCloud already protects 14 categories of sensitive data using end-to-end encryption by default, including iCloud Keychain passwords and health data, and is adding nine new categories. Not included in the new list, however, is encryption for iCloud Mail, Contacts and Calendar due to interoperability challenges, Apple said.
In a statement on Wednesday, the FBI said it “remains deeply concerned about the threat of end-to-end encryption and user-only access.”
This article is a translation of the writing by Samantha Murphy Kelly to the website CNN Business.
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