(MENAFN– Youm7) The new iPhone update can help keep your personal photos and texts safe, thanks to the addition of Advanced Data Protection to the device by Apple.
The feature was added in the US with iOS 16.2, and for the rest of the world in iOS 16.3, which began rolling out this week.
It’s called Advanced Data Protection and helps protect your iCloud backups.
If you are a longtime iPhone user, you probably back up some content to iCloud automatically.
This often means sending your iMessage text messages, photos in the Photos app, and your emails.
All this is very private media and information that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.
How does iCloud work? Apple’s regular iCloud is called Data Protection Standard.
It works using something called encryption, which makes your data unreadable – unless you have the right ‘key’.
This comes to prevent anyone from snooping into your data.
Apple stores this information in its data centers, but it also holds encryption ‘keys’ that can unlock much of your information.
These backups can be ones, photos, documents, notes, and more.
“The encryption keys from your trusted devices are secured in Apple’s data centers,” explains Apple.
So Apple can decrypt your data for you whenever you need it, like when you sign in on a new device, restore from a backup, or recover your data after you forget your password.
As long as you can successfully sign in with your Apple ID, you can access your backups, photos, documents, notes, and more.
There are also 14 categories of data — including Health and iCloud Keychain passwords — that are fully encrypted and inaccessible to Apple.
Unfortunately someone else – even a trustworthy company – having your encryption keys also increases the privacy risk.
Apple regularly rejects law enforcement requests to unlock iPhones.
Advanced data protection
The idea with Advanced Data Protection is that the number of categories of data that Apple can’t access goes up.
So once it’s on, Apple doesn’t have access to 23 different categories of data.
This means that it is very difficult for highly advanced hackers to spy on what is inside your iCloud.
But it also prevents governments from asking for information about what they do in most cases.
Here is the full list of data types that are fully end-to-end encrypted under Advanced Data Protection:
Cloud backup (including device and message backups)
iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes, Passwords & Keychain, Health Data, Home Data, Messages in iCloud, Payment Info, Transactions, Apple Card, Maps, QuickType Keyboard Learned, Vocabulary, Safari, Screen Time, Siri info, Wi-Fi passwords, W1 and H1 Bluetooth keys, Memoji.
The only categories that don’t get full protection are iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendars.
Apple doesn’t keep encryption keys, and if a hacker breaks into Apple’s systems, they won’t be able to snoop into your messages.
How to use Advanced Data Protection on iPhone
Apple launched Advanced Data Protection in the US with iOS 16.2, and globally with iOS 16.3.
First, make sure you’re up to date by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
The obvious problem with Advanced Data Protection is that Apple will struggle to help you recover your account.
So you need to set up additional protections before turning it on, or you risk closing your account.
This means setting up account recovery.
You will need to go to Settings > iCloud > Advanced Data Protection, then tap Account Recovery to make sure your account is recoverable.
This may mean adding a recovery contact who can help you unlock your account.
Or it could mean creating a 28-character recovery key that you need to write down – which will eventually help you unlock your account.
Once account recovery is enabled, you can then turn on Advanced Data Protection.
This should greatly improve your privacy, especially if you have a lot of information saved in iCloud.
Just don’t fall for your recovery contact, or you lose that 28-character key.
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