Privacy

Apple has announced it will provide fully encrypted iCloud backups, meeting a longstanding demand by EFF and other privacy-focused organizations.

We applaud Apple for listening to experts, child advocates, and users who want to protect their most sensitive data. Encryption is one of the most important tools we have for maintaining privacy and security online. That's why we included the demand that Apple let users encrypt iCloud backups in the Fix It Already campaign that we launched in 2019.

Apple's on-device encryption is strong, but some especially sensitive iCloud data, such as photos and backups, has continued to be vulnerable to government demands and hackers. Users who opt in to Apple's new proposed feature, which the company calls Advanced Data Protection for iCloud , will be protected even if there is a data breach in the cloud, a government demand, or a breach from within Apple (such as a rogue employee). Apple said today that the feature will be available to U.S. users by the end of the year, and will roll out to the rest of the world in "early 2023."

We're also pleased to hear that Apple has officially dropped its plans to install photo-scanning software on its devices , which would have inspected users' private photos in iCloud and iMessage. This software, a version of what's called "client-side scanning," was intended to locate child abuse imagery and report it to authorities. When a user's information is end-to-end encrypted and there is no device scanning, the user has true control over who has access to that data.

Apple's image-scanning plans were announced in 2021 , but delayed after EFF supporters protested and delivered a petition containing more than 60,000 signatures to Apple executives. While Apple quietly postponed these scanning plans later that year, today's announcement makes it official.

In a statement distributed to Wired and other journalists, Apple said:

We have further decided to not move forward with our previously proposed CSAM detection tool for iCloud Photos. Children can be protected without companies combing through personal data, and we will continue working with governments, child advocates, and other companies to help protect young people, preserve their right to privacy, and make the internet a safer place for children and for us all.

The company has said it will focus instead on "opt-in tools for parents" and "privacy-preserving solutions to combat Child Sexual Abuse Material and protect children, while addressing the unique privacy needs of personal communications and data storage."

Constant scanning for child abuse images can lead to unwarranted investigations and false positives. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported on how faulty scans at Google led to false accusations of child abuse against fathers in Texas and California. The men were exonerated by police but were subjected to permanent account deletion by Google.

Companies should stop trying to square the circle by putting bugs in our pockets at the request of governments, and focus on protecting their users, and human rights. Today Apple took a big step forward on both fronts. There are a number of implementation choices that can affect the overall security of the new feature, and we'll be pushing Apple to make sure the encryption is as strong as possible. Finally, we'd like Apple to go a step further. Turning on these privacy-protective features by default would mean that all users can have their rights protected.

Apple Inc. announced this week that it will offer full encryption for data in its cloud storage system worldwide, which not surprisingly has been met with consternation from hackers, thieves & snoopers but joy from customers.

The move means that all content, chats, photos and videos, will have end-to-end encryption under Apple's Advanced Data Protection feature. For the average consumer, this is a win, and for the average privacy advocate, it's a victory in an ongoing fight with the authorities.

We applaud Apple for listening to experts, child advocates, and users who want to protect their most sensitive data, the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote today. Encryption is one of the most important tools we have for maintaining privacy and security online.

The foundation was equally pleased that Apple also stated that it had finally decided not to implement its CSAM photo-scanning child protection technology.

The authorities, on the other hand, have denounced the move, especially the FBI, which has a history of battling with Apple over trying to get its hands on user data.

Apple will also likely run into problems concerning the U.K. government and its online safety bill. The bill gives the U.K. government broad powers to force companies to ensure content on their platforms aligns with what it calls internet safety. Many privacy advocates have condemned the bill as a new kind of censorship.

The French government has announced a global initiative for online child safety.

The purpose of the Children Online Protection Laboratory is to incentivize researchers, campaigners, and tech giants to come up with measures to best protect children online.

Tech giants Google , Amazon, Meta, and TikTok , as well as Dailymotion said they will sign a charter.

In the first year, the participants of the Child Protection Laboratory will focus on developing systems for detecting sexual predators posing as minors and a shared database to detect and remove explicit images shared non-consensually. However, the other aspects of the proposal include looking into online age verification, a move that could restrict online privacy for all users.

In the past few years, Macron's government has pushed for reforms in online child safety. However, some of the efforts have not been successful. For instance, the legislation requiring adult websites to verify age has not been enforced, yet it was passed over two years ago. The highest court in the country, the Cour de Cassation has until January to rule on whether the Constitutional Council should review if the age verification rules violate the Constitution and if they are a major threat to privacy in the country.

In September 2021, France's Ministry of Economics and Finance requested access to the account balances and number of monthly transactions for all individual and business bank accounts in France. Not only did the Ministry of Economics and Finance want access to this sensitive personal data but it also wanted to be able to collect this data in real-time.

This is an extension to the current database of bank accounts that records the existence and ownership of all personal and business accounts but does not currently record balances and transactions.

French news outlet BFMTV reported that the request was ultimately denied by France's Interministerial Directorate of Digital (DINUM).

But this attempt to harvest highly sensitive bank account data from French citizens in real-time reflects a growing push by governments around the world to scoop up increased amounts of financial data from their citizens.