Your WhatsApp chats saved in iCloud could be read and shared with authorities when lawfully requested. That might change soon as the Facebook-owned messaging service has been working on a new privacy feature that would protect these iCloud backups with encryption.
WhatsApp's recent announcement of the new, required data sharing with Facebook has attracted government scrutiny in Turkey, provoked outrage on social media and earned the secure messaging app Signal lots of new users. But now, WhatsApp is firing back with a FAQ that's meant to assuage any privacy concerns that people may have been having lately.
Secure messaging app Telegram has introduced video calling with end-to-end encryption that prevents eavesdropping, increasing pressure on Zoom, Apple's FaceTime and similar services.
According to a new report, Apple may release a small iOS 13.4.1 update later this week to squish a nasty bug on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch that has caused data and IP addresses in virtual private networks (VPN) to be exposed.
A news story at the beginning of the week shows a very changing position for Apple, which has focused for years on customer data access freedom and privacy but appears to have changed its tune when it comes to encryption. There's also news from the electronic medical records (EMR) industry, which may get shaken up this year thanks to new rules imposed by a federal government agency that oversees how medical records are maintained.
Following the revealing report by Joseph Menn for Reuters alleging that the FBI “about two years ago” pressured Apple not to encrypt iOS device backups in iCloud, many iPhone users seem unhappy with this news. As an alternative, backing up your iOS device locally using iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC (or the Finder in macOS 10.15 Catalina) lets you retain ownership over your data versus having the contents of your device uploaded to iCloud.
The explosive Reuters story alleging that the FBI a few years ago successfully pressured Apple into dropping plans to encrypt iOS device backups in iCloud has put a spotlight on an interview that Tim Cook gave to German newspaper Der Spiegel about a year ago, in which he hinted Apple might eventually no longer have an encryption key to iCloud data.
A new report out today says that Apple has not implemented end to end encryption on iCloud backups at the behest of the FBI. Apple hasn't verified the report, but it has other reasons not to encrypt iCloud backups. In the end, I don't worry too much about the absence of end-to-end encryption in iCloud, because it's to my benefit. Let me explain.
Reuters today alleged Apple did bow to pressure from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which reportedly demanded that the Cupertino firm drop plans to roll out end-to-end encryption for iCloud device backups, claiming doing so would harm investigations.
Apple popped up in the news this week after both U.S. Attorney General William Barr and President Trump publicly called for the company to help unlock iPhones used by the Saudi Air Force cadet accused of perpetrating a terror attack on a U.S. Navy base in Pensacola, FL in December. Apple's pushing back, and make no mistake: Your privacy is on the line here. iPhone encryption should matter to all of us.
Following the FBI's letter to Apple requesting assistance to extract data from password-protected iPhones used by a suspected mass shooter, the Cupertino tech giant has now dispatched its privacy director to the CES in order to defend its stance on hardware encryption.
A trio of fresh 15-second video advertisements from the "That's iPhone" campaign were posted yesterday to Apple's YouTube channel in Australia, focusing on iMessage encryption, Apple's material recycling efforts and privacy in App Store.