Latest news with #AdvancedDataProtection
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Business Standard
23-07-2025
- Business Standard
Switching to Android: How to move iCloud photos, videos to Google Photos
Apple's iCloud and Google Photos both offer cloud backup for your media, but work in different ecosystems. iCloud syncs photos across Apple devices with 5GB of free storage, while Google offers 15GB distributed across its platforms, including Photos, and includes smart organisation and sharing tools across Google apps. Since they do not sync directly, moving content between them takes a few extra steps. Apple and Google offer official tools and methods to help make this transfer smoother. Before getting started, make sure your iCloud library is up to date, you are signed into the right Google account, and your devices are fully charged and connected to a stable Wi-Fi network. In this step-by-step guide, we will understand how to move your photos and videos from Apple's iCloud to Google Photos. Pre-requisites of transferring from iCloud to Google Photos According to the Apple and Google support page, Apple allows users to request a copy of their iCloud data (photos and videos only) linked to their Apple ID to be transferred to another service, such as Google Photos. This feature is available in over 240 countries worldwide. It is important to note that transferring your iCloud content does not delete or modify the original files stored with Apple; instead, it simply creates a copy in the destination service. The transfer process typically takes between three and seven days, during which Apple verifies the request to ensure it was made by the account owner before completing the transfer. This is to be noted that the service is not available for child accounts or Managed Apple Accounts. Additionally, users with Advanced Data Protection for iCloud enabled will not be able to export their photo or video data from iCloud until the feature is turned off. You are using iCloud to store your photos and videos with Apple. Your Apple ID has two-factor authentication enabled. You have an active Google account to use Google Photos. Your Google account has enough storage available to complete the transfer. If you add or change content before or during the transfer, it may not be included. These content types can not be transferred from iCloud to Google Photos: Shared albums Smart albums Photo stream content The video portion of Live photos Photos and videos not stored in iCloud How to request to transfer your iCloud Photos content Sign in to Apple's Data and Privacy page: Visit and log in with your Apple ID. Select 'Transfer a copy of your data' Once signed in, choose the option to transfer a copy of your data. Follow the on-screen prompts: Apple will guide you through a few steps to confirm your selection. This includes choosing the destination service (currently only Google Photos is supported) and verifying what type of content you want to transfer: photos, videos, or both. Sign in to your Google account: To authorise the transfer, you will need to log in to your Google account. Receive email confirmation of your request: Once your request is submitted, Apple will send a confirmation email to your registered Apple ID email address. Get notified when the transfer is complete: When the transfer is successfully finished, Apple will send a second email letting you know that your photos and videos have been copied to Google Photos. Cancelling the transfer If you decide to cancel the transfer while it is in progress, the process will stop but any photos or videos already transferred will not be removed from your Google Photos account. You will have to manually delete them if needed.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Yahoo
This 1 Hidden iPhone Feature Could Instantly Make Your Online Data Safer — And It's Easy To Activate
Our iPhones carry our most private photos and secret files and notes inside them –– and there's one step you could do right now to keep their iCloud backups safer from prying eyes. It's called Advanced Data Protection, and it's a software option that was rolled out for iOS 16.2 in 2022 for U.S. users that you may not know about, because it's not a default setting, so you have to turn it on yourself. But you should. This feature 'maximizes the amount of privacy you can have' on Apple devices, explained David Huerta, senior digital security trainer at Freedom of the Press Foundation. Advanced Data Protection is a strong privacy and security feature because it enables end-to-end encryption for your iCloud backups. When you save your files and photos to the cloud, platforms like Apple, by default, will do 'in transit encryption,' meaning transferred data is private but that Apple itself can still see what you are doing. End-to-end encryption goes one step further because it will scramble data so that it's inaccessible unless there is an encryption key that only you know. It 'makes it so that even the platform owners cannot see that activity, those contents being created,' explained David Huerta, senior digital security trainer at Freedom of the Press Foundation. This way, no one –– not even Apple or a U.S. government that has the power to seize devices at the border –– can gain access to your revealing photos and voice memos saved on your iCloud, because only you have the encryption key. 'End-to-end encryption does make it so that law enforcement would have a tough time accessing things from cloud providers who get court orders, subpoenas ... sent to them to get access to different types of information,' Huerta said. Even if you are not an activist, celebrity or a journalist with sensitive information on your phone, you might still want your private photos, like your nudes, or your vulnerable breakup notes you back up to iCloud, to be under this extra layer of privacy. 'If you don't want your content to be used for advertising ... one of the best ways to get that to happen is to use a service that is end-to-end encrypted,' said Sarah Scheffler, an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute. She noted that end-to-end encryption also helps protect against potential employee misuse of your data or data breaches. Apple already automatically does end-to-end encryption protection for your payment information, passwords and health data — but it does not, by default, do it for other revealing parts of your iPhone, such as your photo libraries or your Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts and Voice Memos. Turning on Advanced Data Protection changes that. Here's how it works. How To Turn On Apple's Advanced Data Protection Feature First, you need to make sure you enable two-factor authentication and update your device to at least iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1, tvOS 16.2 or watchOS 9.2. Then go to Settings, click your Apple name, so you go to your Apple Account. Then select iCloud and Advanced Data Protection. As part of Advanced Data Protection, you must either create a recovery key or a recovery contact in case you get locked out of your account. For the recovery key option: You need to create a 28-character key that will help you unlock your account. You must write this down and keep it somewhere you will remember, because Apple can't help you recover this key if you forget it. For the recovery contact option: You need to designate someone you trust who has an Apple device to be your recovery contact. They'll get a message with a code to help you regain access to your end-to-end encrypted data if you get locked out. What Advanced Data Protection Doesn't Do This feature is a great, simple way to add a much-needed layer of security and privacy to your iPhone and the outside world — but it does come with caveats. Notably, iCloud Mail, Contacts and Calendar events will not be end-to-end encrypted under this extra layer of security. And it still takes a bit of time to set up. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation acknowledges in its pitch for people to use this feature, the digital rights group states, 'It'd be even better if this became Apple's default, instead of an opt-in.' And it's not available for users in every country, either. This year, Apple said it is withdrawing this feature for U.K. users, reportedly as a way to avoid complying with a request from the U.K. government to create a technical 'back door' for accessing user data. Unfortunately, there is also no exact equivalent to this one-stop, additional end-to-end encryption feature for Android users. 'Your Android phone, if it's a modern Android phone, will have full disk encryption, which is good, so that the actual device itself and the files in it are protected,' explained Huerta. 'But then as soon as you put that or save that in Google Photos or Google Drive or whatever, then that's when you know Google now has a fully readable copy of your data.' Don't let your guard down, either. Even if you are an Apple user with Advanced Data Protection turned on, don't assume that this step means you are completely private and secure on your phone. You should always be doing basic security steps like enabling two-factor authentication and password managers on your phone apps. But overall, Advanced Data Protection should be a feature you have on if you are worried about having your most sensitive photo libraries and files exposed for an authority or a hacker to find. In this era of online surveillance by hackers and empowered border agents, it doesn't hurt to be more careful. Related... 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Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Yahoo
This 1 Hidden iPhone Feature Could Instantly Make Your Online Data Safer — And It's Easy To Activate
Our iPhones carry our most private photos and secret files and notes inside them –– and there's one step you could do right now to keep their iCloud backups safer from prying eyes. It's called Advanced Data Protection, and it's a software option that was rolled out for iOS 16.2 in 2022 for U.S. users that you may not know about, because it's not a default setting, so you have to turn it on yourself. But you should. This feature 'maximizes the amount of privacy you can have' on Apple devices, explained David Huerta, senior digital security trainer at Freedom of the Press Foundation. Advanced Data Protection is a strong privacy and security feature because it enables end-to-end encryption for your iCloud backups. When you save your files and photos to the cloud, platforms like Apple, by default, will do 'in transit encryption,' meaning transferred data is private but that Apple itself can still see what you are doing. End-to-end encryption goes one step further because it will scramble data so that it's inaccessible unless there is an encryption key that only you know. It 'makes it so that even the platform owners cannot see that activity, those contents being created,' explained David Huerta, senior digital security trainer at Freedom of the Press Foundation. This way, no one –– not even Apple or a U.S. government that has the power to seize devices at the border –– can gain access to your revealing photos and voice memos saved on your iCloud, because only you have the encryption key. 'End-to-end encryption does make it so that law enforcement would have a tough time accessing things from cloud providers who get court orders, subpoenas ... sent to them to get access to different types of information,' Huerta said. Even if you are not an activist, celebrity or a journalist with sensitive information on your phone, you might still want your private photos, like your nudes, or your vulnerable breakup notes you back up to iCloud, to be under this extra layer of privacy. 'If you don't want your content to be used for advertising ... one of the best ways to get that to happen is to use a service that is end-to-end encrypted,' said Sarah Scheffler, an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute. She noted that end-to-end encryption also helps protect against potential employee misuse of your data or data breaches. Apple already automatically does end-to-end encryption protection for your payment information, passwords and health data — but it does not, by default, do it for other revealing parts of your iPhone, such as your photo libraries or your Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts and Voice Memos. Turning on Advanced Data Protection changes that. Here's how it works. How To Turn On Apple's Advanced Data Protection Feature First, you need to make sure you enable two-factor authentication and update your device to at least iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS 13.1, tvOS 16.2 or watchOS 9.2. Then go to Settings, click your Apple name, so you go to your Apple Account. Then select iCloud and Advanced Data Protection. As part of Advanced Data Protection, you must either create a recovery key or a recovery contact in case you get locked out of your account. For the recovery key option: You need to create a 28-character key that will help you unlock your account. You must write this down and keep it somewhere you will remember, because Apple can't help you recover this key if you forget it. For the recovery contact option: You need to designate someone you trust who has an Apple device to be your recovery contact. They'll get a message with a code to help you regain access to your end-to-end encrypted data if you get locked out. What Advanced Data Protection Doesn't Do This feature is a great, simple way to add a much-needed layer of security and privacy to your iPhone and the outside world — but it does come with caveats. Notably, iCloud Mail, Contacts and Calendar events will not be end-to-end encrypted under this extra layer of security. And it still takes a bit of time to set up. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation acknowledges in its pitch for people to use this feature, the digital rights group states, 'It'd be even better if this became Apple's default, instead of an opt-in.' And it's not available for users in every country, either. This year, Apple said it is withdrawing this feature for U.K. users, reportedly as a way to avoid complying with a request from the U.K. government to create a technical 'back door' for accessing user data. Unfortunately, there is also no exact equivalent to this one-stop, additional end-to-end encryption feature for Android users. 'Your Android phone, if it's a modern Android phone, will have full disk encryption, which is good, so that the actual device itself and the files in it are protected,' explained Huerta. 'But then as soon as you put that or save that in Google Photos or Google Drive or whatever, then that's when you know Google now has a fully readable copy of your data.' Don't let your guard down, either. Even if you are an Apple user with Advanced Data Protection turned on, don't assume that this step means you are completely private and secure on your phone. You should always be doing basic security steps like enabling two-factor authentication and password managers on your phone apps. But overall, Advanced Data Protection should be a feature you have on if you are worried about having your most sensitive photo libraries and files exposed for an authority or a hacker to find. In this era of online surveillance by hackers and empowered border agents, it doesn't hurt to be more careful. Related... This 1 iPhone Setting Might Be Messing With Your Friendships Knowing The Difference Between These 3 Types Of Emergency Alerts Could Save Your Life This Hidden iPhone Feature May Just Save Your Life In An Emergency 1 Seemingly Innocent Thing On Your Phone Might Make Border Agents Deny You Entry Solve the daily Crossword
CNET
04-07-2025
- CNET
How to Immediately Boost Your iPhone's Security With Advanced Data Protection
If you've put in the effort to secure your data on your computer, iPhone and other devices, you can already sleep better than most people. But there's still a vector that could be out of your control: cloud data. To ensure you're running the highest level of encryption between you and Apple's iCloud servers, turn on Advanced Data Protection. However, the technology is also under scrutiny in the UK, which led Apple to temporarily turn off the feature for UK customers. If you're outside the UK and concerned about who can see your data, here's how to turn ADP on and how it differs from the default iCloud encryption. Why is ADP turned off for UK customers? In February, Apple took the unusual step of turning off ADP for customers in the UK. The British government has reportedly demanded that Apple provide a method for law enforcement to access encrypted data as part of criminal investigations. But that creates a serious security problem, because this type of backdoor access can also be exploited by criminals or untrustworthy governments. Since then, Apple has appealed the Home Office's demand, and in April, a judge ruled that discussions between Apple and the UK government can't be held in secret. ADP can no longer be enabled for people in the UK; those currently using ADP will need to turn off the feature at a future date. Watch this: I Made Things Weird Trying TSA's New Shoe Scanner Machine 03:53 How does Advanced Data Protection work? The key difference between ADP and how Apple encrypts data by default is how accessible your information is when stored on Apple's servers. In what Apple calls standard data protection, information sent between points, such as files stored on iCloud Drive and iCloud backups of your devices, is encrypted and transmitted securely. If someone intercepts that data between the two points, they'll see only gibberish. That data remains encrypted when stored on Apple's servers so you can access it from other devices, for instance. However, Apple can still access the encryption keys to unscramble and read the data -- and provide it to law enforcement following a legal request. By contrast, when you enable Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, the data is end-to-end encrypted, meaning only your trusted devices possess the encryption keys to read it. The information remains encrypted on the servers, and not even Apple can access its contents. (Not all iCloud data can be end-to-end encrypted. Apple breaks out which types of information, such as iCloud Mail messages, remains covered by standard data protection even when ADP is turned on.) The UK's Investigatory Powers Act -- the Snooper's Charter -- makes that inaccessibility illegal, which is why Apple is turning the feature off for UK customers. Some services are end-to-end encrypted, regardless of the sensitivity of the data, such as passwords, information stored in the Health app, and payment information. Make sure your account is set up for Advanced Data Protection To set up ADP on your account, first make sure you've met all the prerequisites for the feature: Your Apple Account must use two-factor authentication. You must set up a recovery method in case you lose access to your account. That method can be a 28-character Recovery Key or a person you've designated as a Trusted Contact. Every device connected with your Apple Account must be able to run at least iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, MacOS 13.1, WatchOS 9.2, TVOS 16.2, or a HomePod running version 16.0. For Windows computers, make sure iCloud for Windows is at version 14.1 or later. You'll be warned during the ADP setup process if any of your devices don't qualify. If any of those are too old or you can no longer access them, tap Remove Devices in Settings and delete them from your list. During the ADP setup process, you may need to first remove any incompatible devices in your iCloud settings. Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET Steps to set up Advanced Data Protection To turn on ADP on an iPhone, iPad or Mac do the following: 1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud. On a Mac, open System Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud. 2. Scroll down to Advanced Data Protection, which likely says Off, and tap that. Set up ADP in your iCloud settings. Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET 3. If there are any of the aforementioned impediments to setting up ADP, such as needing to update other devices on your account, you'll review them on the next screen. 4. In the following screen, tap Review Recovery Options. You need to have a Recovery Key, Recovery Contact or both to ensure that you can get your data if you lose access to your iCloud account. 5. Enter your device's passcode to finish. After you review your recovery methods, such as a Recovery Key or Recovery Contact, ADP is enabled. Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET Activating ADP on one device means it's on for all your devices using the same Apple Account, so you only need to set it up once. For more on securing your data and devices, see how to securely share a Wi-Fi password with Apple and Android devices and everything you need to know about Apple's new Passwords app.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
WhatsApp tells BBC it backs Apple in legal row with UK over user data
WhatsApp has told the BBC it is supporting Apple in its legal fight against the UK Home Office over user data privacy. The messaging app's boss, Will Cathcart, said the case "could set a dangerous precedent" by "emboldening other nations" to seek to break encryption, which is how tech firms keep their users' data private. Apple went to the courts after receiving a notice from the Home Office earlier this year demanding the right to access the data of its global customers if required in the interests of national security. It and other critics of the government's position say the request compromises the privacy of millions of users. The BBC has approached the Home Office for comment. It has previously declined to comment directly on the Apple case. But it has told the BBC the government's "first priority" is "to keep people safe" and the UK has a "longstanding position of protecting our citizens from the very worst crimes, such as child sex abuse and terrorism, at the same time as protecting people's privacy." WhatsApp has applied to submit evidence to the court which is hearing Apple's bid to have the Home Office request overturned. Mr Cathcart said: "WhatsApp would challenge any law or government request that seeks to weaken the encryption of our services and will continue to stand up for people's right to a private conversation online." This intervention from the Meta-owned platform represents a major escalation in what was an already extremely high-profile and awkward dispute between the UK and the US. Apple's row with the UK government erupted in February, when it emerged ministers were seeking the right to be able to access information secured by its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) system. The argument intensified in the weeks that followed, with Apple first pulling ADP in the UK, and then taking legal action against the Home Office. It also sparked outrage among US politicians, with some saying it was a "dangerous attack on US cybersecurity" and urging the US government to rethink its intelligence-sharing arrangements with the UK if the notice was not withdrawn. Tulsi Gabbard, the director of US National Intelligence, described it as an "egregious violation" of US citizens' privacy. Civil liberties groups also attacked the UK government, saying what it was demanding had privacy and security implications for people around the world. Apple's ADP applies end-to-encryption (E2EE) to files such as photos and notes stored on the iCloud, meaning only the user has the "key" required to view them. The same technology protects a number of messaging services, including WhatsApp. That makes them very secure but poses a problem for law enforcement agencies. They can ask to see data with lower levels of protection - if they have a court warrant - but tech firms currently have no way to provide access to E2EE files, because no such mechanism currently exists. Tech companies have traditionally resisted creating such a mechanism not just because they say it would compromise users' privacy but because there would be no way of preventing it eventually being exploited by criminals. In 2023, WhatsApp said it would rather be blocked as a service than weaken E2EE. When Apple pulled ADP in the UK it said it did not want to create a "backdoor" that "bad actors" could take advantage of. Further complicating the argument around the Home Office's request is that it is made under the Investigatory Powers Act, the provisions of which are often secret. When the matter came to court, government lawyers argued that the case should not be made in public in any way for national security reasons. However, in April, a judge agreed with a number of news organisations, including the BBC, and said certain details should be made public. "It would have been a truly extraordinary step to conduct a hearing entirely in secret without any public revelation of the fact that a hearing was taking place," his ruling stated. At the time, the government declined to comment on the proceedings but said: "The UK has robust safeguards and independent oversight to protect privacy and privacy is only impacted on an exceptional basis, in relation to the most serious crimes and only when it is necessary and proportionate to do so." What Apple pulling Advanced Data Protection means for you Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
