A new iPhone update can help keep your personal photos and texts safe, thanks to Apple adding Advanced Data Protection to the device.
The feature was added in the US with iOS 16.2 and the rest of the world in iOS 16.3, which began rolling out this week.
It’s called Advanced Data Protection, and it helps protect your iCloud backup.
If you are a longtime iPhone user, you probably have some content automatically backed up to iCloud.
This often means sending iMessage text messages, pictures in the Photos app, and your email messages.
This is all very private media and information that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.
Apple’s regular iCloud is called the Data Protection Standard.
It works by using something called encryption, which makes your data unreadable – unless you have the right “key”.
This is done to prevent anyone from accessing 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 items, photos, documents, notes, and more.
Apple explains, “The encryption keys for your trusted devices are secure in Apple data centers.”
So Apple can restore your data whenever you need it, like when you sign in on a new device, restore from a backup, or 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 passwords and iCloud Keychain passwords — that are fully encrypted and inaccessible to Apple.
Unfortunately, having someone else — even a trusted company — have your encryption keys also increases your privacy risk.
Apple routinely rejects law enforcement requests to unlock iPhones.
Advanced data protection
The idea of advanced data protection is to increase the number of categories of data that Apple doesn’t have access to.
So, once it’s on, Apple won’t have access to 23 different categories of data.
This means that it is very difficult for highly sophisticated hackers to spy on what’s 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 encrypted under Advanced Data Protection:
Cloud backup (including device and message backup)
iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes, Passwords & Keychains, Health Data, Home Data, Messages in iCloud, Payment Info, Transactions, Apple Card, Maps, Learn with QuickType Keyboard , Vocabulary, Safari, Screen Time, Siri info, Wi-Fi passwords, W1 keys, H1 Bluetooth, and Memoji.
The only categories that aren’t fully protected are iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendars.
Apple doesn’t keep encryption keys, so if a hacker breaks into Apple’s systems, they won’t be able to track 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 extra protections before turning it on, otherwise you risk getting your account closed.
This means setting up account recovery.
You need to go to Settings > iCloud > Advanced Data Protection and then tap Account Recovery to make sure your account can be recovered.
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’ll need to type in — which will eventually help you unlock your account.
Once you enable account recovery, you can turn on advanced data protection.
This can greatly improve your privacy, especially if you have a lot of data stored in iCloud.
Just don’t get caught up in the recovery call or you’ll lose that 28-character key.