Encrypting the data on your iPhone isn't as simple as creating a password. Since a lot of your data is also likely stored online, it's also important to understand how that online storage works, and to consider enabling an additional feature that better secures that data. How Data is Encrypted...
  • @hemmesOPEnglish
    7•4 days ago

    I don’t think I’ve ever really considered any of EFF’s articles “pointless” per se. But the article is a bit more nuanced than just setting in a pin (I mean the first sentence introduces the intent of the article: “Encrypting the data on your iPhone isn’t as simple as creating a password“), and I thought it would be interesting for anybody who didn’t know.

    There’s also some notes about legal standings, which I thought was interesting:

    In the U.S., using a biometric-like your face scan or fingerprint-to unlock your phone may also compromise legal protections for the contents of your phone afforded to you under the Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled incrimination. Under current U.S. law-which is still in flux-using a memorized passcode generally provides a stronger legal footing to push back against a court order of compelled device unlocking/decryption. While EFF continues to fight to strengthen our legal protections against compelling people to decrypt their devices, there is currently less protection against compelled face and fingerprint unlocking than there is against compelled password disclosure.

    But ultimately I thought that it would be good for folks to know about the Advanced Data Protection feature, which takes your security beyond the scope of just your local phone’s PIN or password.

    With Advanced Data Protection enabled, your backups and most important files get the end-to-end encryption benefit, better securing your files against mass surveillance, rogue Apple employees, or potential data leaks.

    This protects your data in the cloud and makes it inaccessible to anyone including Apple, who wouldn’t be able to help you if you lost your recovery backups. You can also setup Recovery Contacts if you lose access to your device.

    There’s some other interesting features this article does not go over like Stolen Device Protection, which changes the behavior of how your iPhone allows access to the device based on its location.

    You sound like an experienced pro power user, so you may find this article pointless worthless.