All of the SMSes that iPhone users send and receive are backed up nightly automatically via iCloud Backup, which is NOT end to end encrypted, and is completely

All of the SMSes that iPhone users send and receive are backed up nightly automatically via iCloud Backup, which is NOT end to end encrypted, and is completely readable by Apple. They provide it to the US government without a warrant frequently, something like data on over 70,000 users each year (per their own annual transparency report). The number is even bigger if you include the times they turn it over with warrants. The iCloud Backup also includes the “Messages in iCloud” cross-device synchronization keys, so it is indeed true that Apple can read all of the iMessages. It’s not end to end encryption if the endpoint devices sync their endpoint keys to the middle transit service. Apple’s own knowledge base article HT202303 is very clear on these points. Note also that enabling e2ee for iCloud (currently opt in, and very buggy) does not protect you, as everyone else you iMessage with is escrowing their keys to Apple in their backups, so Apple can still read all of your iMessages from the other end of the conversations even if you enable e2ee on your backup.