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Do you use iCloud to store your photos?
by JustExAWS 2y ago
Do you use iCloud to store your photos?
- latexr 2y agoI’m not the person you asked, but I agree with them. To answer your question: No, I do not use iCloud to store my photos. Even if I did, consent to store data is not the same as consent to scan or run checks on it. For a company whose messaging is all about user consent and privacy, that matters. This would be easily solvable: On first run show a window with: > Hey, we have this new cool feature that does X and is totally private because of Y [link to Learn More] > Do you want to turn it on? You can change your mind later in Settings > [Yes] [No]
- JustExAWS 2y agoWhen iCloud syncs between devices how do you think that happens without storing some type of metadata? You don’t use iCloud for anything? When you change phones do you start fresh or use your computer for backups? Do sync bookmarks? Browsing history? Do you use iMessage?
- Gabriel54 2y agoIn response to your question in the parent comment, no, I do not use iCloud. And I do not sync any of the things you mentioned here. If someone already consented to using iCloud to store their photos then I would not consider the service mentioned this post to be such a big issue, because Apple would already have the data on their servers with the user's consent. edit: I will just add, even if we accept the argument that it's extremely secure and impossible to leak information, then where do we draw the line between "extremely secure" and "somewhat secure" and "not secure at all"? Should we trust Apple to make this decision for us?
- 4ad 2y ago> If someone already consented to using iCloud to store their photos then I would not consider the service mentioned this post to be such a big issue, because Apple would already have the data on their servers with the user's consent. No, if you enable Advanced Data Protection for iCloud[1], the photos stored in Apple Photos are end to end encrypted. [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/108756 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108756
- JustExAWS 2y agoDo you start fresh with an iOS installation after each upgrade or do you back up your iPhone using your computer and iTunes?
- Gabriel54 2y agoI do not have anything backed up on any cloud servers on any provider. If I had to buy a new phone I would start from a fresh installation and move all of my data locally. It's not that I'm a "luddite", I just couldn't keep track of all of the different ways each cloud provider was managing my data, so I disabled all of them.
- JustExAWS 2y agoIf only Apple had a centralized backup service that could store everything automatically at a click of a button so you wouldn’t have to juggle multiple cloud providers…
- NikolaNovak 2y agoI kinda was somewhat with you until this point. Apple IS just another cloud provider / centralized backup service. It's not fundamentally different than others, and if you're not in select group of whatever the respectful term is for those who stay strictly inside apple ecosystem, you will have multiple clouds and multiple data sets and multiple backups that all interact with each other and your heterogeneous devices in unpredictable ways. Icloud will not help you with that any more than google cloud or Samsung cloud etc. They all want to own all of your stuff, neither is simply a hyper helpful neutral director.
- JustExAWS 2y agoThe “fundamental difference” is that it’s better integrated with your device and can backup the internal state of your device and the apps. Even if you use Microsoft Office or GSuite and save using the standard file picker, you can save to iCloud. iCloud has a native app for Windows and plug ins on Windows to sync browser bookmarks for Chrome, Edge and Firefox And the alternative people are proposing are four or five self hosted solutions?
- walterbell 2y agoSome iOS apps synchronize data with standard protocols (e.g. IMAP, WebDAV, CalDAV) to cloud or self-hosted services.
- JustExAWS 2y agoAnd that doesn’t help with internally stored data within apps, settings, which apps you have installed on what screen, passwords, etc
- walterbell 2y agoiOS supports local device backups.
- JustExAWS 2y ago[flagged]
- walterbell 2y agoApple iTunes, iMazing (3rd party), Linux imobiledevice (OSS).
- 47282847 2y agoModern MacOS has that functionality included, no iTunes necessary.
- latexr 2y agoNone of that is relevant to my point. You seem to be trying to catch people in some kind of gotcha instead of engaging honestly with the problem at hand. But alright, I’ll bite. Yes, I always start with clean installs, both on iOS and on macOS. Sometimes I even restart fresh on the same device, as I make sure my hardware lasts. I don’t sync bookmarks, I keep them in Pinboard and none of them has any private or remotely identifiable information anyway. I don’t care about saving browser history either, in fact I have it set to periodically auto-clear, which is a feature in Safari.
- JustExAWS 2y agoNo I am trying to say with a connected device using online services, the service provider is going to have access to your data that you use to interact with them. To a first approximation, everyone in 2024 expects their data and settings to be transferred across devices. People aren’t working as if it is 2010 when you had to backup and restore devices via iTunes. If I’m out of town somewhere and my phone gets lost, damaged or stolen, I can buy another iPhone, log into my account and everything gets restored as it was. Just as I expect my watch progress to work when I use Netflix between my phone, iPad, Roku devices etc.
- latexr 2y agoAnd that should rightfully be your informed choice. Just like everyone else should have the right to know what data their devices are sending before it happens and be given the informed choice to refuse. People shouldn’t have to learn that from a random blog post shared on a random website.
- JustExAWS 2y agoIn what world is Netflix for instance not going to know your watch history? How many people are going to say in 2024 that they don’t want continuous cloud backup? You want Windows Vista style pop ups and permissions?
- 2y ago
- stackghost 2y agoI hate this type of lukewarm take. "Ah, I see you care about privacy, but you own a phone! How hypocritical of you!"
- latexr 2y agoYou’re describing Matt Bors’ Mister Gotcha. https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/ https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/
- JustExAWS 2y agoIf you care about your “privacy” and no external service providers having access to your data - that means you can’t use iCloud - at all, any messages service, any back up service, use Plex and your own hosted media, not use a search engine, etc.
- stackghost 2y agoDo you use a phone?
- JustExAWS 2y agoYes. I also don’t use Plex, have my own file syncing service running, run my own email server, etc. I also don’t run a private chat server that people log into - I’m like most of the iPhone and Android using world
- stackghost 2y agoMaybe lay off the sanctimonious attitude then.
- JustExAWS 2y ago[flagged]
- 2y ago