Syncing and security
How Apple keeps your information and files safe and secure
iCloud doesn’t just use Apple’s servers to store information; it also uses third–party servers such as the ones from Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, and of course Apple has no control over other tech firms’ server farms.
What Apple can do, though, is make your data impossible for other people to access. Apple encrypts all of its iCloud data transfers and almost all of the data it stores in the cloud. Encryption is a way of scrambling data to make it unreadable unless you have the unique decryption key, and those keys are not shared with anybody. The only data Apple doesn’t currently encrypt is your iCloud mail, but you can add your own encryption certificate in Mail if you have one.
In addition to protecting your data during transfers and while it’s being stored in the cloud, Apple also protects your data on your device — and once again it uses encryption to do that.
PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY
With a paid iCloud+ account you get two new and important features: Hide My
Email and Private Relay. The former pops up when you’re asked to enter your email in a form in Safari; if you select Hide My Email, Safari will generate a unique new email address that will redirect email to your actual address without letting the website know that address. That means if your auto–generated email gets shared, for example in a data breach or because the website sells customer data to others, you can simply shut down that email address in Settings or through System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud > Hide My Email.
The second new service is Private Relay (iCloud > Private Relay), currently in beta and upsetting phone operators who really want to track your online activity. Private Relay works a bit like a Virtual Private Network (VPN); when it’s switched on your web traffic is routed via Apple’s servers to disguise your actual location and prevent websites from tracking you. You can still allow rough location information so apps such as weather forecasts still work. It’s not as complex as a VPN but it’s good enough for most of us.