Apple will now let you encrypt your photos and messages
Apple will now let you encrypt your photos and messages
There is a lot happening in tech, which is strange for December. Usually, everything gets quiet as people hunker down for the holidays but it's 2022, so you never know when something big might happen.
For example, in the past week, Apple rolled out end-to-end encryption for almost all of iCloud (including photos and messages), the FTC decided to sue Microsoft over its plan to buy Activision Blizzard, and Elon Musk is throwing his new toy (Twitter) under the bus by releasing all kinds of supposedly salacious details. Oh, and AI-powered everything is having a moment.
Let's dive into what you should know:
Apple Rolls Out iCloud Encryption
On Wednesday, Apple announced three new security features designed to help users better protect their personal information. All three of them are worthwhile updates, but one is getting far more attention than the others--and for good reason. That's because Apple will now, for the very first time, offer end-to-end encryption of your iCloud data, including backups.
Even if you're not sure what that all means, it's a big deal. For one, it means that Apple now offers the ability to encrypt almost all of your personal data, with the exception of your email, your calendar, and your contacts--which aren't included because they have to be able to connect with the wide range of third-party apps and services you might want to use.
The most important thing here is that your photo library and iMessages along with your full device backups will be fully secure from prying eyes. Previously, if you were saving your photos or other data in iCloud, it was protected from most people who might want to get at it, but Apple was able to unlock it.
That means that your Messages, for example, weren't as private as you might think. While they were encrypted in transit, if you used iCloud Messages, a copy was stored on the server and Apple could access it if asked to do so by, say, law enforcement.
Apple has long refused to help unlock iPhones, even in high-profile cases of mass shootings or terrorism, mostly because, well, it couldn't unlock them. It did, however, have access to information stored on its own servers, but if you use Advanced Data Protection, that won't be the case.
It's a clear win for privacy, especially since most people never think about how vulnerable they might be until it's too late. That said, Apple's move is not without a few tradeoffs.
The first tradeoff, and the one that matters to most people--is that if you use Advanced Data Protection, it will be harder to get into your account if you forget your iCloud password. And, by harder, I mean, impossible.
That's one of the reasons Apple hadn't made this change in the past. If you speak with people who work at Apple's Genius Bar locations, they'll tell you that you'd be surprised at the number of people who lock themselves out of their iCloud backup.
In the past, Apple had an encryption key that would allow the company to help those customers. That won't be the case if you turn on Advanced Data Protection, which is why Apple requires you to have another way to recover access.
For example, you can assign another Apple ID to be able to help you recover your password, or you can print out a long string of characters that you can use as a recovery key. The point is that if you lock yourself out, Apple can't help you, so you have to take responsibility for safeguarding access to your data.
That's another reason Apple has said it is making this feature optional. The stronger you protect your data, the less convenient it will be for anyone to access it, including you. If you're not terribly worried about your photo library or Messages, they're still pretty safe, even if you leave this feature off.
Another tradeoff, of course, is that Apple is inviting a battle with various government agencies, many of which aren't super excited about the company making it more difficult to access information that could be used to investigate criminal activity. Not only that, some countries (like China) take a very different view of privacy and are likely to push back against any effort to shield their citizens' data from government surveillance.
Of note, Craig Federighi told The Wall Street Journal that Apple wants to "roll this out across the world." When the Journal's Joanna Stern asked him if that includes China, Federighi said "we believe so."
That's not exactly a resounding "yes," but I have no doubt Apple would like very much to give every user the ability to lock down their devices. Whether it can pull that off in China will be interesting, for sure.
A version of this story was previously published at Inc.com.
Microsoft Tried Really Hard to Not Get Sued
In its bid to buy game studio Activision Blizzard, Microsoft did just about everything it could to not get sued by the FTC. It offered deals with console makers to ensure games like Call of Duty would be available in an effort to assuage concerns the company would make it an Xbox exclusive. Still, it didn't work.
On Thursday, the FTC filed a lawsuit to block the merger. In a press release, it said it seeks to "stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”
Legal experts have questioned whether there's much justification for the move, pointing out that the two companies don't really compete, and that a tie-up isn't likely to hurt consumers. Microsoft has certainly gone all-in on trying to make that point, most recently with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
While the company made its offer when Activision Blizzard was under fire for the actions of its controversial CEO, the deal would be the largest in Microsoft's history. It's an important piece of its plan to build a game streaming service, something that no one has been able to do so far. It's also something that, despite Microsoft's best efforts, just got a lot harder.
FTC Sues to Block Microsoft’s $69 Billion Acquisition of Activision - The New York Times — www.nytimes.com The move by the commission signals an aggressive stance by federal regulators to thwart the expansion of the tech industry’s biggest companies.
Musk's Revenge
In a series of Twitter threads, Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss have released what are supposed to be searing indictments of the way the company has infringed on the free speech rights of its users. Musk apparently gave the two access to internal files, emails, Slack messages, and anything else that might make basically everyone who worked at Twitter for the past five years look bad.
The information released so far includes emails showing how Twitter allowed outside parties, like the Biden campaign, to get rid of tweets they don't like, how it handled tweets promoting the Hunter Biden laptop story, and the way the company makes decisions about what conservatives like to call "shadow banning."
Look, there is no question Twitter mishandled the New York Post story on Hunter Biden's laptop. I don't think that comes as a surprise to anyone, and it doesn't matter if you're a liberal or conservative, if you're intellectually honest, we can all agree the company blew it.
Also, of course Twitter has internal ways of managing whether different accounts are amplified. How could it not? And, yes, Twitter often does a poor job of it, it's never been a particularly well-run company.
Still, I'm not sure why Musk is so intent on making everyone who worked at Twitter for the past five years look bad. I can't decide if it's because he's salty about being forced to keep his agreement to buy the company, or if he really thinks he's proving something.
AI-Powered Everything
Over the last few weeks, AI-powered image generators have gotten a lot of attention. Using services like DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Lensa, you can create some pretty interesting "art." Now, ChatGPT is having the same kind of moment for text generation.
The intial reaction seems to range from "this is going to radically change the way we search for information" to "the way students do homework will never be the same." Of course, ChatGPT might be popular, but that doesn't mean the text it generates is, well, correct. You might want to double-check that homework kids.
Still, there is a lot of interesting things happening in the field of "feed a ton of publically-available information into a machine learning model and see what happens." It's also problematic, raising questions about how we intend the things we share online to be used.
The Verge has a good write up on the subject.
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