Apple now end-to-end encrypts Safari Bookmarks in iCloud

Cook speaks privacy

Apple in iOS 15 has quietly begun encrypting Safari Bookmarks in iCloud. It means no one, not Apple nor anyone else, can monitor these.

Safari Bookmarks are now secured

As noted on Reddit, Apple has confirmed this move in its iCloud Security Overview page, which now explains that along with Safari tabs and history, all your bookmarks are now end-to-end encrypted, which helps protect you.

Apple provides a similar level of protection to Apple Card transactions, health, home and Kyechain data, Maps, Messages in iCloud, Screen time, Siri information and Wi-Fi passwords.

For Messages in iCloud, if you have iCloud Backup turned on, your backup includes a copy of the key protecting your messages.

But not everything on iCloud as safe

However, not everything on iCloud is equally as well protected. While Apple attempts to protect user privacy in many different ways, it does not provide this much protection for your backups, contacts, iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Calendars or Siri shortcuts, which are only protected with 128-bit AES encryption.

Therefore, law enforcement makes frequent requests for access to such information. Apple received 5,861 account requests from law enforcement in the US in the year to June 2020, the company has previously said. It has agreed to over 80% of such requests.

This is just one of several recent enhancements to security and privacy in iCloud. With the release of iCloud+, Apple introduced Hide My Email, which lets you create unique, random email addresses that forward to your inbox. It has also improved iCloud Data recovery and created a Digital Legacy scheme you can use to hand over your digital life after you pass.

Apple on privacy

Apple SVP Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, spoke at the European Data Protection and Privacy Conference last year, he warned:

“The mass centralization of data puts privacy at risk—no matter who’s collecting it and what their intentions might be. So we believe Apple should have as little data about our customers as possible.

“Now, others take the opposite approach. They gather, sell, and hoard as much of your personal information as they can. The result is a data-industrial complex, where shadowy actors work to infiltrate the most intimate parts of your life and exploit whatever they can find—whether to sell you something, to radicalize your views, or worse.

“That’s unacceptable. And the solution has to start with not collecting the data in the first place.”

Apple has also apparently introduced a new button on the App Store that lets users flag up rogue or scam apps. This comes as a button on the App Store listing, but this isn’t yet widely available.

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