Conventional SMS is still the standard text communication format for many mobile phone users, but Apple’s Images is an increasingly popular option. Effectively, like standard SMS, iMage facilitates the exchange of text messages between mobile users via the Internet, thus reducing the cost of SMS for a small amount of information.
Starting with iOS 5, iMessage is integrated into the messaging app on all iOS devices and all Macs running OS X Mountain Lion or later. Sending IMs acts like sending an SMS. The difference is that the iMessage call popup in the messaging application is blue and the popup in SMS is green.
The disadvantage of IMSage is that it can only be used to communicate with other iOS users using IMSage. However, if you try to send iMessages to non-iOS users, they will be automatically converted to existing SMS and sent instead. The difference between blue and green conversation bubbles helps here.
Apple iMessage uses the secure end-to-end encryption. That way, only the person you’re talking to can see your messages. However, iMessage has a big privacy breach, and it’s called iCloud, and this is you want to know above:
End-to-End Encryption gateway
Apple’s iMessage for iPhone, iPad and Mac always uses end-to-end encryption. Only the sender and recipient of the message can see the content. Images, videos and other attachments are encrypted as well. Apple’s FaceTime service also uses end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls gateway. It’s means that Apple and its employees will not be able to see the iMessages they send and receive.
While the initial presentation on iMessage focused on how they saved on SMS, most mobile carriers these days include unlimited text in their plans, making the economic benefits of iMessage less compelling. However, iMessage still offers many other benefits over traditional text messaging.
iCloud backups are enabled
If iCloud Backup is enabled on the iPhone or iPad, and in most cases, there is usually a large gap at the end of secure encryption. When you activate iCloud Backup or iCloud messages, your iCloud messages are encrypted and then backed up to iCloud and stored on Apple’s servers. However, Apple has received a copy of the key used to encrypt this backup.
This means that Apple and Apple employees can technically access iMessage backups on Apple’s servers. Trailers are not encrypted. You can view the content of your messages when Apple servers are compromised or someone else has access to your iCloud account. This means that Apple can force the government to copy the content of an iMessage note.
Apple makes this clear in its iMessage and FaceTime privacy policies. Apple’s policy does not store the content of FaceTime voice or video calls. Only iMessage messages and attachments are recorded. Of course, images are better than traditional messaging. It is not so confidential and secure when sending and receiving SMS. You can view the content in your media.
The several reasons why End-to-End Encrypted aren’t use on iCloud backups
First, it provides better protection for ordinary people who lose their passwords. If you forget your Apple ID password and follow the Apple password recovery process, you can regain access to all data, including iMessage Backup. End-to-end encryption allows Apple users to access their accounts, but they can’t access these backups again if they lose their passwords.
End-to-end encrypted backup is inconvenient for the user. Tell some Apple customers that they forgot their password and can’t access their data again. To recover a lossless account, Apple must have a key to unlock this backup.
However, one should wonder why Apple does not offer end-to-end encryption as a backup option. There may be additional encryption options behind the larger warning message.
According to a Reuters report in January 2020, Apple plans to provide end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups. However, the FBI has scrapped plans to allow its backups to be fully encrypted after law enforcement officials complained that it was difficult to obtain iPhone user data.
Apple Can’t See Your iMessages
If you’re concerned about this issue and usually don’t want to store your iMessages on Apple’s servers without end-to-end encryption, you can turn off this iCloud so you don’t get messages.
Warning: This is a compromise. If you close the iCloud Backup tab for future iMessages, you will not be able to recover your messages from iCloud.
On your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings> [your name]> iCloud. If you want to stop saving your iMessage history to iCloud, turn off the Messages option here.
You can also do this on your Mac, with open the Messages app then tap iMessages, Settings, tap @iMessage, then deselect the “Enable Messages in iCloud” checkbox.
Of course, the accounts you talk to on iMessage probably have iCloud backups. This means that your messages can be stored on iCloud on one of Apple’s servers. To prevent this from happening, we recommend switching to a reliable messaging app like Signal that does not back up to iCloud.
Doesn’t your iPhone’s data backup to iCloud?
Of course, iCloud on iPhone is not the only thing to back up your iPhone. If iCloud Backup is turned on, it will back up local data stored in many other applications.
The last encrypted secure messaging application from the other end solves this problem without backing up messages to iCloud.
For example, the Alarm Secure Messaging app does not back up your message history to iCloud, as described on the Alarm Support site. Always stored locally on the device. You can transfer messages from one iPhone to a new iPhone, but these messages are transferred to a new iPhone and deleted from an old iPhone.
If you do a factory reset, lose or don’t have an old iPhone, you will not be able to transfer your messages to your new device. For this reason, the signal is designed with privacy and security in mind. It can be difficult to keep a permanent record of your messages but it protects your privacy.
Make encrypted in your iPhone backups
In between, you can create an encrypted backup of your iPhone. You can’t do this with iCloud. If you have a Windows PC or Mac, you can connect your iPhone (or iPad) to your computer using a USB cable and back up local files via iTunes (Windows) or Finder (Mac).
Select “Encrypt local backup” if you want to keep the local backup as a password.
If your iPhone is lost or needs to be deleted, you can restore this encrypted backup to your new iPhone. This will transfer the image history to a new device, not to Apple’s servers.
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On my daily job, I am a software engineer, programmer & computer technician. My passion is assembling PC hardware, studying Operating System and all things related to computers technology. I also love to make short films for YouTube as a producer. More at about me…