Apple will encrypt iCloud end-to-end to protect users from hacks

As part of its privacy campaign, Manzana announced Wednesday that it will offer from now on full end-to-end encryption for almost all data that your users store in your global storage system in cloud. This will make it more difficult for hackers, spies and law enforcement to access sensitive user information.

End-to-end encryption is a type of communication where only the person exchanging a message (or, in this case, uploading information) can access it.

The world’s most valuable company has long put its customers’ security and privacy first. His iMessage and FaceTime communication services are fully end-to-end encrypted and he has at times clashed with law enforcement, including the FBIfor refusing to unlock devices.

But much of customers’ remote backups using Apple’s iCloud service, including photos, videos and chats, aren’t protected by end-to-end encryption, a technology that even prevents Apple from cracking them. This facilitated their access to criminals andspies and criminal investigators with warrants.

But not anymore. The loophole for law enforcement to access iPhone data will be greatly reduced.

Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, did not respond immediately to requests Looking for comments on announcement timing and other matters. Additionally, the FBI did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Cybersecurity experts have long argued that attempts by law enforcement agencies to weaken encryption through backdoors are ill-advised because they would make the Internet irretrievably less reliable and more dangerous.

Apple last year announced, then withdrew after a flurry of objections, a plan to scan iPhones for photos of child sexual abuse.

“Last year Apple was reluctant to roll out encryption features…now they seem to be stepping on the gas,” tweeted Matthew Green, a professor of cryptography at Johns Hopkins University.

Apple’s encryption announcement offers what the company calls Advanced Data Protection, which users of its devices must turn on.

Add iCloud Backup, Notes and Photos to categories of data already protected by end-to-end encryption in the cloud, including health data and passwords. iCloud encryption doesn’t include email, contacts, and calendar items because they have to be interact with the products of other suppliersaccording to Apple.

Batteries, another controversial issue

Meanwhile, the use of cell phone batteries remains a matter of controversy. The European Union (EU) will force battery makers to take steps to make them greener and easier to recycle and replace, according to a deal reached on Friday between the European Parliament and the Member States.

The text, which aims to promote battery production in Europe through the circular economy, covers the entire life cycle of the battery, from its conception until it stops working.

This will apply to all types of batteries, from smartphones to industrial batteries, via computers, household appliances or vehicles.

Starting in 2024, its manufacturers must report on each battery’s total carbon footprint, the minerals that make it up, and their recycling.

From 2027 only batteries can be sold electric car adhere to these indicators.

By 2025, smartphones and other electronic devices will need to be designed so that their batteries can be easily removed and replaced.

Companies will have to meet ambitious collection targets: they will have to recover 45% of batteries by 2023 and 73% by 2030.

In the case of bicycles, motorcycles or electric scooters, the percentage will be 61% from 2031.

All those that are recovered must be recycled, with the aim of recovering a significant percentage of their minerals, such as cobalt and the nickel (90%) or lithium (80%).

New batteries will have to include a minimum amount of reused metals.

“These environmental requirements will apply to batteries produced in Europe, but also to imported ones. This will promote access to the European market for such batteries with a longer duration‘, explained French MEP Pascal Canfin (from the Liberal Group), who chairs the European Parliament’s Environment Committee.

The EU aims to produce 25% of the batteries produced in the world by 2030, despite this this percentage is currently only 3%.