Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained

Apple Inc dropped plans to let iPhone users fully encrypt backups of their devices in the company's iCloud service after the FBI complained that the move would harm investigations, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The tech giant's reversal, about two years ago, has not previously been reported. It shows how much Apple has been willing to help U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, despite taking a harder line in high-profile legal disputes with the government and casting itself as a defender of its customers' information. This once again just goes to show Apple's privacy chest-thumping is nothing but marketing and grandstanding. This is effectively a backdoor for government agencies to use, and if the "good guys" can use it, so can the bad guys. On top of that, this neatly ties into Apple handing over iCloud data to the Chinese government - data that is most certainly being used by the Chinese regime in, among other things, its genocide of the Uyghurs. I prefer a company that's open and honest about what data it collects and uses and why - Google - over a company that purposefully tries to muddy the waters through marketing and grandstanding - Apple. The devil you know and all that.