How to enable end-to-end encryption for your iCloud backups
Your iCloud data is about to get a lot more secure. | Illustration by Samar Haddad / The VergeApple has advanced security features that you can enable to protect more of your data. Among other things, it includes highly secure end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups under the name Advanced Data Protection. This means that essentially only you can access the data stored in your iCloud device backup a Apple doesnat have the key to access it. This is a strong layer of security, and although it takes a little bit of work to set up and requires you to take more responsibility for recovering your data, itas well worth the effort if youad like to make sure that youare the only one who can access your backed up information.
Hereas how to set up end-to-end encryption for your iCloud backups on your iPhone. Youall need to be running iOS 16.2, which was released in December 2022, or later versions.
There are two main things youall need to do in order to enable Advanced Data Protection: update all of your Apple devices to the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS (or remove them from your account if they canat support version 16.2) and set up account recovery. Any HomePods or Apple TVs using your iCloud account also need to be updated to at least versi …