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If this bad publicity doesn't get Apple to offer encryption for iCloud backups, I don't know what will.

They used to offer it, but found that more people were hurt by loss of passwords (i.e. fail-secure backups) than were hurt by hacking. People who lose all their family photos because they forgot their password get very angry and sad, and it happens more often than you might think. I believe they switched back in 2015 or so.

I don’t buy that defense. They could set it up to function exactly like local encryption on your Mac.

When encrypting the drive it has you set your passcode. Then it tells you in plain English that you can let them store a decryption key for you in case you forget the passcode or you can store the decryption key yourself and risk losing access to your files if you lose it.

It’s simple, easy to understand, and allows the user to decide what sort of security they are comfortable with.

When I first enabled iTunes cloud backups years ago, it did exactly that — gave me the choice of letting them securely store a copy of my cloud encryption key, just in case.

I didn’t take that option, but the option was there.

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