$320M crime ring exposed because someone couldnât take 30 seconds to turn on advanced data protection. 
I was about to ask about that. The article didnât specify if he used ADP, but most likely he didnât. This is why defaults matter. The vast majority of Apple users do not have ADP enabled, which is why I was so surprised by the UK trying to force Apple to remove the feature.
Enabling ADP requires a high level of responsibility because you canât get your data back if you forget your credentials. I suspect this is why some people are hesitant to enable it. Itâs certainly why I hesitate to encourage some of my family members to enable it. Iâm sure that one of the reasons Apple doesnât want to enable it by default is because they donât want to deal with the flack of all the inevitable people who will complain about getting locked out of their accounts.
Itâs been so long since I enabled it on my device, donât they literally require you to have two hardware security keys to even enable it anyway? Am I making that up, or is that no longer a requirement? And youâre right, the average Joe probably isnât exactly doing that.
Separate features.
ADP is under iCloud settings along with features like Apple Relay. It provides you with a recovery key and states that you need either that or a recovery contact to regain access to most data on your account. Although based on the one time I had to go through with it only the recovery key was accepted.
Iâve never enabled âSecurity Keysâ under Two Factor Authentication in security settings. Although it does indeed require two hardware security keys based on the setup screen.
Thatâs actually what I meant. When ADP was first announced, you had to have two hardware security keys in order to even enable it. I was just curious if that is still a requirement.
You have to have some kind of recovery method. You can just generate a recovery code which is what I did. I donât remember it ever being the case that you needed to have hardware keys to enable it. You also have to have 2FA enabled on your Apple account but by default they just use your devices as the 2FA method, but you can set up hardware keys for that if you want.
It shouldnât come as too much of a surprise given how rapidly the U.K. is becoming a ânanny stateâ. The Online Safety Act (that has nothing to do with online safety), the will to break e2ee (except for the U.K. government who will retain e2ee⌠obviouslyâŚ), ID card proposals, etc.
Also, they forced Appleâs hand to stop ADP being adopted. It still exists in the U.K. for those who have it. Itâs still on my device. How much longer, who knows. Because, again, the U.K. have stopped Apple talking about it. Technical Capability Notice and other embargoes.
When it comes to the U.K. and privacy, think againâŚ
My surprise came from the fact it would be unnecessary to make such a demand when you consider that so few people use it. However, itâs possible that the UK is targeting very specific people in mind who have ADP enabled, and they are willing to strip the entire population of that feature, just to get to those individualsâ data.
Your characterization of the UK may be true, but given the fact that like the US and Australia, the UK has a strong history of rejecting national IDs, I still have hope that digital IDs will be rejected there. Itâs much harder for countries whoâve had national IDs for generations to reject digital IDs because they are already in the matrix.
enable recovery key then delete itâs existence. never use recovery contact because iCloud search warrant will reveal existence of ADP, timestamp of when it was turned on, recovery method in use, and who the recovery contact is if there is one.