Basically I have a lot of photos on my iphone. Earlier I used to backup them on google photos but I deleted it from there a year ago. I was doing photo backups on my mac using physical cable but I still want a cloud solution. I am considering Icloud Photos with advanced data protection. What do you think?
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just to throw out an alternative option Iâve been very happy with: have a look at Ente.io
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I would recommend Ente Photos.
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/photo-management/ â please check the website before asking on the forum.
To be fair, Photo Management section doesnât talk about iCloud Photos.
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iCloud Photos doesnât backup your photos. It simply syncs them across devices.
I would recommended - for the purpose of real backup - Ente Photos.
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I did read the page you linked before posting but I wanted to know about icloud photos with advanced data protection enabled. Thing is I feel Ente.io as a little sketchy idk why. I donât trust apple either but still I wanted opinions on icloud.
There is an option to backup photos to icloud. Sync is different.
Care to explain? Because this this is pretty ungrounded.
That being said. I think you have to trust apple anyway if you are in their ecosystem so you might aswell rely on their e2ee. I donât think it is that bad but i would never recommend something that isnt cross platform, where you cant share pictures to your non apple using friends and family⌠Its just a bad product by then in my eyes.
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As I said idk why. Something just doesnât feel right about this software or maybe Iâm a bit skeptical towards team or company behind it or their privacy policy claiming data collection and metadata collection. I mean itâs more of a personal thing about how I feel, itâs not that I claim their product is bad.
As for apple part maybe yourâe right, I might have to trust apple at this point because I donât find a good cloud based photo backup system that is private and currently I canât trust software like ente until I do a complete research on them.
I do think there should be something about Icloud photos on the page even a small note or something.
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The PG team and community have already done complete research on them, thatâs why both of their products are recommended on Privacy Guides site.
Now youâre asking the same team and community about iCloud Photos, which isnât recommended on the site and probably never will be.
I think this speaks volumes about which one is better and more trustworthy. It also answers your question about what the team and community think about iCloud Photos: not good enough to be listed and not better than Ente Photos.
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iCloud Photos is a completely proprietary service that requires a lot of trust in Apple, isnât even cross-platform, and their E2EE doesnât encrypt a lot of metadata.
Iâm not sure why it would make sense to talk about it.
See I am not saying that PG team donât do a proper research. I appreciate teamâs efforts and this website has helped me a lot over many years.
I just wanted opinions on icloud photos, but rather was shoved with ente ente ente everywhere. Instead of giving an opinion, everyone just started spamming enteâs name.
Respectfully, I donât think this answered what I wanted and your comment looks like it says that an individual should not perform a research on their own part.
I asked the entire community of their thoughts as whether icloud would be good for backing up photos with advanced encryption enabled. Thatâs all I wanted to know. I never asked for a recommendation!
Still thanks for your time tho, Iâll check and research ente.
When you already have an Apple ID and are actively using the Apple Ecosystem, there is little reason to opt for an external photo backup provider unless cross-platform accessibility or E2EE sharing is necessary. iCloud is already E2EE when using ADP. Of course, ultimately, ente emerges as the more private provider but it comes at a significantly higher cost.
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Well I mean I do use apple ecosystem, and even ente doesnât protect all metadata but photos are E2EE as per their policy. The only upside is that ente is open source.
Whatever, thanks for your opinion on icloud, Iâll check ente out
While iCloud with ADP is end-to-end encrypted, they donât encrypt the metadata and checksums.
Some metadata and usage information stored in iCloud remains under standard data protection, even when Advanced Data Protection is enabled. For example, dates and times when a file or object was modified are used to sort your information, and checksums of file and photo data are used to help Apple de-duplicate and optimize your iCloud and device storage â all without having access to the files and photos themselves.
Not (e2e) encrypted for iCloud Photos even with ADP:
The raw byte checksum of the photo or video
Whether an item has been marked as a favorite, hidden, or marked as deleted
When the item was originally created on the device
When the item was originally imported and modified
How many times an item has been viewed
Source: iCloud data security overview - Apple Support
For most people that would be fine, but you need to decide to for yourself. I think the checksum is particularly worrying. Unless Iâm misunderstanding it, they could compare it with a list of âforbiddenâ checksums. Not even talking about CSAM, it might be just scanning for people who have saved an unwelcome political meme.
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? what metadata are you referring too?
that was the point. We donât recommend things for nothing 
I see so for the most part I think I would be fine using icloud for the time being. Thanks for your opinion friend.