A campaign called “Encrypt It Already” has been launched by the American international non-profit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The campaign urges tech companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and others to implement or expand end-to-end encryption on their platforms, along with stronger defaults and privacy settings, as reported by Mactrast.
The EFF is calling on Apple, Meta, Google, Telegram, Bluesky, and Ring to enhance end-to-end encryption across their various apps and services. They want privacy-protecting settings to be the default, not opt-in, and for users to have more control over how their data is accessed and used.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is crucial for protecting the privacy of your data and giving you control over how it is used. Unfortunately, not enough companies utilize it as widely as they should.
Apple already provides end-to-end encryption for certain features and data categories, in addition to offering Advanced Data Protection as an optional feature for added security.
While most iCloud data is stored in an encrypted format on Apple’s servers, Apple retains the keys to that encrypted data, meaning they can access or hand over the data if legally required. This poses a risk in case of a data breach. However, Apple does offer end-to-end encryption by default for sensitive data like Health, Journal, Passwords, payment information, and Messages, where only the user holds the decryption keys. It’s worth noting that the key to decrypt Messages is stored in device backups, which are not end-to-end encrypted by default if backed up to iCloud.
By enabling Advanced Data Protection, users can increase the number of data categories protected by end-to-end encryption from 15 to 26, including device backups, Photos, Notes, and more. Categories like Mail, Calendars, and Contacts are not covered due to the limitations of standard protocols.
The EFF has been advocating for stronger encrypted protection, pushing Apple and Google to implement end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging. Apple has announced plans to introduce this feature, potentially influenced by the EFF’s lobbying efforts.
Users are encouraged to enable end-to-end encryption features in their apps whenever possible. The EFF also calls for greater transparency from tech companies regarding the implementation of encryption features.
For more information on the EFF’s campaign, visit the “Encrypt it Already” website.
