Apple's iCloud Plus Promises to Protect Your Privacy on Apple Products for a Price

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 10 June 2021, 11:06 am

Apple iCloud Plus is the latest privacy feature of Apple. The company has spent time creating stricter user privacy guidelines.

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, has stated that their users' privacy is a fundamental human right, and the company has based multiple ad campaigns around its privacy promises. It has had high profile court battles to keep the users' devices private and secure.

Apple iCloud Plus Subscription

Apple promises that its products will protect the user's privacy. Now, this promise has changed subtly in the wake of this week's iCloud Plus announcement, which for the first time bundled new security protections into a paid subscription service.

Apple is still working on keeping user privacy safe in their products, but now there is a monthly subscription being offered that does not come with the device, according to The Verge.

Also Read: Apple Wins Lawsuit in France Over iOS 14 Privacy Concerns

iCloud has been one of the simplest services of Apple. Users get 5GB of free storage to back up everything from images to messages and app data, and you pay a monthly subscription if you want more.

Apple is not changing anything about the pricing or the storage options as part of the shift to iCloud Plus. The prices will still range from $0.99 a month for 50GB of storage up to $9.99 for 2TB. However, what is changing is the list of features that you are getting, which is expanded by three.

The first change leans more within iCloud's usual cloud storage remit, and it is an expansion of Apple's HomeKit Secure Video offering.

iCloud Plus now lets users securely stream and record from an unlimited number of cameras, increasing from the previous limit of five cameras.

With the new Hide My Mail and Private Relay features, iCloud Plus is expanding its remit from a storage-based service to a storage and privacy service.

The privacy-focused additions are minor in the grand scheme of the protections Apple offers across its ecosystem, and Apple is not using them as justification for increasing the cost of the iCloud subscription.

However, they opened the door to premium privacy features, thus becoming a part of Apple's growing list of services, according to Fast Company.

Apple's Privacy Services

The features appear as an admission from Apple about the limits of what privacy protections can do on their products. In a 2019 ad, Apple has promised that whatever happens on your device stays on your device.

However, when your Apple device needs to connect to the internet to receive emails, browse the web, and more, some of its privacy depends on the server, according to Pocket Init.

The most anticipated of these new privacy features is Apple's Private Relay, which aims to shield the user traffic from prying eyes in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey. It hides your data from the internet service providers and the advertisers that might create a detailed profile on you based on your browsing history.

Although the feature is a bit similar to VPN, Apple claims that the Private Relay's dual-hop design means even Apple itself does not have a complete picture of your browsing data.

Meanwhile, Regular VPNs require a level of trust that means you need to be careful about which VPN you use.