The government has bullied Apple into switching off its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the UK, and the usual privacy advocates are up in arms. Apparently, without end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups, we’re all doomed to surveillance and data breaches. Well, only if you’re daft enough to store sensitive personal data in the cloud in the first place.
The cloud has always been a convenience trap. Slick marketing convinced people that uploading everything from passport scans to intimate photos was somehow progress. It’s progress, all right. Progress toward making your private life someone else’s business. Store it on iCloud, and you might as well leave your front door unlocked with a neon sign saying "Help yourself".
Local storage, on the other hand, is like keeping your valuables in a safe at home. Encrypted drives. Password-protected folders. Physical backups tucked away where no government mandate or corporate policy change can reach them. If your data is local, it’s yours. If it’s in the cloud, it’s on loan until someone decides otherwise.
The fuss about Apple being strong-armed into weakening encryption only matters if you’ve bought into the idea that convenience beats control. It doesn’t. Storing critical data locally isn’t just inherently more secure. It’s common sense.
The real irony here? The same people outraged by the ADP shutdown are the ones who happily ask Alexa to add toilet roll to their shopping list while their phones upload every photo they take to a server they’ll never see. Privacy isn’t lost because of government overreach. It’s lost when people trade control for convenience and act surprised when someone exploits the trade.
Want to keep your data private? Stop feeding the cloud and take back control. It's not difficult. It just requires the tiniest bit of effort. If that's too much, you’re not really worried about privacy. You’re just addicted to convenience and looking for someone else to blame.
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