iCloud Advanced Data Protection Uptake
Back in August I ran a poll on Mastodon, asking my followers if they have iCloud Advanced Data Protection enabled. iCloud Advanced Data Protection was announced two years ago this week, alongside support for security keys (e.g. Yubico).
I’m in the last group, too. I still use some older devices that would be dropped from iCloud if I enabled it.
Previously:
Update (2024-01-09): Pierre Igot:
I’ve got to say that, when you are trying to activate the “Advanced Data Protection” safety feature in #macOS #Sonoma, the level of attention to detail on the part of Apple’s software engineers is really confidence inspiring. I mean, wouldn’t YOU trust those guys with the safety of your data?
(And let’s just not mention the couple of times where System Settings just conked out on me when I was in the middle of typing important information.)
His System Settings screenshots look awful, with text clipped and a bare URL that isn’t clickable. Of course, Advanced Data Protection was probably implemented by an entirely separate team than the one that seems to be learning SwiftUI and incorporating Web technologies while redoing the System Settings app. But gone are the days where the company seemed to have an attention to detail and polish top to bottom.
Previously:
I got locked out of my iCloud in December because their Advanced Data Protection somehow broke my iCloud.
After 9 hours on the phone with Apple support and me couple gray hairs richer they finally called in internal Apple iCloud engineers to personally fix it.
It was a crazy story where I almost lost most of my digital life (passwords, pictures, documents, 2fa, mail and so much more)
I see nothing but a steady, years-long decline in the quality of user-facing software interfaces from Apple. Part of it is poor QA, but an even bigger part of the problem seems to be an abandonment of polished, user-friendly user interfaces and an embrace of lowest common denominator design seemingly in service of expediency and cost-reduction.
I wish this would get more intense scrutiny to the point where Apple felt compelled to publicly respond.