Just last week, Apple made a surprising update when they revealed that Safari bookmarks would be end-to-end encrypted. It might seem minor but for users who value their privacy, this was a good change. We say “was” because it seems that a week later, Apple decided to walk back on it.
Now, to be fair, we can’t be sure if maybe the listing of Safari bookmarks as being end-to-end encrypted was an error to begin with and Apple is now correcting it, or if maybe they decided that they just didn’t want to make it happen because according to the support page, bookmarks are now listed as being encrypted only in transit and on server.
For those wondering what the big deal is, end-to-end encryption meant that basically you held the keys to the encryption on your devices. This means that Apple would not be able to see what kind of bookmarks you made in Safari even if they wanted to.
However, by encrypting it in transit and on the server, it means that Apple will protect your bookmarks from being read/intercepted while it is being synced to iCloud, and also if someone were to try and hack the company’s iCloud servers. However, it also means that Apple now holds the key to your encryption, so in the event that law enforcement were to submit a request for your data, in theory Apple would be able to hand it over to them decrypted.
That being said, we’re not sure if the listing of end-to-end encryption was an error to begin with but it’s something that you might want to take note of.
Filed in . Read more about Privacy, Safari and Security. Source: appleinsider