There’s never too much security, and that’s why Apple introduced three new features to improve its services

Apple is surprising us quite a bit this week of festive bridges. Not with great news, but with minor surprises that are good news, after all. Yesterday we saw the presentation of Apple Music Sing and the new App Store prices, and today we have them Updates on the security of our data and accounts.

All of these developments aim to improve our privacy and security by providing device-to-device encryption to parts of systems that didn’t already have it. Everything has come out in the new beta of iOS 16.2 and the rest of the equivalent versions of the other operating systems, suggesting that with the launch of the stable versions we should be able to use it publicly.

Identity verification, physical devices and everything absolutely encrypted

Device-to-device encryption options now extend to iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Voice Memos, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, and Wallet app balances and tickets, as well as device backups and copies of Messages. All of this can be done in a new option called “Extended data protection“, which will be accessible to all users.

Another possibility is this Identity verification in iMessagewhich allows us to confirm through an encrypted device certification process that we are speaking to the right person on duty.

For those who find it necessary, Apple will make that possible too Authenticating our Apple ID with a physical device. That is, to be able to request something like a flash drive USB to be able to log in with our access data. This is a common practice in high-security work environments, and you can always use a recovery key that you generate to sign in if you don’t have the physical device to hand.

Apple also mentions some parts of its services that cannot have device-to-device encryption due to incompatibilities with “old systems”. They are iCloud Mail, Contacts and Calendar.

For now, these options are available to users in the United States, while others will have to wait until sometime in “early 2023“. These may be measures that the general user may find excessive, but it is very good news that we have the ability to enable them and more than one will choose to do so.