Protect your Privacy- Turn off iCloud!

E.J. Hilbert
Aug 24, 2017 · 4 min read

A recently trending question in my field is how do I protect my private (nude) photos?

I know, I know, if you don’t take nude photos you won’t have to protect them. Got it.

Nevertheless, nude photos have been around since the dawn of time from commission paintings to Polaroid photos to photocopying your butt at the office Holiday party.

Taking and sending nude photos in not going to stop.

So putting aside all the standard protection recommendations like:

· Use a unique password for your iCloud account

· Make sure your password is not easily guessed and is not used on other sites.

· Change you passwords regularly

· Insure that the answers to your security questions are not facts that can be obtained online

· Never click on links in emails from unknown people

We are going to focus on other aspects.

Most, if not all, of the stolen nude-celebrity photos have come from hijacking or unauthorized access to iCloud accounts. I would also bet that they have come from the accounts connected to the phones that actually took the photos, rather than the accounts of those to whom the photos were sent.

This means that the photo takers have their Apple devices/iPhones set up to automatically store all images take on the phone to their iCloud account. (Its a default setting)

iCloud is sort of like those old photo albums your parents had. They took the photos developed them and then stored them away. 20 years later, some family member goes through them and the embarrassment begins. Now imagine those photo albums being stored at someone else’s house where with the right permissions they can be viewed by non-family members. That’s iCloud!

iCloud is a storage location, controlled by a third party in which anyone who can guess your username and password can enter. The worst part is you can’t tell when that happens. Apple does not produce logs of iCloud access. Maybe Apple can fix that. Apple, what do you say?

Back to your sexy selfies, if you are going to take these photos you need make sure they stay on devices you control. To do this you need to disable the auto backup to iCloud.

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

1. Tap Settings > [your name] > iCloud > tap Photos

2. TURN OFF iCloud Photo Library (off is gray, green is on)

3. TURN OFF Upload to My Photo Stream

4. TURN OFF iCloud Photo Sharing.

Turn the green ones OFF!

By turning these off you are ensuring the photos are only stored on the device with which they are taken.

Now you didn’t take that alluring photo just for yourself, you intend to share it. Whoever you are sharing your photographic nakedness with, you need to insure they have disabled iCloud backups of photos as well.

If you decide to post it on social media like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, Facebook, etc. Well, you have decided to share it with the world. You have no right to complain about privacy.

Sending your photos via text message or email provides some protection because Apple devices do not automatically backup texts and emails to the iCloud. This is something for which you have to opt-in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428

In other words if on your iPhone you Tap Settings > [your appleid] > iCloud you can then select the items to be backed up to iCloud.

So, if your transfer method is to text then insure the receiver is not backing up text, if you are sending via email, insure they are not backing up all email.

Also email and text photos require an extra step on the part of the receiver to save the images. This means the receiver has to select the image and then save it to the device. If it is saved to the device and they have iCloud back up on then it will be saved to their iCloud account.

Finally, after you have turned all the backups off, log on to iCloud account, search through the images and delete the ones that are a bit risqué.

You will have to delete them twice because once you hit delete, they move to the “Recently Deleted” folder, which is where they will remain for 30 days unless you select them and hit delete again.

Nude photos are a part of today’s world. I’ve dealt with various mindsets on their existence from utter distaste to those proud to have a memory of how great they once looked.

I do not judge. I just want to help you tantalizing photographers protect the works of “art” you have created and keep it out of the hands, eyes, computers of those who you do not want having it.

Maybe you can share this with the celebrities you know.

)

Work in the CyberSecurity and Privacy Arena , Ex-Ex-pat in UK, Ubergeek Ex-FBI Special Agent. All opinions posted are my own !!!

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