Partly-closed MacBook with black background

Heather Burns is a self-described “tech policy wonk” who thinks that not only should we be getting all of our data off Google and Apple’s servers, but off those of all US Big Tech companies.

In this post, Burns is primarily talking about Apple Data Protection soon no longer being available in the UK due to government pressure. Those Brexit benefits just keep on going; there’s no way this would have happened if we were still part of the EU.

I use a Mac Studio as my main machine, but my laptop and smartphone run Fedora Silverblue (Linux) and GrapheneOS (Android), respectively. I do have an iCloud account but I don’t back anything up to it, using Time Machine on my local network instead.

[A]t some point in the very near future Apple is withdrawing its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature from the UK altogether as a result of the… Investigatory Powers Act.

Users… will be required to manually switch it off or lose their iCloud account.

[…]

I’m not going to tell you where to move your stuff other than to say that if you’re moving it from one big tech company to another, you’re just being daft. Likewise, if you’re moving your stuff to a non-e2ee service, don’t bother. If you need an e2ee service try Proton. They have a Black Friday sale on.

[…]

You know as well as I do that you need to be moving everything you can out of the American stack anyway so just stick this task on your to-do list, which should not be Reminders, and get it done.

Source: Hi, I’m Heather Burns

Image: Glen Alejandro