i did read that not even police can hack into a locked iphone, and that police can get icloud data from apple. My question is if i delete some icloud data, is that deletion permanent or can apple still give that data to police? I am not planning to do something illegal, i just care about my privacy, and want to make sure no one has access to my information like on my linux encrypted pc
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Data access rules vary by country. It's impossible to give a 100% accurate response without knowing which country you're in (and, even if we did know your country, we might not be able to answer, anyway. :)
That said, generally, data you delete is not deleted immediately. Instead, it is marked for deletion, hidden from view and not available to a casual user (e.g. if someone else picked up your phone, they wouldn't see the data either).
For most use cases this is sufficient. Even if law enforcement look at your phone, they will not have access to this data either.
Eventually (on a non-published schedule, but 30 days is a reasonable expectation), Apple sweep through data marked as deleted and wipe it completely. This may give you (as the user) the opportunity to 'un-delete' data that was deleted in error. After this date, the data is not typically accessible.
HOWEVER, if the police (subject to local jurisdiction) get a warrant for your data, they can present this to Apple, and Apple may be able to give them the data associated with your account. That data may include both active data, and recently deleted data that has not yet been scrubbed.
Local jurisdiction rules relate to the encryption of that data - Apple may only provide bulk encrypted data that is still not usable without the decryption keys for your account. Apple tout the fact that they can't read your data to negate most claims of access to your data - it's useless to the authorities without the keys from your device.
But, again, this is clouded by local politics. Russia, China, and many middle-eastern nations (plus others) mandate state access to data, so if you're in one of those countries Apple are bound to comply.
Then, again, there are state-nation facilities (think CIA, Mossad, etc.) that are rumored to be able to brute-force decrypt the data. You have to be pretty high on their hitlist, though, to be affected by this.
Data access rules vary by country. It's impossible to give a 100% accurate response without knowing which country you're in (and, even if we did know your country, we might not be able to answer, anyway. :)
That said, generally, data you delete is not deleted immediately. Instead, it is marked for deletion, hidden from view and not available to a casual user (e.g. if someone else picked up your phone, they wouldn't see the data either).
For most use cases this is sufficient. Even if law enforcement look at your phone, they will not have access to this data either.
Eventually (on a non-published schedule, but 30 days is a reasonable expectation), Apple sweep through data marked as deleted and wipe it completely. This may give you (as the user) the opportunity to 'un-delete' data that was deleted in error. After this date, the data is not typically accessible.
HOWEVER, if the police (subject to local jurisdiction) get a warrant for your data, they can present this to Apple, and Apple may be able to give them the data associated with your account. That data may include both active data, and recently deleted data that has not yet been scrubbed.
Local jurisdiction rules relate to the encryption of that data - Apple may only provide bulk encrypted data that is still not usable without the decryption keys for your account. Apple tout the fact that they can't read your data to negate most claims of access to your data - it's useless to the authorities without the keys from your device.
But, again, this is clouded by local politics. Russia, China, and many middle-eastern nations (plus others) mandate state access to data, so if you're in one of those countries Apple are bound to comply.
Then, again, there are state-nation facilities (think CIA, Mossad, etc.) that are rumored to be able to brute-force decrypt the data. You have to be pretty high on their hitlist, though, to be affected by this.
I'm not sure how long Apple keeps any data and how it gets deleted, however they would not be able to release any of that information to law enforcement without a subpoena. You can read this information that Apple provides about your privacy. Legal - Privacy Policy - Apple
Can the police access to my deleted iCloud data?
