Apple continuously stores its users’ call logs on its iCloud servers for as long as four months, reported by Elcomsoft, a Russian computer forensics firm, on Thursday. Anyone who uses an Apple product, with iCloud obviously, automatically transmits all the private information to Apple. This information includes phone numbers, dates, call history and event the length of calls. Privacy buffs will note that Apple can provide law enforcement with the encryption keys that unlock the data because the company holds onto these data-unscrambling cryptographic secrets.
Apple iCloud Secretly Stores Your Call History
Russian digital forensics company Elcomsoft published a blog post claiming that Apple's iCloud sync service stores phone call logs without user notification or consent. This blog post was posted on Thursday citing some situations regarding the issue. "Using an iPhone and have an active iCloud account?" said Elcomsoft researcher Oleg Afonin. "Your calls will sync with iCloud whether you want it or not."
According to The Register, that's not entirely accurate. If you don't want any data sent to iCloud, you can disable iCloud. The problem is that iCloud makes iPhone usage easier, by synchronizing contacts, calendar entries, photos, and the like. Syncing call logs makes call data available to other Apple devices signed in using the same Apple ID.
Apple's Answer To This
Rene Ritchie, editorial director of Mobile Nations, Apple analyst and tech critic of iMore, ask Apple regarding this issue. An Apple spokesperson said to him, "We offer call history syncing as a convenience to our customers so that they can return calls from any of their devices. Apple is deeply committed to safeguarding our customers' data. That's why we give our customers the ability to keep their data private. Device data is encrypted with a user's passcode, and access to iCloud data including backups requires the user’s Apple ID and password. Apple recommends that all customers select strong passwords and use two-factor authentication."
Apple wants you to be able to browse your missed calls on multiple devices. That’s why the company is using iCloud to sync this data between all devices associated with the same Apple ID. As soon as you activate iCloud, your iPhone will start uploading this log, as Tech Crunch reported.
