Apple advised iPhone owners who are wary that hackers could access their call history to delete call records from their devices. The Cupertino-based technology giant said that undeleted call records on phones remain in iCloud up to four months, while invitations to FaceTime calls are stored up to 30 days in iCloud.
The advice was in the light of a revelation by Elcomsoft, a Russian company which makes software used to hack iPhones, that Apple is quietly collecting iPhone call data in iCloud for both cellular voice and FaceTime calls. However, Apple said those features are built into iOS and macOS for the convenience of the phone owner, BGR reported
iCloud-Enabled Devices
The calls and invitations are recorded for iPhone owners whose devices are iCloud-enabled. It applies to both regular phone calls and VoIP-based calls to include Skype, FaceTime, Viber, WhatsApp and other apps. The phone numbers, call dates, times and call duration are synced to the clouds to give the phone owner access to those records and return missed calls on their phones, using Apple’s Continuity feature.
However, Apple assured iPhone owners the actual contents of the voice calls are not saved on iCloud because the company, run by Tim Cook, does not listen to phone conversations. But phone owners have also raised the issue of Apple decrypting the data stored in iCloud and sharing the information to enforcement agencies with warrants.
Apple’s Oversight
On the issue of hackers accessing call history, similar to hackers stealing the nude photos of celebrities in iCloud, Apple iPhone owners noted that Elcomsoft updated its Phone Breaker software to extract iCloud call records with the use of an authentication taken from a computer which belongs to the account holder.
Jonathan Zdziarski, an iOS forensic expert, said the chance of being hacked on iCloud is an Apple oversight and not an engineering issue. Digitaltrends reported that Apple plans to implement full end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups, but currently Apple could access personal data even if the backups are encrypted.
