[deleted] Recovery Contact. I ask myself the question is a Recovery Contact a backdoor that can be exploited to recover access to an account and decrypt user data?
Recovery Contact is completely optional and no it’s not.
Neither Apple nor the recovery contact have the necessary information individually to recover the user’s end-to-end encrypted iCloud data.
https://support.apple.com/guide/security/account-recovery-contact-security-secafa525057/1/web/1
You can read up on how it works here.
[deleted] The fact that Apple has added the ability to disable app tracking capability tells me that app tracking capability is baked into apps. Does this app tracking only disable tracking for third party apps? Can Apple still track you for their advertising greed?
This disables an advertising ID for third party apps. Android has a similar thing.
[deleted] To download an iOS app from the app store you need to provide, name, DOB, email address, phone number and home address. How is that private?
You can fake all of that if you want, they don’t check or anything. Personally it’s not a concern for me, it’s all about your threat model to determine what’s acceptable to you.
[deleted] You need an email address to create an Apple account. An email address you need to get from another provider because you can't get one from Apple before you have an Apple account.
If you buy an Apple device then you can create an iCloud email, I assume you tried to make an Apple account from their website. You need an Apple device or it won’t let you make an iCloud email.
[deleted] RCS on iPhone is encrypted in transit but not end-to-end encrypted when messaging with an Android user.
This is just because Apple is using the Universal Profile and not Google’s proprietary encryption. Blame the GSMA for that. They do have plans to add E2EE in the future:
The next major milestone is for the RCS Universal Profile to add important user protections such as interoperable end-to-end encryption.
https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/article/rcs-nowin-ios-a-new-chapter-for-mobile-messaging/
[deleted] Is Lockdown Mode on an iPhone a defacto admission the attack surface of the device is too big to start with?
No, is any optional security feature an admission the attack surface is too large? It’s designed to reduce attack surface for targeted individuals like journalists etc. They designed it with a specific and uncommon threat model in mind. It does also help protect you even if you’re not targeted as a byproduct though.
[deleted] Apple has created a mesh network that you cannot opt-out of. On stock Android you can opt-out.
You can absolutely opt out of it, it’s called the Find My Network and there’s a toggle in the settings.