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by gjsman-1000 847 days ago
Correct. I was referring to the OP asking if Apple would ever fix E2EE not protecting, by default, Photos and Messages and so forth.
1 comments

E2EE refers to transporting protocols and not data at rest, so the phrasing here is wrong.

If you choose to have some of your data in iCloud, it is transported and stored encrypted. However, one of the keys is escrowed in a HSM cluster for an audited recovery process.

This is how you go request access be restored via technical support with Apple. This is also how surviving family members can get access to photos and the like (requiring a court order, at least in the US). Since they have the key, government entities can request access within the extent of their respective local laws.

If you turn on the Advanced Data Protection feature, Apple no longer has that key escrowed, cannot help with account recovery, and can no longer give out a key they don't have.