UPDATE (May 24, 2024): Apple fixed a bug that caused a major uproar recently, and has now offered more explanation on what happened, hence the update here Apple says that the issue had nothing to do with iCloud Photos. The company also claims that it never had access to the deleted photos either. It is said that a corrupted database entry on some devices (the ones that were affected by the bug) is the culprit.Those photos remained on the device because of it, they were never deleted even though those useres did delete them.
Apple has released a fix for a major iOS bug, but the questions remain on the table. What exactly am I talking about? Well, those deleted photos started reappearing recently.
Apple has fixed a major iOS bug, but the privacy questions remain out there
To give you more context, some users have noticed that very old, deleted photos started appearing in their iPhone photo library. That’s a problem, though not a major one, right? Well, no, not really.
It’s a major problem because those photos were supposed to be gone for good. Apple policy states that the company keeps hold of your deleted photos for 30 days, and they’re gone for good. So how could they be reappearing years later?
One person actually started seeing photos deleted way back in 2010
One person actually reported seeing his photos from 2010. In other words, photos that were deleted four years ago. Apple did release a new update to address this, iOS 17.5.1. It did seemingly fix the problem, but not the questions that surfaced following that bug.
Apple said that this patch “addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted”.
Deleted photos are supposed to vanish completely after 30 days
The company did not explain where those photos came from. How come they were able to surface at all considering that they were deleted so long ago. The company’s policy is quite clear, they were supposed to be completely gone after 30 days.
Various outlets have been reaching out to Apple to see if they can get a more thorough explanation of how this happened. Apple did not provide an answer just yet, at least not to our knowledge. If we hear anything, we’ll let you know. It would surely be nice to get more details, as this is a rather major privacy breach.
2024-05-24 15:06:56