With this article that came out with the UK’s current demands of Apple, it has me thinking.

UK security officials “demanded that Apple create a backdoor allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud,” the report said.

According to other reports, part of the specific demand is, if Apple does give in, they are not allowed to tell users. Also, this is across borders, they do not want access to just UK citizens, but the worlds.

With that, I feel it’s time for me to really double down on Syncthing. I’ve already been using it as a makeshift cloud. I have a machine that’s sole purpose is to run Syncthing, and it backs up all the major folders on my PC. The iPhone also has an app called Möbius Sync which lets me use Syncthing with my iPhone. Note, that Android has a native Syncthing app which may be enough to switch to Android if this all comes to fruition.

I also wonder, if the requirement is not to tell users if you comply, what are other companies doing? Is the Microsoft OneDrive Vault already backdoored? Who knows. But this is very concerning. The UK is a pretty large market and I don’t think Apple would just pull out of it with all their cloud services. They don’t have the proverbial balls to do such a thing. I guess I will just have to wait and see. But I will be doubling down on Syncthing use and really learning to make it as smooth of an operation as it can get.

If you have an old machine sitting around the house doing nothing, it’s a pretty easy to set up once you wrap your head around how everything works. Give it a go.