Explained: Apple iCloud kept 'deleted' browser histories for over a year

Apple appears to have fixed a flaw in iCloud that retained a copy of deleted Safari browsing history data synced from local devices for more than a year. On Thursday, Russian computer forensics software biz Elcomsoft said that its forensic software was able to recover Safari browser history records that had been stored in …

[Colin Millar]

How dare you

Apple doesn't do flaws - as we all know

Perhaps you meant to say

Apple appears to have fixed a flaw improved a feature in iCloud

[GruntyMcPugh]

Re: How dare you

You forgot to mention how brave they were in doing this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: How dare you

so ruddy bloody brave

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: How dare you

Making Apple great again?

[Fazal Majid]

Vacuum

When you delete data in a SQLite database, as in most databases the data is not actually erased, just marked as logically deleted and available for reuse. It's not actually physically removed until the VACUUM command is called.

[JeffyPoooh]

Re: Vacuum

How long until investigators and the courts start to demand non-Vacuumed databases and partially worn out sectors hidden on SSD hardware?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Vacuum

How long until self destructing storage becomes generally available?

[Paul Hargreaves]

Re: Vacuum

That sucks.

[VinceH]

Re: Vacuum

I asked Nature, and it said it was abhorrent.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

"If privacy is a serious concern, avoid iCloud and cloud services in general."

If?

Privacy is a serious concern, avoid cloud services in general.

[Anonymous Coward]

Privacy is a serious concern, avoid US hosted cloud services in general.

FIFY

[Baldy50]

Not surprised.

Ever used browser history spy, when someone says 'I've not been on any dodgy sites honest, it's running really slow and the browser, well!' LOL?

Deliberately infected Windows machines in the past just for practice, glad none had a connection to any clouds, I might be in jail.

[Dan 55]

Translation from legalese

"Apple does not retain deleted content once it is cleared from Apple's servers."

means

"Apple does not retain deleted information once it is deleted from Apple's servers."

which means

"" (nothing)

[adnim]

Re: Translation from legalese

You beat me to it, was going to say the same.

One of these things is not like the other:

"Apple does not retain deleted content once it is cleared from Apple's servers."

"Apple does not retain deleted content once it is deleted by the user."

[Potemkine]

Except for ignorance...

Why people accept their browser history data being loaded into a cloud is beyond comprehension.

Murphy will make them pay for that.

[JeffyPoooh]

Apple needs to fire their 'Sync' coder...

iCloud and iTunes: Sync sucks. Indisputably.

Just fire the moron(s).

Note: in modern parlance, it might be the Sync 'Requirements Manager' that needs to be fired.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple snorting up data like it was the finest columbian china white since 2007, and every time they get caught red handed, they say oh that was a bug and we fixed it... where as what they probably mean is we fixed it so you now cant see we are recording it still.

When people started to question if apple was really trying to keep them safe and started to question if it was instead just a mass surveillance platform, we got a nice oh were not unlocking this device because we always keep the public safe bit of theatre to keep people believing in their products and services.

Although we never did hear after the phone was unlocked by a third party if it had any extra secrets on it that were any different from the icloud data apple had already handed over or from the data pulled from the cell provider.

Anyway enough of that i dont want to bleat on like some derange sheep....

[Buzzword]

Why use iCloud backup in the first place?

You only get 5GB of storage. The base iPhone has 16GB of storage; of which at least 10GB is available for content. Sure, you could pay extra, a lot extra, for more space; but is it really so hard to back up to your PC/Mac with iTunes once a month or so?

[Tikimon]

Software does NOT happen by accident

I'm not a programmer, but I don't expect disagreement with this one. It's actually a bit difficult to make software do what you want it to. Mistakes usually mean something fails to work or stops working. Highly-specific actions like storing and retaining data do not happen by accident! This function was quite deliberately built into the product, nothing else makes sense. If it was a test function it was documented, and should have been removed before distribution. If nothing else, the database managers should notice the reams of extra tables and data that magically appeared one day and inquire how it got there.

Bugs? Tell another one! It's always deliberate and considered and has passed review with the blessing of the managers. I'm totally over the "but we didn't know!" excuse, it didn't fly the first time.

[Wensleydale Cheese]

Re: Software does NOT happen by accident

"Highly-specific actions like storing and retaining data do not happen by accident! This function was quite deliberately built into the product, nothing else makes sense."

I'm pretty sure that the reason for this is to allow you to move seamlessly from one device to another using Apple's Handoff feature

Synchronising stuff on multiple devices is a tricky thing to get right so I wouldn't be surprised if there are bugs in there.

Short answer: Can't say for certain what happened here, but can probably blame Apple for lack of testing.