So this is incorrect… The settings, yes, but the fact that employees can see them is false. I speak as a former Photos and iCloud senior specialist for Apple. Spent 8 years working for them.
The scanning of photos doesn’t mean that just any employee can see them. As a support engineer we only see the amount of photos, names of shared albums and amounts, last synced, etc. But they cannot see the actual photos unless on a screen share session with the customer while on a support call.
Edit note: If you are a provacy related person, just stop ising the cloud in general and use a physical backup to your computer.
Thanks for sharing your unique POV! But isn't it possible for someone working for Apple, or possibly someone else/everybody if there's a data breach, to see someone's iCloud content if it's not encrypted by the user's device? In the case of an Apple employee, maybe not on a routine basis, but if it was authorized by someone higher in the food chain?
Not even the iCloud engineers have access to that kind of thing. Data breeches have all been through compromised passwords. Apple has some
Of the best data engineers in the world.