I remember around 10 years ago when iCloud Photo Stream (the predecessor to today's iCloud Photos) first appeared. At that time, Apple still had a fairly decent reputation for software quality. Things have markedly deteriorated since.
Even then, something didn't sit right about uploading every photo I snap into some giant black box in the sky—encrypted or not. I never once switched this feature on. Not that I'm taking lots of NSFW pictures or anything, but, maybe there were a few.
I sleep well at night not worrying whether this bug turns out to be real. I'll back up my own photos, thanks. And I'll delete them on my own schedule.
This is the worst privacy violation and breach of trust apple users have faced. A poster described that he wiped his Ipad clean before selling it.
Now the pictures come back alive for new owner. [1]
If that turns out to be true, the question is where are the restored pictures and videos coming from?
If the device has been wiped, then it probably isn't coming from iCloud. This would still support people's claims that the files are returning to both the device and iCloud, because their device is probably just backing the files back up again when it resurfaces.
So the files are probably not actually being deleted from the device, despite the appearance that they are, and the process of wiping the device would have to leave that data behind, unencrypted, if it is going to resurface for the next user.
People with pre-17.5 iOS devices should inspect their phones storage as root before and after and try to find old deleted media, and verify the behavior. That would be the smoking gun here.
Or, for some reason, iCloud remains connected to the device post-wipe in a way that it shouldn't and somehow sends old deleted files back to the device (I find this unlikely).
Or, this singular claim of an iOS device resurfacing deleted images after a wipe is a work of clout-seeking fiction, and the problem is limited only to a failure to fully delete files.
Even then, something didn't sit right about uploading every photo I snap into some giant black box in the sky—encrypted or not. I never once switched this feature on. Not that I'm taking lots of NSFW pictures or anything, but, maybe there were a few.
I sleep well at night not worrying whether this bug turns out to be real. I'll back up my own photos, thanks. And I'll delete them on my own schedule.