Boxcryptor Update with macOS Sierra Support – But Be Aware of Apple’s New Privacy Nightmare

The new update of Boxcryptor for macOS brings official support of macOS Sierra and is fully optimized to work with the new operating system. Your files in the cloud are protected perfectly, while you enjoy getting to know everything that is new on your macOS playing ground. But be aware of a new security risk that comes with the Sierra update: One wrong click and you lose control over a huge part of your data on your Mac.

What’s New with the macOS Sierra Update? – 3 Nice Features and a Data Privacy Nightmare

Siri moved into your Mac: If you ever feel like asking Siri “What’s zero divided by zero?” again, you can enjoy her friendly answer on a Mac now, as well. As demonstrated on the WWDC you can look for documents on your Mac with Siri. This is impressive and could prove to be very helpful and safe a lot of clicking and typing.

Unlocking your Mac with your Apple Watch: Granted, there is no need to type in a lengthy password anymore. However, if all your Apple gadgets are stolen your security level goes from 100 to 0.

Copy and Paste from one device to another: Copy and paste files between your Mac and iPhone? Sounds super practical and is now reality on macOS Sierra as a part of Continuity and the Universal Clipboard.

One Feature that Turns Out to be a Data Privacy Nightmare

The macOS Sierra update promises better iCloud integration: Everything on your Desktop and Documents folder will be saved to your iCloud automatically. Automatic backup? Sounds nice. But wait. There are some very serious privacy implications that come along with this new feature. Every existing file on your Desktop and in your Documents folder will be uploaded to iCloud, which means that all your data may be available to Apple and maybe even government authorities.

Most of our users use our additional encryption solution exactly to prevent this from happening. They want to keep control over their data. When you install macOS 10.12 Sierra take some time and think about if you really want to enable this feature. It may have its advantages in conveniently syncing data between your Apple devices. But it also hands all your data over to Apple.

Even more annoying is what happens when you enable the feature and change your mind and disable it again. When you disable the synchronization, the Desktop and Documents folder will be empty, the data will only be available in the corresponding folders in the local iCloud drive. After deactivation your data will disappear from your local desktop and documents folder and will only remain in iCloud. This means, the user has to manually copy the content from the local iCloud drive folder to the empty folders. This is very complicated and inconvenient for the user.

If you do not like the thought of all that, do not enable this feature and keep on using Boxcryptor to encrypt your regular iCloud Drive and to keep control of your data in iCloud.

What’s New with the Boxcryptor Update?

• Official support of macOS Sierra: Boxcryptor will run smoothly with your new operating system.
• Some of our users had problems with the auto-detection of Microsoft OneDrive. We fixed that for you, so that you can work with your secure files in the cloud without disturbances.
• The update includes some minor bug fixes and performance improvements.

Note: OS X 10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion will no longer be supported for security reasons. Since they are not supported by Apple anymore, we highly recommend to update to a newer operating system.