Google and Apple accounts: cloud, location, Find My

The guides below are drafts: a lawyer has not reviewed them yet. This is not legal advice.

Draft Safety

For iPhone and Android users whose Apple or Google account holds photos, chats, phone backups and location history.

The cloud keeps a copy of your phone: data deleted on the phone often survives in the backup. iPhone: Settings → [your name] → iCloud. Android: Settings → Google → All services → Backup.
Deleted photos stay 30 days in Recently Deleted on iPhone and up to 60 days in Google Photos trash.
Turn on two-factor authentication and review signed-in devices (Apple: Settings → [your name] → Devices; Google: myaccount.google.com/security-checkup).
Location history: iPhone Significant Locations & Routes; Android Google Maps → profile → Timeline. Check who you share your location with.

iPhone: Advanced Data Protection end-to-end encrypts backups, photos and notes.
iPhone Safety Check shows who has access to your location and data and lets you revoke it at once.
Find My and Find Hub can erase a lost phone, but for a seized phone only after talking to a lawyer.

Don't sign in to your main Apple or Google account on a travel phone.
Don't remotely wipe a seized phone or laptop (Find My, Find Hub) without talking to a lawyer first: it can be treated as destroying evidence.
If a case has been opened, a report drawn up or your phone seized, don't delete anything without a lawyer: deletion can be used against you and won't remove what the authorities have already copied.

Anyone holding your unlocked phone can see your cloud too.
Companies hand over data on lawful requests; what they give Russian authorities is not publicly known.

Situations this guide covers