That is only an official statement. It doesn’t mean that behind the scenes they might not still be forced to open everything to the government.
Even if it can be taken at face value, it means Americans are safe but not necessarily anyone else (and especially not UK.) Linux, BSD, de-googled Android and some experimental & avant garde operating systems (e.g. Plan 9 offshoots) are the only ones which can be used with any hope of being trustworthy.
Depending on your use case, a solution like https://cryptomator.org/ may be worth considering.
(My final 2 cents: Why do we even have to discuss this? Weakening encryption is a self-own of liberal societies.)
I will probably just leave it on the shelf until I can think of something else to do with it that doesn’t require internet access.
This looked a good option for cloud storage. I don’t store data in the cloud anymore but, if I should need to, I would be much happier using this. Do you use it yourself?
Or maybe just sell it?
I could sell it but, would not get much for it. It is a 9th Gen - pre the M Processors. And it is a backup device for my e/os Pixel should that have any problems in the future.
Ever heard of the sunk cost fallacy? 
Problem then is: Where do you store your backups outside the house. I locally encrypt them and upload them to a german cloud provider. This ensures, that i still have a backup, even if burglars are stealing all of my hardware or the house burns down.
No I haven’t - please explain?
Concerning the ipad, I wouldn’t have enough data or apps on it to require ‘proper backups’. I just would copy any files that I might need to a usb stick and transfer them to my offline linux laptop’s filing area to be backed up there. I use Back in Time for my backups, to an external backup drive but, not sure those backups are encrypted - I must check that!
I do see what you mean about the house burning down but, I store the backup drive in a fireproof safe when not in use.
In your particular case I would argue that spending more time and effort trying to use the ipad in some way is an example of further expenditures. Unless one has lots of time and energy to devote to this without incurring costs elsewhere, cutting one’s losses would be the sensible thing. Disposing of the ipad by selling/gifting/donating/etc would be an example of this.
I totally agree and (on second thoughts) I don’t think it is worth wasting time on either. I found a good home for my other ipad with a young relative who had just turned 18 and would find it useful for university. I will do something similar with the one that I still have.
I must confess that I have not used Cryptomator yet. However, it is open source and has been around for several years now, and it even offers a payment option for Android without the Google Play Store. I think that you can definitely give it a try.
Personally, I use European cloud providers (Murena, Internxt) to save my encrypted backups that I create with Duplicati. Some additional files like music etc. are additionally saved on OneDrive, again using Duplicati.
Your mileage may vary, but I trust the AES encryption so that I think that my files cannot be read even by state actors (excluding wrench attacks, obviously, but that is not a scenario I am currently afraid of.)
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