Apple's new update claims to bring back deleted photos

“I'm very uncomfortable. Is anyone else having this problem, with photos coming back?” writes a user on Reddit. “I have four photos from 2010 that keep showing up as the most recent photos I've uploaded to iCloud. “I've deleted it multiple times,” another wrote.

Old files that suddenly reappeared on Apple mobile phones and tablets, after they were said to have been deleted, have raised questions among users around the world.

Concerns are being expressed on social media about the tech company's access to data that is said to be deleted.

– It is not yet certain what happens on these mobile phones that are upgraded to the latest version of IOS. We must remember that it could be partly due to an actual error, and partly because users have misunderstood something – they think they have deleted something, when in fact they have not, says Karl-Emil Nica, an IT security specialist.

It did not comment on the claims

At the time of writing, Apple itself has not commented on the alleged issue, and while we wait for specific information, Nikka thinks we should assume it's something that could happen and that it's technically possible.

We don't know whether the alleged incident was related to the local mobile phone or to the cloud service Icloud, says Nika, who believes the latter would be a more serious situation.

– In this case, Apple gained access to photos that you weren't supposed to have access to. This can be an issue not only from an integrity perspective, but also from a regulatory compliance perspective.

Hear from an IT security professional about how to protect your photos in the player above.