What is the advantage of having Two-factor authentication if I do not store anything on iCloud?

Question

What is the advantage of having Two-factor authentication if I do not store anything on iCloud?

What exactly is the advantage of using TFA if I do not store anything in iCloud? I back my iPhone up on my MacBook Pro and then back that up on an external drive. I do not store anything (photos, documents etc) on iCloud so am I just protecting my AppleID? I do not even use my AppleID to purchase music (all my music is loaded manually from my own physical collection), nor do I subscribe to Apple TV etc, so I am struggling to understand what the benefit would be in my situation. I am all for extra security, but not if it is pointless. Can anyone enlighten me please? Thanks.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.4

Posted on Jul 14, 2024 6:11 AM

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Answer 1

Mac Jim ID

Level 7

26,825 points

Jul 14, 2024 6:37 AM in response to streetsofarklow

Yes, you are protecting your Apple ID. Before there was 2FA, everyone just used security questions to access their account if a password was forgotten. The answers to these security questions were easily obtained through social engineering and also made it difficult to prove a person's identity if they forgot the answers to their own security question. If someone does gain access to your account, you would not be able to sign out of your Apple ID on your device. In addition the Activation Lock and Find My features would offer no protections if a thief was able to remove the device from your account.

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Answer 2

Jul 14, 2024 7:32 AM in response to Mac Jim ID

So, in the circumstances I have described, it is simply useful to protect my physical device in the event of theft and allows me to download apps from the app store (although they can be downloaded from elsewhere - in the EU) as they are the only things my AppleID gives access to.

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Answer 3

Jul 14, 2024 7:51 AM in response to streetsofarklow

Correction to the above.... of course the AppleID use for the App Store is nothing to do with TFA and so, as you say, TFA is only for use in protecting the ID itself regardless of the limited use it is to me. Thanks for your reply.

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Answer 4

Mac Jim ID

Level 7

26,825 points

Jul 14, 2024 7:59 AM in response to streetsofarklow

streetsofarklow wrote:

Correction to the above.... of course the AppleID use for the App Store is nothing to do with TFA and so, as you say, TFA is only for use in protecting the ID itself regardless of the limited use it is to me. Thanks for your reply.

And to make resetting the password a breeze using another Trusted Device or Trusted Phone Number that is set up on your account. You are not able to use Account Recovery if you do not have 2FA. You are correct that you do not need 2FA to download apps, but if a person was able to change your password, you would no longer be able to update/redownload those apps.

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