Less than two weeks after apparently introducing end-to-end encryption for bookmarks in Safari, Apple has dropped the additional protection.
Safari no longer protects bookmarks with end-to-end encryption, if it ever did
In early October 2021, Apple's support documentation was updated to show that Safari bookmarks had been updated to have the same end-to-end encryption as, for example, Apple Card transactions, and even Memoji. Now, however, the same documentation has removed this, and bookmarks are again listed as encrypted only "in transit & on server."
Neither change was actually announced by Apple. So it is possible that the documentation was updated in error, and that error has now been corrected.
End-to-end encryption would have improved security as iCloud synced bookmarks between a user's device. Apple's own documentation describes end-to-end encryption as providing "the highest level of data security."
Apple, and all big technology companies, have consistently been under pressure to drop end-to-end encryption entirely, and allow governments and law enforcement access to all data.