Apple Launches New Data and Privacy Website

[MacRumors]

Apple has launched a new Data & Privacy website that includes an option for Apple users to download all the data associated with their Apple ID account that the company keeps on its servers.

The data download that users are able to request includes purchase and app usage history, calendars, reminders, photos, and documents stored in iCloud, Apple Music and Game Center statistics, marketing history, and AppleCare support history.

The data download option arrives before the GDPR deadline and is currently limited to Apple accounts registered in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, but Apple says it will roll out the service worldwide "in the coming months".

We've compiled a separate how-to outlining the steps involved in requesting the data. If you live in a country or region that's not listed above, you can still contact Apple to request a copy of your data.

The new Data & Privacy site also includes links that customers can use to update their account details, temporarily deactivate their account, or delete it permanently.

Article Link: Apple Launches New Data and Privacy Website

 

[asdavis10]

What good the GDPR hath wrought. Definitely a move in the right direction in this age of digital transparency.

Although I'm uncertain as to why one would need to temporarily deactivate their account. It's not like a social media account.

 

[zoomp]

Happy to have Europe leading the world for a change.

 

[ersan191]

I've been reading some articles about the data dumps you can get recently. Just in terms of sheer volume, Apple had about 9MB of data on the person, Google had 243MB, and Facebook had 881MB. I've also seen articles from heavy Android and Chrome users where Google has over 9GB of data on them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...e-everything-had-me-heres-what-got/558362002/
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...l-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

The amount of stuff Google logs is incredibly creepy.

 

[HacKage]

Hopefully this will allow me to get multiple WhatsApp backups that were stored to iCloud that miraculously disappear when switching phones and I can retrieve irreplaceable conversation histories and media. It is my biggest issue with iCloud as a whole, that I can't just go onto iCloud.com and see a file browser for all data they have stored on my iCloud.

 

[martyjmclean]

Just in time! I recently made a new Apple ID and need to delete the old one.

 

[MistrSynistr]

I've been reading some articles about the data dumps you can get recently. Just in terms of sheer volume, Apple had about 9MB of data on the person, Google had 243MB, and Facebook had 881MB. I've also seen articles from heavy Android and Chrome users where Google has over 9GB of data on them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...e-everything-had-me-heres-what-got/558362002/
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...l-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

The amount of stuff Google logs is incredibly creepy.

Everyone should be moving away from that corrupt cabal. They are directly tied in with the globalist elite and have zero of your best interests in mind. You'll find out later why Tim Cook has been meeting with the President more than 'usual' for someone of his stature. He's being warned.

 

[555gallardo]

What good the GDPR hath wrought. Definitely a move in the right direction in this age of digital transparency.

Although I'm uncertain as to why one would need to temporarily deactivate their account. It's not like a social media account.

Despite being glad about the GDPR thing (at least I hope to be less distracted by telemarketing), my guess is that this "Temporary Deactivation" option will be certainly used by criminals...

 

[martyjmclean]

Everyone should be moving away from that corrupt cabal. They are directly tied in with the globalist elite and have zero of your best interests in mind. You'll find out later why Tim Cook has been meeting with the President more than 'usual' for someone of his stature. He's being warned.

Take off your Alfoil hat.

 

[69Mustang]

I've been reading some articles about the data dumps you can get recently. Just in terms of sheer volume, Apple had about 9MB of data on the person, Google had 243MB, and Facebook had 881MB. I've also seen articles from heavy Android and Chrome users where Google has over 9GB of data on them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...e-everything-had-me-heres-what-got/558362002/
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...l-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

The amount of stuff Google logs is incredibly creepy.

Considering Apple's file size options, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Apple logs a ton of data too. As with everything, YMMV based on length of time and amount of use.

 

[DailySlow]

I've been reading some articles about the data dumps you can get recently. Just in terms of sheer volume, Apple had about 9MB of data on the person, Google had 243MB, and Facebook had 881MB. I've also seen articles from heavy Android and Chrome users where Google has over 9GB of data on them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...e-everything-had-me-heres-what-got/558362002/
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...l-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

The amount of stuff Google logs is incredibly creepy.

My (RIP) FaceBook account had about 625MB. *poof*. In "Correct Your Data", Country field is greyed out. Or was it always? Oh dear me.

 

[MLVC]

Considering Apple's file size options, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Apple logs a ton of data too. As with everything, YMMV based on length of time and amount of use.

That could be if you include photos, files and mail

 

[aleksander]

What good the GDPR hath wrought. Definitely a move in the right direction in this age of digital transparency.

Not everyone is happy, though:

Hi! You probably haven't heard from me in a while. I'm Christian - I made a service you signed up for called DBinbox.com that makes it easy to receive files.

I've got some sad news for you if you're a DBinbox customer in the EU, or if you use DBinbox to receive files from people in the EU: you can't use DBinbox after this Friday

Why? GDPR is impossible for me to comply with as a small business. Small as in: DBInbox is run entirely by me and my girlfriend.

Am I totally anti-privacy and trying to be the next Zuckerberg selling all of your data? Man, absolutely not. Your privacy is super important, and it makes me physically angry when I hear about poorly-built websites leaking passwords.

Here are some great things I think every web service should be doing that GDPR enforces (from the GDPR Compliance Checklist):

• keep track of where user data goes so it doesn't accidentally get funneled to bad guys
• keep user data secure and report breaches (DBinbox has had no known data breaches since I started it in 2013)
• users should be able to update their data and request that it be deleted (you can do that at dbinbox.com/account - the big red "delete my account" button will delete your account, pages, and every file you've ever been sent)
• notify users if your privacy policy ever changes (that's what I'm doing with this email )

Here's some things GDPR requires that I can't do:

• Appoint a representative within the EU - "If you have a business outside of the EU and you collect data on EU citizens, you should assign a representative in one of the member states for your business. This person should handle all issues related to processing. In particular, a local authority should be able to contact this person.". This is the first year I could financially justify hiring an accountant - I can't financially justify hiring another professional just to handle GDPR stuff.
• Accept a $20M euro penalty if I can't prove that my users didn't consent to my GDPR compliant privacy policy.
• Be able to prove who has ever seen any of the data I collect.
• Not transfer data outside of the EU to countries that offer "an appropriate level of protection" - man, what does that even mean. I'm positive the EU doesn't consider the US to have "appropriate protection" for user data, and that's exactly where all of my data is stored.
• Ask for consent every time I start processing a person's information. This makes it illegal for me to do something like send an email to users who have never received a file offering some help to get their account setup without a) asking for their permission to send them that email, and b) being able to prove that they consented to their data being used for decisions like that.

As I see it, my only option is to require that users of DBinbox must not be in the EU.

So: today I added this clause to my terms of service:

"0. You may not use the Service if you are in the European Union."

It would be super difficult for me to prove that you're using DBinbox from the European Union (and I think if I tried to filter for my users from the EU I'd be breaking GDPR anyway?), so I just have to ask that if you are from the EU you delete your account. I'll be super sad to see you go

If you're still with me, I've got some exciting updates coming your way, especially if you're an accountant or a loan officer. Stay tuned

Christian.​

 

[69Mustang]

That could be if you include photos, files and mail

Agreed. It could be. That doesn't negate the fact that there could be a ton of info logged. Google logs a crap ton of info on people. A.CRAP.TON. A.HUGE.CRAP.TON. Facebook does as well. If Apple is offering file size options in GB increments, it stands to reason they already know what info they have on people. They also know that they have a lot of info on some, a little info on others, and somewhere in between on everyone else. As I said, YMMV. That true with Google and FB as well. The info they have on you will be dependent on how much you use the services.

 

[flyinmac]

On initial read... all I see are more ways for criminals to access data and / or mess up our legitimate access to our data.

 

[Ritsuka]

Agreed. It could be. That doesn't negate the fact that there could be a ton of info logged. Google logs a crap ton of info on people. A.CRAP.TON. A.HUGE.CRAP.TON. Facebook does as well. If Apple is offering file size options in GB increments, it stands to reason they already know what info they have on people. They also know that they have a lot of info on some, a little info on others, and somewhere in between on everyone else. As I said, YMMV. That true with Google and FB as well. The info they have on you will be dependent on how much you use the services.

The size options is just because you can include iCloud Drive, Photos, and friends in your data download. Just check the page…

 

[Piggie]

I don't understand....

So, you can see the data on you they HOLD.

But you still don't know the data about you they have LOOKED AT.

 

[400]

Pretty much know what Apple has for me though it will be interesting.

Wonder what facebook has on me? Never had an account so will be more interesting to see for me.

 

[RamGuy]

One thing I find really strange is how you can get the data, but not use it to migrate to another account? My fiancee is changing her sure name when we get married this summer so we have to get her a new e-mail as she has her current sure name as a part of her current one. So I took a dump of her Google Account, created a new with her new e-mail address and was baffled when there is no way to import the data to the new account... So she was forced to start over fresh.

 

[zantafio]

Thank God the European Union is a much bigger market than the USA and now we all benefit from their consumers friendly laws because we all know the US Congress would have never come up with something like the GDPR, not even close.

 

[DailySlow]

Agreed. It could be. That doesn't negate the fact that there could be a ton of info logged. Google logs a crap ton of info on people. A.CRAP.TON. A.HUGE.CRAP.TON. Facebook does as well. If Apple is offering file size options in GB increments, it stands to reason they already know what info they have on people. They also know that they have a lot of info on some, a little info on others, and somewhere in between on everyone else. As I said, YMMV. That true with Google and FB as well. The info they have on you will be dependent on how much you use the services.

Yes, my FB acct. contained an inordinate number of video. As does my Photos cloud storage.

 

[DNichter]

Good. I know no company is perfect when it comes to privacy protections, not even Apple, but I am glad to see them working to make this stuff clearer and more transparent to its users. Compared to Google, who's sole purpose for existing is data mining and advertising, I feel much more comfortable with my data in the hands of Apple. Hopefully they continue on this path.

 

[Rogifan]

I've been reading some articles about the data dumps you can get recently. Just in terms of sheer volume, Apple had about 9MB of data on the person, Google had 243MB, and Facebook had 881MB. I've also seen articles from heavy Android and Chrome users where Google has over 9GB of data on them.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech...e-everything-had-me-heres-what-got/558362002/
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...l-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

The amount of stuff Google logs is incredibly creepy.

I haven’t been on Facebook in months and now it’s spamming me with SMS messages that so and so posted such and such. There is a way to turn it off buried in settings but they shouldn’t be sending them in the first place.

 

[69Mustang]

The size options is just because you can include iCloud Drive, Photos, and friends in your data download. Just check the page…

That doesn't negate the fact that there could be a ton of info logged.

 

[DailySlow]

Good. I know no company is perfect when it comes to privacy protections, not even Apple, but I am glad to see them working to make this stuff clearer and more transparent to its users. Compared to Google, who's sole purpose for existing is data mining and advertising, I feel much more comfortable with my data in the hands of Apple. Hopefully they continue on this path.

And at least Apple offers setting to...
"You have opted out from interest-based targeting in Apple News and the App Store. Information about your device's connectivity, time setting, type, language, and location..." (Privacy/Advertising)