It’s the hottest topic right now. What data do tech companies store about its users and their activities. With GDPR compliance deadline looming large over tech companies, there’s a concerted effort to make users aware of the various data download, export and deletion settings.
Apple too had announced that it will soon allow users to download, tweak or delete the data stored by the company, aside from updating the home page for managing one’s Apple ID. It appears that the changes promised by Apple are now live, which means users can now download the complete details of everything Apple has about them. This includes records of app and music downloads, among others details.
Aside from basic identity information, Apple maintains a database of every apps, song, album, book, magazine or video you have purchased from the App Store, iTunes, iBooks and other official storefronts. This includes log of every app update as well. Moreover, the company has a log of every Apple device or accessory or hardware purchase made by you, which is linked to your account. Non-official purchases may not be recorded. Apple also shows you a detailed report of every hardware repair, down to the serial number of replacement parts, as well your customer support queries.
However, Apple does not store communication data of users, such as messages exchanged over iMessage or FaceTime, as they are end-to-end encrypted, and cannot be accessed by anyone except the sender and receiver – even Apple can’t read them. “Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form”, says Apple.
If you want to download a copy of all the data that Apple has on you, just follow these steps:
- Go to Apple’s Privacy Policy page
- Scroll down to the ‘Access to Personal Information’ section and click on the ‘Privacy Contact Form’ link.
- Select the region and language
- On the next page titled privacy questions, select on ‘Privacy issues’ in the drop-down menu beside the ‘I have a question about’ text. Once you do that, you’ll be required to fill a form and submit the request.
After submission of the form, Apple will process your request and its support team will contact you for some personal information to confirm your identity. Once the data download request has been accepted, Apple will send an email containing the password to open the zip file that contains all your personal information Apple has stored. You can read Apple’s privacy policies and the company’s data collection practices in detail on this page.
