Apple has launched a new Data and Privacy portal, providing a method for users in the European Union to download all of the information that Apple has associated with them. The new portal appears to have been rolled out to comply with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR), although Apple reportedly plans to eventually roll the feature out to all users worldwide — users outside of the EU can still use the new portal to access shortcuts for updating their info, and temporarily deactivating or permanently deleting their Apple ID.
EU users users have the additional options of downloading all of their personal data, such as Apple ID info, App Store activity, AppleCare history, and personal iCloud data such as photos and documents.
The new portal comes on the heels of an investigative report by ZDNet last week that revealed how little data Apple has available on its users in a publicly disclosable form. ZDNet reporter Zack Whittaker made a manual request for full disclosure from Apple — a process that took a little over a week — but in response only received back the sort of data that one would reasonably expect Apple to have on file: mostly metadata and very little personal information of consequence.
Apple’s new Data & Privacy portal will presumably automate the process of gathering this information, but also allows users to download additional personal data stored in iCloud. [via 9to5Mac]
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