Apple on today, May 23 has launched its new Data and Privacy website, from where any Apple user will be able to download a copy of each and everything the company knows about you. This privilege starts with European Union users, an effort of Apple to comply with GDPR, and will be rolled out globally in coming months.
The tech brand is further providing new easy shortcuts to update user info, temporarily deactivate the account, and permanently delete it. Users will get to have the copy of all data related to an Apple ID.
Users can request for various details from the Apple new privacy portal, like sign-in records, reminders and more. It also includes usage stats for Game Center and Apple Music, purchase history from Apple Store and iTunes Store, AppleCare support history, and marketing records.
It will need up to a week to prepare all downloads for one user. Apple will notify you when it is ready to download, and it all will be automatically deleted after 2 weeks.
Users need to log in to privacy.apple.com for the copy. Alongside users in European Union, the countries Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein have the availability of the feature presently.
Once you are logged in, you can select the ‘Get started’ link under the heading that says ‘Obtain a copy of your data.’ Then, you can either select all the given categories or the ones that you need. After your selections, press Continue.
There will be a prompt asking for your preferred maximum file size. Apple will divide the data into chunks, with one chunk of maximum 25 GB. Again, press Continue after size selection is done. The request will then be in process, and you’ll receive a mail when it’s ready to download.
All of the data are provided in standards-compatible formats. Therefore, you won’t have issues to move the entire copy to a new cloud, and relevant formats will be automatically supported. Apple will transparently show you the data that it keeps on you, which is very little.
According to new GDPR rules, internet companies will allow EU users to see all personally-identifiable data that’s being stored by them. Apple took it to one step further, planning to deploy the tools to all of its users worldwide.
