Apple accounts - privacy implications

Hi there,

I’m a new Mac user, and am finding that I need an apple account to do quite a lot of stuff. It would also be helpful to have an apple account in order to link up with subscriptions on my phone etc. However, I’m wondering what the privacy implications of this are: for instance, can websites on visits ‘see’ the apple account one is logged in with and therefore identify you? Or does this give apple meaningfully more sight of your identity than they do already? Grateful for some views more informed than my own!

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@Anon789523r congrats on new Mac purchase, welcome on brighter side of computing :slight_smile:

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Hi! No fortunately websites aren’t able to see your Apple account, it’s just for logging into Apple services and syncing all your stuff up on your Mac. The main privacy implications are that Apple would know that Mac is yours because it’s now linked to your account and any apps you install from the App Store would also be linked to your account, things like that.

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Be mindful of where your Apple iCloud server is located. There are countries that Apple bows down to in order to comply with local laws, such as China and your unencrypted stuff in the cloud is fair game to its gov’t.

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It seems that apps from any source will be linked to an Apple account Legal - Apple Account & Privacy- Apple