The Information on Apple’s Unusual Use of iCloud for Confidential Work

Aaron “ Homeboy ” Tilley, reporting for The Information (paywalled without gift links, alas, but MacRumors has a summary ): When new employees join Apple, the company often issues them an iPhone and Mac and pays for an iCloud account with a large amount of online storage capacity. Crucially, during the onboarding process, Apple encourages new hires to use their preexisting personal Apple IDs with this iCloud account, through which their co-workers can share internal Apple documents and other files with them. There’s a practical reason for Apple’s policy. Users of iPhones can only log into a single primary Apple ID that unlocks all iCloud capabilities at a time. Apple employees who want to maintain separate work and personal Apple IDs need to carry two iPhones with them. As a result, most Apple employees opt to use their personal Apple IDs to access their iCloud accounts, former employees said. When employees leave Apple, the company revokes access to a dedicated iCloud directory for Apple work files, as well as an authentication system for logging into other internal services, such as Slack. But former employees say the company doesn’t do a thorough job during the offboarding process of looking for confidential files that have slipped through the cracks. Because those former employees typically continue to use their personal Apple IDs with their iCloud accounts, any Apple documents stored outside workplace directories remain available to them. If you use your personal Apple ID, you get a magic “Apple Work” folder in iCloud Drive.

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