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Apple shares new developer tools that will help users delete, restrict, and export iCloud data

Following other news where Apple is complying with the GDPR, today the company outlines tools to help developers manage user data that is stored in iCloud.

Starting today, Apple will supply tools to developers to allow users to both export and then delete user data stored in iCloud. This will be done by new native App and Web APIs.

When a user requests a copy of the data associated with their Apple ID, it includes only the data that Apple maintains directly, such as documents in iCloud Drive. Data stored in third-party CloudKit containers are not included in any export that Apple provides. Developers should provide their own method for users to get a copy of data stored in their CloudKit containers.

Apple will also be giving developers tools to restrict data. This means that when a user temporarily disables their Apple ID, no new data can be sent to iCloud, and the user’s account will be locked.

To allow users to restrict their account in your app, use the restrict API provided by CloudKit Web Services to temporarily restrict a specific CloudKit container. If a user temporarily restricts a specific container, existing CloudKit APIs will also return errors that you’ll need to handle.

While these new tools will be primarily be targeted at Europe, it will be helpful to all users around the world, especially with the whole Facebook scandal going down right now.

Apple is launching new privacy controls in May to comply with the GDPR. Earlier this week, the company launched iOS 11.3, which has a whole host of new privacy screens to let users know what their data is used for in most first-party apps.


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