Prioritize user privacy and data security in your app. Discuss best practices for data handling, user consent, and security measures to protect user information.

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XCode claims that tracking domains are not listed in the Privacy Manifest
Hi, Xcode Instruments shows multiple Points of Interest with the information that the framework is not listed in my Privacy Manifest. However, I have already included them in the Privacy Manifest under the privacy tracking domains. I have this problem with every tracking domain i listed in the Privacy Manifest's Privacy Tracking Domains. Did I make a mistake in my Privacy Manifest declaration?
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128
May ’25
Privacy Resources
General: Forums topic: Privacy & Security Forums tag: Privacy Developer > Security — This also covers privacy topics. App privacy details on the App Store UIKit > Protecting the User’s Privacy documentation Bundle Resources > Privacy manifest files documentation TN3181 Debugging an invalid privacy manifest technote TN3182 Adding privacy tracking keys to your privacy manifest technote TN3183 Adding required reason API entries to your privacy manifest technote TN3184 Adding data collection details to your privacy manifest technote TN3179 Understanding local network privacy technote Handling ITMS-91061: Missing privacy manifest forums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
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166
Jul ’25
Developing Platform SSO extension
Hi, I am developing a Platform SSO in order to have integrated with our IdP, which I am also adapting to provide the right endpoints for Platform SSO. I have a few questions about the implementation: does the client-request-id need to be present on all requests? Is it unique per request, or requests that are bound together like those requesting a nonce and those who will use that nonce should use the same client-request-id? I am not sure how the loginManager.presentRegistrationViewController works. I'd like to get the user to authenticate to my IdP before device registration. So I am not sure if I should provide my own Webview or something similar or if this method should do something for me; My idea is to request user authentication once, save the state when performing device registration, so that I avoid asking for user authentication twice when performing user registration. Is this the right way to do it? How does platform SSO handles tokens? If one application of my IdP requests the authentication on a common OIDC/OAuth2 flow, should I perform some sort of token exchange? How about SAML? Platform SSO seems to be token-centric, but how does one handle SAML flows? Is it by using WebView as well?
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79
Nov ’25
App Sandbox Resources
General: Forums subtopic: Privacy & Security > General Forums tag: App Sandbox App Sandbox documentation App Sandbox Design Guide documentation — This is no longer available from Apple. There’s still some info in there that isn’t covered by the current docs but, with the latest updates, it’s pretty minimal (r. 110052019). Still, if you’re curious, you can consult an old copy [1]. App Sandbox Temporary Exception Entitlements archived documentation — To better understand the role of temporary exception entitlements, see this post. Embedding a command-line tool in a sandboxed app documentation Discovering and diagnosing App Sandbox violations (replaces the Viewing Sandbox Violation Reports forums post) Resolving App Sandbox Inheritance Problems forums post The Case for Sandboxing a Directly Distributed App forums post Implementing Script Attachment in a Sandboxed App forums post Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" [1] For example, this one archived by the Wayback Machine.
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2.8k
Jul ’25
Is “webcredentials” required for HTTPS callbacks in ASWebAuthenticationSession?
Hello, When using ASWebAuthenticationSession with an HTTPS callback URL (Universal Link), I receive the following error: Authorization error: The operation couldn't be completed. Application with identifier jp.xxxx.yyyy.dev is not associated with domain xxxx-example.go.link. Using HTTPS callbacks requires Associated Domains using the webcredentials service type for xxxx-example.go.link. I checked Apple’s official documentation but couldn’t find any clear statement that webcredentials is required when using HTTPS callbacks in ASWebAuthenticationSession. What I’d like to confirm: Is webcredentials officially required when using HTTPS as a callback URL with ASWebAuthenticationSession? If so, is there any official documentation or technical note that states this requirement? Environment iOS 18.6.2 Xcode 16.4 Any clarification or official references would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Nov ’25
Sign in with Apple Keychain savedEmail Stored Incorrectly
Using personal physical iPhone for simulations. Can't get Keychain to read or store AppleID name/email. I want to avoid hard reseting physical phone. Logs confirm Keychain is working, but userIdentifier and savedEmail are not being stored correctly. 🔄 Initializing UserManager... ✅ Saved testKeychain to Keychain: Test Value ✅ Retrieved testKeychain from Keychain: Test Value 🔍 Keychain Test - Retrieved Value: Test Value ⚠️ Keychain Retrieve Warning: No stored value found for userIdentifier ⚠️ Keychain Retrieve Warning: No stored value found for savedEmail 🔍 Debug - Retrieved from Keychain: userIdentifier=nil, savedEmail=nil ⚠️ No stored userIdentifier in Keychain. User needs to sign in. 📦 Converting User to CKRecord: Unknown, No Email ✅ User saved locally: Unknown, No Email ✅ User saved to CloudKit: Unknown, No Email Below UserManager.swift if someone can help troubleshoot. Or step by step tutorial to configure a project and build a User Login & User Account creation for Apple Only app. import Foundation import CloudKit import AuthenticationServices import SwiftData @MainActor class UserManager: ObservableObject { @Published var user: User? @Published var isLoggedIn = false @Published var errorMessage: String? private let database = CKContainer.default().publicCloudDatabase init() { print("🔄 Initializing UserManager...") // 🔍 Keychain Debug Test let testKey = "testKeychain" KeychainHelper.shared.save("Test Value", forKey: testKey) let retrievedValue = KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: testKey) print("🔍 Keychain Test - Retrieved Value: \(retrievedValue ?? "nil")") fetchUser() // Continue normal initialization } // ✅ Sign in & Save User func handleSignIn(_ authResults: ASAuthorization) { guard let appleIDCredential = authResults.credential as? ASAuthorizationAppleIDCredential else { errorMessage = "Error retrieving Apple credentials" print("❌ ASAuthorization Error: Invalid credentials received") return } let userIdentifier = appleIDCredential.user let fullName = appleIDCredential.fullName?.givenName ?? retrieveSavedName() var email = appleIDCredential.email ?? retrieveSavedEmail() print("🔍 Apple Sign-In Data: userIdentifier=\(userIdentifier), fullName=\(fullName), email=\(email)") // 🔄 If Apple doesn't return an email, check if it exists in Keychain if appleIDCredential.email == nil { print("⚠️ Apple Sign-In didn't return an email. Retrieving saved email from Keychain.") } // ✅ Store userIdentifier & email in Keychain KeychainHelper.shared.save(userIdentifier, forKey: "userIdentifier") KeychainHelper.shared.save(email, forKey: "savedEmail") let newUser = User(fullName: fullName, email: email, userIdentifier: userIdentifier) saveUserToCloudKit(newUser) } func saveUserToCloudKit(_ user: User) { let record = user.toRecord() Task { do { try await database.save(record) DispatchQueue.main.async { self.user = user self.isLoggedIn = true self.saveUserLocally(user) print("✅ User saved to CloudKit: \(user.fullName), \(user.email)") } } catch { DispatchQueue.main.async { self.errorMessage = "Error saving user: \(error.localizedDescription)" print("❌ CloudKit Save Error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } // ✅ Fetch User from CloudKit func fetchUser() { let userIdentifier = KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: "userIdentifier") let savedEmail = KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: "savedEmail") print("🔍 Debug - Retrieved from Keychain: userIdentifier=\(userIdentifier ?? "nil"), savedEmail=\(savedEmail ?? "nil")") guard let userIdentifier = userIdentifier else { print("⚠️ No stored userIdentifier in Keychain. User needs to sign in.") return } let predicate = NSPredicate(format: "userIdentifier == %@", userIdentifier) let query = CKQuery(recordType: "User", predicate: predicate) Task { [weak self] in guard let self = self else { return } do { let results = try await self.database.records(matching: query, resultsLimit: 1).matchResults if let (_, result) = results.first { switch result { case .success(let record): DispatchQueue.main.async { let fetchedUser = User(record: record) self.user = User( fullName: fetchedUser.fullName, email: savedEmail ?? fetchedUser.email, userIdentifier: userIdentifier ) self.isLoggedIn = true self.saveUserLocally(self.user!) print("✅ User loaded from CloudKit: \(fetchedUser.fullName), \(fetchedUser.email)") } case .failure(let error): DispatchQueue.main.async { print("❌ Error fetching user from CloudKit: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } catch { DispatchQueue.main.async { print("❌ CloudKit fetch error: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } } } // ✅ Save User Locally private func saveUserLocally(_ user: User) { if let encoded = try? JSONEncoder().encode(user) { UserDefaults.standard.set(encoded, forKey: "savedUser") UserDefaults.standard.set(user.fullName, forKey: "savedFullName") UserDefaults.standard.set(user.email, forKey: "savedEmail") print("✅ User saved locally: \(user.fullName), \(user.email)") } else { print("❌ Local Save Error: Failed to encode user data") } } // ✅ Retrieve Previously Saved Name private func retrieveSavedName() -> String { return UserDefaults.standard.string(forKey: "savedFullName") ?? "Unknown" } // ✅ Retrieve Previously Saved Email private func retrieveSavedEmail() -> String { return KeychainHelper.shared.retrieve(forKey: "savedEmail") ?? UserDefaults.standard.string(forKey: "savedEmail") ?? "No Email" } // ✅ Sign Out func signOut() { isLoggedIn = false user = nil UserDefaults.standard.removeObject(forKey: "savedUser") print("🚪 Signed Out") } }
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298
Mar ’25
App Attest – DCAppAttestService.isSupported == false on some devices (~0.23%)
Hi Apple team, For our iPhone app (App Store build), a small subset of devices report DCAppAttestService.isSupported == false, preventing App Attest from being enabled. Approx. impact: 0.23% (352/153,791) iOS observed: Broadly 15.x–18.7 (also saw a few anomalous entries ios/26.0, likely client logging noise) Device models: Multiple generations (iPhone8–iPhone17); a few iPad7 entries present although the app targets iPhone Questions In iPhone main app context, what conditions can make isSupported return false on iOS 14+? Are there known device/iOS cases where temporary false can occur (SEP/TrustChain related)? Any recommended remediation (e.g., DFU restore)? Could you share logging guidance (Console.app subsystem/keywords) to investigate such cases? What fallback policy do you recommend when isSupported == false (e.g., SE-backed signature + DeviceCheck + risk rules), and any limitations? We can provide sysdiagnose/Console logs and more case details upon request. Thank you, —
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202
Oct ’25
I'm trying to use a keychain-access-group and failing
This is on macOS, not iOS. Not sure if that should make a difference? I have a GUI app and a command line tool (that will run a daemon) that I need to share credentials between. The keys/certs will be stored using the GUI app. But, both tools need to utilize them. guard let accessControl = SecAccessControlCreateWithFlags( nil, kSecAttrAccessibleWhenPasscodeSetThisDeviceOnly, [.privateKeyUsage], nil ) else { throw KeychainCertError.keychainError(errSecAuthFailed, "Failed to create access control for private key") } // Define Key Pair Attributes let privateKeyAttributes: [String: Any] = [ kSecAttrIsPermanent as String: true, kSecAttrApplicationTag as String: privateLabel.data(using: .utf8)!, kSecAttrLabel as String: privateLabel, // kSecAttrAccessControl as String: accessControl, kSecAttrAccessGroup as String: keychainAccessGroup ] With the kSecAttrAccessControl commented out, I am able to generate a private key and generate a self signed certificate that is stored on the user login keychain. If I uncomment that line, I get an error to the affect of "Keychain error (-26275): Failed to generate key pair: A required entitlement isn't present" Also, to share the credentials, don't they need to be NOT on the user keychain for the daemon to access them? Any ideas what I am doing wrong? I think I'm a bit over my head here with the the security, crypto kit and openssl. 😁
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499
Mar ’25
DCError 2 "Failed to fetch App UUID" - App Attest not working in production or development
Hey everyone, I'm hitting a really frustrating issue with App Attest. My app was working perfectly with DCAppAttestService on October 12th, but starting October 13th it started failing with DCError Code 2 "Failed to fetch App UUID" at DCAppAttestController.m:153. The weird part is I didn't change any code - same implementation, same device, same everything. I've tried switching between development and production entitlement modes, re-registered my device in the Developer Portal, created fresh provisioning profiles with App Attest capability, and verified that my App ID has App Attest enabled. DCAppAttestService.isSupported returns true, so the device supports it. Has anyone else run into this? This is blocking my production launch and I'm not sure if it's something on my end or an Apple infrastructure issue.
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356
Oct ’25
Passkey returns unknown error instead of excludedCredentials error when “Saving on another device” option is used.
Hello, I'm receiving an unknown error instead of the excluded credentials error when using the "Save on another device" option for Passkey creation. When creating the ASAuthorizationPlatformPublicKeyCredentialProvider request to pass to the ASAuthorizationController. The excludedCredentials property is used to add a list of credentials to exclude in the registration process. This is to prevent duplicate passkeys from being created if one already exists for the user. When trying to create a duplicate passkey using the same device, the ASAuthorizationControllerDelegate method authorizationController(controller, didCompleteWithError:) is called. The error received has localized description “At least one credential matches an entry of the excludeCredentials list in the platform attached authenticator." When trying to create a duplicate passkey using the “Save on another device” option. The delegate method is called, but the error received has code 1000 ("com.apple.AuthenticationServices.AuthorizationError" - code: 1000). Which maps to the unknown error case in ASAuthorization error type.
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227
May ’25
How to use App Attest Environment?
Hi, I'm looking at adding App Attest to an app, and I think I understand the mechanics of the attestation process, but I'm having trouble figuring out how development and testing are supposed to work. Two main questions: The "App Attest Environment" -- the documentation says that attestation requests made in the .development sandbox environment don't affect the app's risk metrics, but I'm not sure how to actually use this sandbox. My understanding is that one of the things App Attest does is to ensure that your app has been appropriately signed by the App Store, so it knows that it hasn't been tampered with. But the docs say that App Store builds (and Test Flight and Developer Enterprise Program) always use the .production environment. Does App Attest actually work for local developer-build apps if you have this entitlement set? Presumably only on hardware devices since it requires the Secure Enclave? Does our headend have to do something different when verifying the public key and subsequent attested requests for an app that's using the .development sandbox? The docs do mention that a headend server should potentially track two keys per device/user pair so that it can have a production and development key. How does the headend know if a key is from the sandbox environment? Thanks!
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147
Jun ’25
ASCredentialProviderExtensionContext completeRequestWithTextToInsert:completionHandler: sometimes fails to return text
completeRequestWithTextToInsert is used to return text into an arbitrary textfield via the context menu AutoFill/Passwords from a 3rd party password manager (or presumably the Passwords App) in iOS 18. While testing this feature in the debugger, it would often fail on the first invocation. It also appears to happen intermittently in the released app extension. Subsequent testing using the Passwords App shows it too may fail to return a value. I have confirmed this behaviour is repeatable with the Passwords App on an iPhone running iOS 18.3.1 Reboot the iPhone. Show the App Library, and right click Autofill. Select Passwords Select Passwords (App) Select a password. Nothing will be inserted (intermittently). Feedback assistant report: FB16788563
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374
Mar ’25
How to distinguish the "no credential found" scenario from ASAuthorizationError
Hello everyone, I'm developing a FIDO2 service using the AuthenticationServices framework. I've run into an issue when a user manually deletes a passkey from their password manager. When this happens, the ASAuthorizationError I get doesn't clearly indicate that the passkey is missing. The error code is 1001, and the localizedDescription is "The operation couldn't be completed. No credentials available for login." The userInfo also contains "NSLocalizedFailureReason": "No credentials available for login." My concern is that these localized strings will change depending on the user's device language, making it unreliable for me to programmatically check for a "no credentials" scenario. Is there a more precise way to determine that the user has no passkey, without relying on localized string values? Thank you for your help.
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357
Sep ’25
Can I still use the private email address if I disable Sign in with Apple?
We currently have an app that uses Sign in with Apple (SIWA), and we are planning to discontinue the SIWA feature. Specifically, we intend to disable SIWA from the app's Capabilities in the Apple Developer Center. My question is, if we disable SIWA, can we continue to use the private email addresses of users who registered using SIWA? Or will disabling SIWA also invalidate the users' private email addresses? We are considering asking users to change to a different, valid email address in our app. However, if the private email addresses are invalidated, we will not be able to disable SIWA until all users have completed the email address change. If anyone has knowledge about these behaviors, please let us know.
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227
Mar ’25
Detecting iOS screen sharing
Hello, Is there any way to detect if the iOS screen is currently being shared via FaceTime or iPhone Mirroring? Our application relies on this information to help ensure that users are not accessing it from one location while physically being in another.
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209
Jul ’25
SmartCard Pairing with PIN for user and prompted for a Password authentication for keychain access app
During SmartCard pairing the PIN prompt enables the OK button only on user provides a PIN of 6 digits. Is there a way to submit the empty PIN in this flow, where the custom CTK is used here (the custom CTK would take care of the PIN from the custom ctk code). I was able to do an empty PIN submit once the I've paired the user successfully at login, unlock and other cli tools. Is there a way to do the same during the pairing? Once the user has successfully paired with the SmartCard authentication with PIN, I was able to see most of the authentication flows was prompting for the PIN authentication like login, unlock, CLI tools like ssh, su etc., perhaps at few apps where it is still prompted with the Password instead of PIN examples, when I tried to launch Keychain Access app or Add a user from users&groups system setting. Is this expected behaviour?
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374
Feb ’25
The Case for Sandboxing a Directly Distributed App
I’ve explained this point many times on the forums, so I figured I’d write it up properly once and for all. If you have questions or comments, start a new thread in Privacy & Security > General and add the App Sandbox tag. That way I’ll be sure to see it. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" The Case for Sandboxing a Directly Distributed App Many folks consider the App Sandbox to be a binary choice: “My app ships in the Mac App Store, so I must sandbox it.” “I directly distribute my app, so I’ll ignore the App Sandbox.” However, those are not your only options. In many cases it makes sense to sandbox a directly distributed app. Sandboxing your app has at least three benefits: It enables app container protection. See Trusted Execution Resources for a link to more info on that. If your app includes any app extensions, it simplifies your development experience because your app and its extensions run in a similar environment. It improves your app’s security (although the actual benefits vary based on the specifics of your app). Sandboxing some apps can be tricky because of the additional security limits applied by the sandbox. However, in a directly distributed app you have access to two techniques that are not available to Mac App Store apps: Temporary exception entitlements Non-sandboxed XPC services Temporary exception entitlements Use temporary exception entitlements to selectively disable specific sandbox security limits. Imagine, for example, that you’re creating a simple document-based app that’s generally compatible with the sandbox. However, that app needs to send an Apple event to Music to create a playlist. That Apple event is blocked by the sandbox. You don’t need to disable the entire App Sandbox just to get around this security limit. Instead, use the com.apple.security.temporary-exception.apple-events entitlement to open a small hole in the sandbox. There are temporary exception entitlements to disable most sandbox security limits. For more information about them, follow the link in App Sandbox Resources. IMPORTANT Don’t be alarmed by the temporary in temporary exception entitlements. That word makes sense when you view this from the Mac App Store perspective. Back in the early days of the Mac App Store, some apps were allowed to use temporary exception entitlements because of limitations in the App Sandbox. Once App Sandbox was sufficiently enhanced, these temporary exception entitlements were no longer allowed in the Mac App Store. However, there’s nothing temporary about the implementation of these entitlements. They work today and are expected to continue working in the future. Using them in a directly distributed app is not a problem. Non-sandboxed XPC services Not all sandbox security limits have a corresponding temporary exception entitlement. For example, the sandbox prevents you from sending a Unix signal to other processes, and there’s no temporary exception entitlement to allow that. If you run into such a limit, move that code to a non-sandboxed XPC service, then have the main app request that the XPC service perform the operation on its behalf. An XPC service can be useful even when there is a temporary exception entitlement to disable a specific sandbox security limit. Continuing the Apple event example from above, if you put the code that sends the Apple event into an XPC service, you only need to apply the temporary exception entitlement to that service, not to your app as a whole. Conclusion If you directly distribute your app, consider enabling the App Sandbox. It has some important benefits, and it might be more feasible than you think.
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450
Mar ’25
User privacy in report data
Hello, I have now been looking for a while of a way to get the number of MAU of my appstore app through the apple connect API. I ended up thinking i might actually be able to compute it with https://developer.apple.com/documentation/analytics-reports/app-sessions this App Sessions report. My question is thus the following : Does the Sessions number actually gives me the number of all sessions, or only those from opt-in users ? It says that it is based on users who have agreed to share their data with Apple and developers, so I was wondering whether or not through the use of the methods described on this page https://developer.apple.com/documentation/analytics-reports/privacy, it meant that the data was anonymized/encoded such that it would be close to the actual Sessions number, or if it meant it only counted opt-in users to compute the Sessions numer. Thank you for your time, I hope I made myself as clear as possible. Ask me if you want more precisions or if you don't understand my question.
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393
Jan ’25
How to request permission for System Audio Recording Only?
Hi community, I'm wondering how can I request the permission of "System Audio Recording Only" under the Privacy & Security -> Screen & System Audio Recording via swift? Did a bunch of search but didn't find good documentation on it. Tried another approach here https://github.com/insidegui/AudioCap/blob/main/AudioCap/ProcessTap/AudioRecordingPermission.swift which doesn't work very reliably.
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725
May ’25