Apple Developer Forums & Privacy

The Apple Developer Forums (“forums”) are designed to protect your information and enable you to choose what you share.

  • When you sign in to your Apple Account for the forums, certain data, such as your name, email address, usage information, internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, internet service provider (ISP), referring and exit pages, operating system, date/timestamp, and clickstream data will be sent to Apple.
  • You have the option to provide additional personal data in your forums profile.
  • You also have the option to create your own content on the site, including user-submitted questions and replies.

The forums and all Apple services are designed from the ground up to protect your privacy. We collect only the data we need to make your experience better. We believe it’s important for you to know what we’re collecting and why we need it, so you can make informed choices.

Providing Developer Forums

The forums are a place to post questions and share comments with fellow developers and Apple engineers. You can discuss a variety of development topics, from getting started to working with the latest beta software. To submit information to the forums, you must have a unique user name and password combination, known as an Apple Account. When you sign in to your Apple account for the forums, Apple will receive your user name, email address, usage information, and other information, such as your internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, ISP, referring and exit pages, operating system, date/timestamp, and your activity within the forums. The first time you sign in, you will be asked to create a user name to be displayed publicly on the forums when you post content or respond to others. You will not be able to change your display user name once created. Apple uses the above information to provide the services and features in the forums, to improve and optimize the forums for you and others, and to prevent fraud and other malicious activity.

You also have the option to provide additional personal data in your forums profile, such as a link to your App Store product page, and your city and state. You may choose whether this information is viewable by other participants.

The forums feature a reputation system to award and motivate users who participate and recognize the quality of their posted content. You can earn reputation points for sustained and positive contributions to the forums and can lose points for posting spam or content that is considered not responsive to the forum topic. Your reputation points are displayed publicly along with your forums user name and any other profile information you choose to make public.

When you use the forums, you also have the choice to receive certain communications from Apple in connection with the content you submit and threads in which you participate or watch. You can manage your communications preferences through your Developer Forums Profile. To enable or disable notifications about watched threads, tap or click the bell at the top of the thread.

Apple may use cookies and other technologies within the forums. Such cookies enable us to maintain your session and to personalize your experience on the site, help us measure the effectiveness of the site, and improve user experience. Cookies are removed if you explicitly sign out. Otherwise, the cookies persist on your browser. However, Apple Developer Forums cookies do not track any information related to your browsing activity or actions on other sites.

Retention

Apple retains personal data associated with your forums account only for so long as you have an active account. Your account and all profile data are removed upon your request that your account be deleted. If you have questions or concerns about how your personal data is used as it relates to the forums, or you would like to reach our Data Protection Officer, you can contact us at dpo@apple.com.

Applicable Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

We process your personal data in the Apple Developer Forums generally for performance of your contract with Apple, as necessary for providing the service, and to comply with our legal obligations. Where consent is the appropriate legal basis, we seek it in accordance with applicable local law.

Where applicable local law provides, we process the following categories of personal data as necessary for purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party, including information about:

  • Your account, such as your Apple Account
  • Your device, such as its device serial number and operating system
  • Your IP address
  • Your usage data, such as your interactions with the Apple Developer Forums

These legitimate interests include:

  • Providing the service and features in the forums
  • Helping to improve and optimize the service for you and others
  • Preventing fraud and other malicious activity

At all times, information collected by Apple will be treated in accordance with Apple’s Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.apple.com/privacy.