Delete, Deactivate, or View Data Collected from Your Apple ID

Apple has a website where users can delete or deactivate their Apple ID if desired, as well as request a copy of any information stored on Apple's servers pertaining to their Apple ID.

This site can be found at: https://privacy.apple.com/account

View Apple ID Data

If you are looking for transparency about any data that Apple collects, the first link on the page ("Download data category guides") will provide a summary of the kinds of information that may be saved. If you would like a copy of this data, click on the "Request a copy of your data" link. When requesting a copy of your data:

• Please be patient. In my experience, it took four days for the data to be ready, and altogether the files were around 53MB in size
  • You can check the status of your request any time at the Privacy website, or wait for the email that you will receive when it is ready
• Any contact information, such as phone numbers or email addresses, that appear in reports will be redacted
• You may select some or all of the categories of information to be downloaded. Please review Apple's guide (mentioned above) to get a breakdown of these categories. An example is shown below

To understand how Apple uses the information collected, you can visit this page: https://privacy.apple.com/data/privacyinfo

Apple also strives to collect as little information as is necessary. To learn how Apple protects user privacy, you can visit this page: https://www.apple.com/privacy/

Deactivate Your Apple ID

If you do not plan on using your account for a while, and want to prevent data collection or potential unauthorized access, you can request to deactivate your account via privacy.apple.com. This is a temporary action, and your account can be reactivated upon request at a later time. You will be asked to select a reason for deactivation from a drop-down menu before you can submit the request. Please read through the warnings on the deactivation request page. In summary:

• Deactivation is not immediate. For security reasons, Apple reviews each request which may take up to 7 days
• Apple services will become inoperable. You will not be able to receive iCloud mail, iMessages, make iCloud backups, etc.
• It is very important that your sign out of your devices before requesting deactivation. Since you cannot sign out of iCloud or turn off Find my iPhone once your Apple ID is deactivated, your device can become activation locked in the event that it needs to be restored, and then you would need to request reactivation and wait until Apple Support responds to your request before you would be able to use your device
• Third party apps may also be disrupted if they are iTunes subscription-based, as subscriptions will not auto-renew
• If you decide to reactivate your Apple ID, you will need to contact Apple Support, and provide them with the access code that you will receive when your account is deactivated

A more in-depth explanation of how services are affected can be found here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208503

Delete Your Apple ID

If you never plan on using your account again, and want all information to be deleted from Apple servers, you can request to delete your account entirely at privacy.apple.com. This is a permanent action, and cannot be undone once approved.

The same warnings - such as signing out before making the request, making sure your data is backed up elsewhere, and checking for subscriptions - that apply to deactivating your account also apply to deleting your account. This also means that any iTunes Store and App Store content will be deleted (or will stop working or updating), unless it is content without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Affected content would have to be purchased/downloaded again under a different Apple ID.

More information on deleting an Apple ID can be found here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208504

Before deactivating or deleting your account, I recommend requesting a copy of your data first. You may find that the information stored there is more minimal than what you expect, and it may alleviate some concerns about privacy.