Apple Support Communities & Privacy
Apple Support Communities (“Communities”) is designed to protect your information and enable you to choose what you share.
- When you sign in to Communities with your Apple ID, certain data, such as your name, email address, usage information, your internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, internet service provider (ISP), referring and exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data will be sent to Apple.
- You have the option to provide additional personal data in your Communities Profile.
- You also have the option to create your own content on the site including user-submitted threads, replies and comments, and user tips.
Communities and all Apple services are designed from the ground up to protect your privacy. We work hard to collect only the data we need to make your experience better. When we collect data, 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 Communities
Communities is intended to help you use Apple products and services more effectively. Apple uses your personal data to provide the services and features in Communities. To submit information to Communities, each user must have a unique user name and password combination, known as an Apple ID. When you sign in to Communities with your Apple ID, Apple will receive your user name and email address, usage information, and other information, such as your internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type and language, internet service provider (ISP), referring and exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.
You also have the option to provide additional personal data in your Communities Profile, such as your occupation and approximate location. Although you are not required to enter this information, providing it helps Apple better serve you based on your region and service support availability.
When you use Communities, you also have the choice to receive certain communications from Apple in connection with Communities. Apple may respond to your post directly in Communities and, if the preferences you set permit it, Apple may attempt to contact you outside Communities via telephone, email, text message, or another method of communication. For example, you may receive reminder emails for posts if you have not visited Communities for a certain period of time, a reminder to respond to answers that have helped you or solved your questions, or a survey on improving the services offered at Communities. You can manage your communications preferences by going to discussions.apple.com/profile/preferences.
Communities features a Ratings & Reputations system to reward and motivate users who participate, and recognizes the quality of their posted content.
Apple may use cookies and other technologies within Communities. 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 will persist on your browser. However, Communities cookies do not track any information related to your browsing activity or actions on other sites.
Retention
We retain personal data associated with your Communities account only for so long as you have an active account. Your account and all Profile data are removed upon your requesting that your account be deleted via Apple’s Privacy Portal at privacy.apple.com. If you have questions or concerns about how your personal data is used as it relates to Communities, or you would like to reach our Data Protection Officer, you can contact us at www.apple.com/legal/privacy/contact. After you have deleted your account, any content you have submitted to Communities including posts, comments, and user tips is retained and anonymized.
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.