Remote monitoring of an Apple ID

Pi—edoffwife wrote:

I have my own Apple ID, my own account and yet I am being monitored like I am a child. I have all my updates completed, I use biometrics and password on everything. Is it legal for a family member to use the developer tools to monitor your account?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Please explain what unexpected or odd or troubling (iPhone or iPad or Mac) behaviors you are you encountering.

Developer tools do not allow monitoring. They allow app development, and potentially app testing and app submissions. Developer mode—when enabled—allow app developers to side-loading locally-built apps, given device physical access and device passcode.

If developer mode is somehow enabled here and you don’t know why, turn it off.

If you are unsure about the context of your iPhone, perform a factory reset. I would back up, but might not restore.

You can also review the Apple personal safety info, and potentially perform a Safety Check as described there.

Family Sharing does allow location tracking, and some sharing, including sharing of the available storage pool.

Family Sharing also allows management of purchasing and some other controls by parents or guardians of minors, with some details based on the minor’s particular ages.

Family Sharing does not share passwords, any not-explicitly-shared files or photos, or various other data.

If you have particular issues or symptoms or concerns being encountered, what are those?

As for whether any particular activity is legal, best check with legal counsel in your particular legal jurisdiction.

I wouldn’t particularly suggest a new iPhone at this juncture. Not initially.

We cannot tell you whether it is "legal" or not.

The only way a person can do this is if they have access to your phone. I suggest you get a new phone and keep it in your physical possession.

Is developer mode enabled here? If enabled on iOS 17, it’ll show up here: Settings > Privacy > Developer Mode

Do you have non-carrier-related MDM device profiles loaded? Settings > General > VPN & Device Management

You mention “again”. How long has this all been happening, and what previous advice have you received?

None of what has been posted here so far seems relevant to nor even related to developer mode. And since developer mode is not enabled, developer mode is not relevant here.

VPNs are a privacy morass, but are wonderfully positioned and organized for collecting personally-identified network metadata while providing a second and comparatively poor second wrapper around your already-end-to-end-protected network traffic, while badly solving a problem which really hasn't existed for a decade or so. Private Relay (which also provide ODoH) and the existing TLS are what I would consider a better and more private solution.

Private Browsing also isn't particularly relevant to security. "With Private Browsing, Safari won't remember the pages you visit, your search history, or your AutoFill information. Private Browsing also blocks known trackers, removes tracking used to identify individual users from URLs, and adds protections against advanced fingerprinting techniques." Pragmatically, it's not a security feature.

You also haven't indicated what issues you are encountering, past an earlier problem with passwords and an Apple ID. Getting locked out of an Apple ID account can happen when a password becomes known (re-used passwords are increasingly doom-bound), when two-factor is not in use or gets phished, or a device is lost or stolen when the passcode is also known, or such. Developer mode, not so much. You've almost certainly gotten recommendations about that from that previous experience, and will be following those with this replacement Apple ID.

As was mentioned above, please review the Apple personal safety guide, and potentially perform a Safety Check as described there—though you've probably encountered all of this before.