Report: Apple’s secrecy efforts partly undermined by lax work iCloud policy

Go to the 9to5Mac home page Switch site 9to5Toys 9to5Google Logo 9to5Google Electrek Drone DJ Logo DroneDJ Space Explored About Privacy Toggle social menu Toggle dark mode Search for: Submit Toggle search form Forums Store Podcasts Apple@Work Happy Hour 9to5Mac Daily Overtime iPhone iPhone Mac Mac MacBook Pro MacBook Air iMac Mac mini Mac Studio Mac Pro iPad iPad Pro iPad Air iPad mini iPad iPadOS Watch Apple Watch Apple Watch Ultra Apple Health Apple Watch SE Vision Vision Pro visionOS Music and TV Apple Music AirPods HomePod Apple TV Guides Reviews How Tos AAPL Apple Store Apple Arcade Apple Card Apple Silicon Apple One Apple Fitness+ CarPlay Siri HomeKit Toggle dark mode AAPL Company Report: Apple’s secrecy efforts partly undermined by lax work iCloud policy Marcus Mendes | Aug 3 2026 - 2:30 pm PT 1 Comment A new report from The Information details how Apple’s policy of encouraging employees to mix personal and work iCloud accounts has allowed some former staffers to retain access to confidential company files long after leaving. Here are the details.

Last month, Apple filed a trade secrets theft lawsuit against two former employees, OpenAI, and Jony Ive’s io Products.

In the complaint, Apple outlines several steps it takes to protect confidential information and trade secrets, including contractual, technical, physical, and procedural safeguards. These range from recurring confidentiality training and the signing of multiple agreements, to requirements that departing employees return company devices and complete offboarding interviews designed to ensure they no longer retain access to confidential materials.

Apple’s efforts to safeguard its secrets will likely be central to both its case and OpenAI’s defense. As The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel recently noted on The Vergecast , trade secret law (and lawsuits built around it) often hinge on whether a company can show that it took reasonable measures to keep the information in question confidential.

Which brings us to The Information ’s report, and its account of several cases where “Apple employees who left for other companies over the past decade told The Information they, too, continued to have access to confidential documents after leaving the company, even though they made no effort to do so.”

Former Apple employees say an unusual company policy that encourages them to blend professional and workplace technologies is why they unexpectedly ended up with access to confidential files after their departures.

When new employees join Apple, the company often issues them an iPhone and Mac and pays for an iCloud account with a large amount of online storage capacity. Crucially, during the onboarding process, Apple encourages new hires to use their preexisting personal Apple IDs with this iCloud account, through which their co-workers can share internal Apple documents and other files with them.

The reason behind this, The Information notes, is the fact that iPhone users “can only log into a single primary Apple ID that unlocks all iCloud capabilities at a time.” So to avoid carrying two different sets of devices, one for personal and another for work (which is not uncommon by any means), “most Apple employees opt to use their personal Apple IDs to access their iCloud accounts.”

The report explains that, since the late 2010s, Apple employees have had access to a company-managed folder within iCloud that is automatically removed when they leave.

However, many internal documents are reportedly not automatically saved there, allowing files shared outside the folder to remain mixed with employees’ personal data and accessible after their departure.

The Information also says that Apple has been accused of blurring the lines between personal and work devices as a deliberate tactic to create grounds for legal action against former employees and their new employers:

“Whether by neglect or as part of a planned effort to generate a pretextual basis to sue the employees and their new employer for ‘stealing’ Apple material, Apple lets these employees walk out the door with material they may have inadvertently ‘retained’ simply by using the Apple systems (such as iCloud or iMessage) that Apple effectively mandates they use as part of their work,” Rivos said in a counterclaim to a lawsuit that Apple had filed against the startup, accusing it of theft of trade secrets.

Finally, The Information ’s report notes that Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI contains several allegations of deliberate trade secret theft, which are very different from the circumstances in which former employees inadvertently retained access to files through iCloud. Still, the report could complicate Apple’s efforts to show that it took reasonable measures to keep its confidential information secure.

In a statement to The Information , Apple said:

This case is about OpenAI employees wrongfully taking Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products. Nothing in the filing relates to documents shared by, or stored in, iCloud.

Apple added that "it doesn’t pursue legal claims against former employees who accidentally hold on to Apple documents in their personal iCloud accounts."

To read The Information ’s full report, follow this link .

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Marcus Mendes is a Brazilian tech podcaster and journalist who has been closely following Apple since the mid-2000s.

He began covering Apple news in Brazilian media in 2012 and later broadened his focus to the wider tech industry, hosting a daily podcast for seven years.

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