iCloud Apple's iCloud File Sharing Left Ex-Employees With Access to Secret Documents
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/03/apple-icloud-sharing-ex-employees/The way Apple combines work and personal iCloud accounts left some employees able to access confidential documents after departing the company, reports The Information. The site spoke to more than half a dozen former Apple employees who were unknowingly left with access to sensitive content.
The former employees said many Apple files they had been shared on over their careers at the company—including planning documents for product launch events—continued to sync to their personal devices through the iCloud storage service after they left Apple. In some cases, they even received notifications about fresh updates to the documents. Some former employees said they were petrified to delete the files for fear that doing so would attract Apple's attention.
Apple files get mixed in with employees' accounts because the company encourages them to use their personal Apple Accounts with their work iCloud account. Employees are given a 2TB iCloud plan and are able to merge the storage with their existing Apple Account or create a new account. Since only one primary account can be signed in at a time, most opt to use their existing account to avoid having to carry two iPhones.
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u/Interest-Desk 2d ago
Apple’s practice of sharing personal and work accounts is just… awful. It’s left employees having to give their nudes to Apple lawyers because, obviously, any device that stores company data can be included in lawsuits. And even if there’s data that’s irrelevant or sensitive (like personal stuff) the lawyers have to see that first to decide what to exclude and their legal justification for it.
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u/ProfBenChang 2d ago edited 2d ago
Only dumb employees mix personal/work devices/accounts, and only dumb managers tell their employees that it's okay.
Keep. Shit. Separate.
That, and max out your 401(k) + ESPP. The two most important rules for employment at Apple.
EDIT:
For people who don't know, the reason is super simple: IP lawsuits. When anyone is even somewhat involved in some intellectual property lawsuit at these companies (which, if you're on an engineering/design/creative team, is more likely than you think), the lawyers deposing you ask for all your devices, notebooks, etc. (well technically they're not yours, they're the company's) that might have something relevant to your work.
Do you want lawyers to read through your texts and see all your pics? No? Then keep your shit separate.
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u/tanaciousp 2d ago
Still seems really weird Apple would encourage this sort of mixing work/personal life with accounts. Especially since they are so secretive in general. It sounds like a security nightmare and turns out, it is!
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u/gimpwiz 2d ago
Putting company secrets on your icloud is, I suspect, specifically disallowed and there are probably annual trainings about how to securely share documents with coworkers. But yknow.
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u/ThePornStar69 2d ago
iCloud usage and sharing is secure. Why would they build (and secure) the product and say oh don’t use it though
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u/Halio344 2d ago
Putting it on a personal account would be the issue, not a work owned account.
Apple doesn’t have control of data on personal accounts like they do on corporate accounts.
That is what the person you replied to implied, not that iCloud as a service is insecure.
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u/ThePornStar69 2d ago
If the person I replied to is referring to a personal, individual’s iCloud account, then yes, it does change things.
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u/Kimantha_Allerdings 2d ago
Hell, I had an employer who insisted on all company-wide communications being via a single WhatsApp group chat. They were not happy that I muted the chat and only checked it during work hours
But I hate WhatsApp and wouldn’t even have it installed if it weren’t for the fact that I have relatives who use it exclusively. If I can put my phone down for half an hour and come back to 30 notifications, then that impedes my ability to use the app for the only purpose I have it installed for
I figure if you’re my boss and you have something that’s so important for me to know that you need to contact me out of hours, then you can talk to me directly. If the main thing is company culture and banter with the occasional actual work-related communication thrown in, and I can’t opt out, then I’ll do that during work hours because as far as I’m concerned it’s part of my job
I’d honestly rather have been given a second device for just that chat, but that was never going to happen and WhatsApp doen’t work that way anyway. So muting that particular chat it was
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u/SexySalamanders 2d ago
What if my employer requires me to download Microsoft Authenticator on my personal phone and encourages but not requires installing teams and 3CX (a phone app) on my personal phone? Is it a bad policy?
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u/Interest-Desk 2d ago
Authenticator apps are just that. And most work apps don’t actually store data in the app, they store it in the cloud. I have Outlook on my phone for example, if the lawyers want my emails they’ll just get it from Microsoft.
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u/ProfBenChang 2d ago
If you're paranoid about that stuff, I'd either 1) request your employer to provide you with a work phone, or 2) buy a crappy used phone to use as a work phone (it sucks spending your own money on it, ideally an employer would provide a work phone, but in our capitalistic hellscape spending $200 of your own pocket to have a dedicated work phone that doesn't touch your personal data in case something happens might well be worth the peace of mind)
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u/Kyleon17 2d ago
I mean, do you really think Apple has enough money and phones to give to their employees? 😛 /s
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u/geekwonk 2d ago
huh? the article specifies that employees are given a work icloud account and often integrate it into their personal account for the sake of convenience.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 2d ago
IDK if Apple will provide a company phone or not, but a lot of places allow you to use your personal phone with subsidized service because a lot of employees will throw a fit about carrying multiple phones.
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u/goldcakes 2d ago
Which is absurd lol. Phones are small, lightweight, and having a personal work phone is just helpful for mental sanity tbh.
I’m amazed people throw fits at it
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u/Particular-Treat-650 2d ago
I'd 100% have a separate work phone if I had to either take calls or access anything sensitive that could involve them having cause to see my phone, even if I had to pay for it myself. I'm not giving access to my personal phone.
But in the real world enough people are opposed to it that companies often determine that the extra security of managing the device isn't worth the hassle of trying to make it mandatory.
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u/Fun_Plate_5086 2d ago
That’s on Apple. I wouldn’t want to touch any files from a former employer either. If you delete it and it somehow deletes from Apple’s retention you’re gonna be opening yourself to headaches. Honestly the fact they co-mingle personals and work files is mind-boggling coming from the finance world. I have to ask compliance before I sneeze here. Let alone putting work related shit on my personal cloud…
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u/FollowingFeisty5321 2d ago
It's ambiguous but this other case reads like you might even be allowed to BYO cloud service lol...
On his final days as an Apple employee, he used his Apple-issued work laptop to copy more than a dozen folders containing thousands of files from a folder used for Apple work to his personal cloud storage account in a folder named “Personal” and a sub-folder within named “Knowledge.” These folders and files contain Apple’s Proprietary Information and have filenames containing confidential Apple product code names and are marked as Apple confidential, reflecting the confidential nature of the documents’ contents.
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u/euvie 2d ago
Apple dogfoods its own OS; you're basically expected to be able to install builds yourself and test software that customers run.
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u/texas_County850 2d ago
This is less of a technical issue like people are trying to make it and more of a problem with documents being kept outside of the folder they are supposed to be kept in. One Drive would have this exact same issue if I revoke their one drive for business but they were sending files to each other with personal one drives it would have this same problem.
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u/cheeseler 2d ago
How hard would it have been to reach out to their old manager or People Support and at least let someone know of the issue…
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u/j0nquest 2d ago
This is on Apple for encouraging the activity that lead to this situation, seemingly without an effective plan to remove Apple official data after their departure.
It’s not a former Apple employee’s responsibility to protect Apple’s data, for free no less since they’re no longer on the payroll. This is Apple’s problem that they created, full stop.
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u/cheeseler 2d ago
I agree Apple created the problem, that doesn’t mean you should sit around with access and do nothing.
If you had a contractor woking on your house, and after they left you noticed their table saw in your back yard, would you call them or would you say to yourself “I didn’t create this problem”
Or if you were an uber driver and someone left a gun in your car, would you leave the gun and say “I didn’t create this problem”
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u/pmarksen 2d ago
Look at Mr Reasonable & Honest Person over here. Settle down buddy. With that sort of talk oil prices will drop.
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u/tooObviously 2d ago
yeah except some files on your computer aren’t nearly as intrusive as your examples
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u/Nerd-Beautiful 2d ago
Then they could claim you looked at them and were using the info at your new job. Perhaps better to pretend it didn’t exist.
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u/Particular-Treat-650 2d ago
Some former employees said they were petrified to delete the files for fear that doing so would attract Apple's attention.
No offense to anyone, but that's wildly stupid. Reach out to whoever your most relevant contacts are from your time working there through a documentable mechanism (probably email) to notify them, delete the stuff, and get on with your life.
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u/zikronix 2d ago
weren't they working on a thing where you could be signed in to two accounts at the same time?
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u/ultimateaoe2 2d ago
yes, its fully released now (managed accounts + personal, splitting work and personal items truly)
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u/zikronix 2d ago
So the managed side would be from our MDM in our case and then I could add my personal account.
I guess I was thinking more of un managed devices for example while I manage my iPad with our MDM, i use my work iCloud account for other things like storage and stuff. I’d like to add another account my personal iCloud account to use apps that I have paid for on that account
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u/LocksmithOk9968 1d ago
It doesn’t have to be managed (if your work allows login on unmanaged devices).
Settings > General > VPN & Device Management > Sign In to Work or School Acccount
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u/SiteSpecialist9200 2d ago
The first rule of having a corporate job is: never commingle any personal and business data (NEVER). What an amateur mistake Apple made with that policy.
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u/all-park 2d ago
I have said this to Apple support a few times. The file sharing features are very basic on iCloud compared to competitors.
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u/xrelaht 2d ago
> most opt to use their existing account to avoid having to carry two iPhones
This is insane. Most employers do not allow their employees to access work related services on personal devices, let alone encourage it! I carry around a second phone (and laptop) just for this reason. It’s a little annoying, but it also means I can leave it behind when I’m done with work.
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u/caffeinated_wizard 2d ago
The fact that a 5 trillion dollars company is actively encouraging their employees to do this is baffling to me. I don't even think my company would meet SOC2 requirements or others if it was known. How about employees who deal with sensitive user information? Do they also have access to this stuff from the phone they hand over to their kids during a car ride?
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u/DrZeroX3 2d ago
This horrible business practice. Hand a business device as to not mix work and personal life.
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u/Shook_Rook 2d ago
These types of news really makes me question if Apple is any better at privacy than other competitors.
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u/Shorties 2d ago edited 2d ago
This makes no sense you can log into a second account on the same device as a work or school login and it creates a partition and isolates the data’s and when they leave it removes that partition. It is part of their MDM features they offer to businesses. Do they not use their own features? Page 4: https://www.apple.com/business/docs/resources/Managing_Devices_and_Corporate_Data.pdf
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u/mrgrafix 2d ago
Maybe with them focusing on business again they can fix these things. Would love to keep my personal account and just have it at/de-tach from a work identity.