Apple can easily identify you with iCloud, the firm lied

While Apple assures that it is not possible for them to clearly identify iCloud users, two cybersecurity researchers have just proven them wrong. Indeed, the latter have just proven the existence of a file, called “dsId,” which contains all the information necessary to find the person behind the account.

On the iCloud site, Apple is formal: it is not possible for the company to know precisely who has an account on its platform. However, it seems that this promise is not quite kept. This is indeed what Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry, two cybersecurity researchers, prove on Twitter. According to, a simple file changes everything.

This file is “dsId,” short for Directory Services Identifier. This file is not insignificant, since it is, on the one hand, unique to all iCloud users. On the other hand, dsID contains a lot of personal information which makes it easy to trace the person who holds the account: surname, first name, date of birth, email address, etc.

Related: Hacker Steals $600,000 in Cryptocurrencies and NFTs Using iCloud Flaw

Yes, Apple can very well know who you are with iCloud

Where the shoe pinches is that Apple, as a great defender of the privacy of its users, proudly asserts the opposite. On its site, the firm admits that “iPhone Analytics may include details about hardware and operating system specifications, performance statistics, and data about how you use your devices and apps.“, but that “none of the information collected allows you to be personally identified” .

Related — Apple Spying on iCloud Users’ Emails for Child Porn Images

The thing becomes more tenuous when the user agrees to send data for analytical purposes, especially from several devices connected to the same account. In this specific case, Apple gives itself permission to “correlate certain Apple app usage data on these devices by synchronizing it using end-to-end encryption. »But still not, officially, to use his information to precisely identify a person.