Apple News & Privacy

Apple collects your activity in News, which is not associated with your Apple ID, in order to improve and personalize Apple News. When you turn on notifications for a channel, the channel can be associated with your Apple ID. Your device serial number may be used to check eligibility for service offers.
 

Apple News, including Apple News+, is designed to protect your information and enable you to choose what you share.

Privacy Icon

  • Your reading and listening activity in News and Stocks is linked to an identifier specific to News and Stocks, and is not associated with your Apple ID or linked to other Apple services.
  • We use information about how you use Apple News to tailor features to your personal interests. This information is not associated with your Apple ID.
  • We may use information about your account, the topics and categories of stories you read, and publications you follow, subscribe to, or turn on notifications for to ensure that ads in News and Stocks are relevant to you. We may also use information about your subscriptions to personalize your ads on the App Store. You have choices with respect to this advertising, as described below.
  • We check your Apple ID for any active subscriptions that can be used in Apple News.
  • When you turn on notifications for a channel, we can associate that channel with your Apple ID.

Protecting the privacy and security of your information is a priority for everyone at Apple. We work hard to collect only the data we need to make your experience better. When we do 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. Apple News, like every Apple product and service, is designed with these principles in mind.

Providing Apple News

We understand that the stories you read and listen to are personal, so we designed the News and Stocks apps so your reading and listening activity and how you use Apple News is not associated with your Apple ID and is not linked to other Apple services. The data we collect is associated with an identifier specific to the News and Stocks apps.

Apple collects information about how you use Apple News in order to tailor features to your personal interests. For example, the Today feature provides you with a personal newsfeed that highlights the best stories for you from your favorite channels and topics. Apple is able to make these features possible by collecting information about your interactions with Apple News, including which stories you read, save, or share, and the topics and channels you follow.

Recommendations in Apple News are made based on the information stored on your device. To clear your reading and listening history, tap or click Clear in the History section of News on your iOS or iPadOS device. On Mac, go to News > Clear History and click Clear History. This will also reset the identifier used for News and Stocks. You can also reset the identifier without clearing your reading and listening history on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > News, then tapping to turn on Reset Identifier. On Mac, open News, then go to News > Clear History and click Reset Identifier.

When you turn on notifications for a channel in Apple News, we store that information to notify you about important stories and new issues from the channel. (New issue notifications are available only for Apple News+ subscribers, and only on iOS and iPadOS devices.)

When you use search in Apple News, information, including subscriptions, is sent to Apple with your search query to provide you with relevant search results and improve search. This information is not associated with your Apple ID.

If you allow Apple News to access your location, your approximate location may be used to provide locally relevant information such as local news, weather, search results, and advertising. In addition, channels and topics may be suggested to you based on your location and your activity within Apple News. This information is not associated with your Apple ID.

You can opt out of location-based functionality at any time on an iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, tapping News, then selecting Never. On Mac, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Privacy > Location Services, then deselect News.

Siri suggests stories, channels, and topics you may like based on on-device processing of information derived from the apps you use and the websites you visit with Safari. This information is not sent to Apple. You can disable this at any time on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > News > Siri & Search, and tapping to turn off Show in App. On Mac, go to System Settings > Siri & Spotlight, click Siri Suggestions & Privacy, click News, then deselect Show Siri Suggestions in App.

As a convenience for you, Apple News uses iCloud to keep aspects of your experience up to date on all of your devices. For example, Apple News will use iCloud to remember which channels and topics you follow, your reading and listening history, and your reading and listening preferences so that you can enjoy the same Apple News experience from any of your devices. Your reading and listening history is stored for up to three months. If you unfollow a channel or topic, remove a story from your Saved Stories, or delete a story from your reading history, that information will be deleted from Apple’s servers immediately. You can disable this capability at any time by turning off iCloud for Apple News. To do so on your iOS or iPadOS device, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, then tap to turn off News. On Mac, go to System Settings > [your name] > iCloud, then deselect News. If you have disabled this feature, the channels and topics you follow, your reading and listening history, and your reading and listening preferences are still backed up to iCloud if iCloud Backup is enabled.

Subscriptions

If you subscribe to Apple News+, you will be able to access subscription content from a variety of publications. Alternatively, you can access subscription content from individual publications in one of several ways.

First, Apple News will check your Apple ID to see if you have any active subscriptions from the App Store that can be used in Apple News. If so, Apple News will automatically unlock your subscription and give you access to the publication’s paid stories. Second, you can purchase a subscription to an individual publication directly in the News app, in which case you can choose to share your personal information with the publication. Third, if you’ve previously purchased a subscription directly from a publication (for example, on the publication’s website), the publisher may allow you to sign in to Apple News with your subscription account. The publication will then verify your subscription and grant you access to their subscription content in Apple News.

If you have an individual subscription to a publication that is part of Apple News+, you will be able to access paid content from that publication even if you don’t have an Apple News+ subscription.

In some countries, you can listen to audio versions of select stories and an audio briefing of the day’s top stories hosted by Apple News editors. Audio is available on iPhone, iPod touch, and CarPlay. Full audio stories are available to Apple News+ subscribers only. Non-subscribers can listen to a short preview. The audio briefing is available to subscribers and non-subscribers.

Audio versions of stories and briefings are protected with Apple’s FairPlay Streaming digital rights management (DRM) framework for access control and encryption of digital content. Apple News shares decryption keys across multiple content files, to ensure that Apple cannot derive your listening history from which keys your device requests.

Apple Podcasts

Apple News audio content is available in Apple Podcasts. If you listen to such content in Apple Podcasts, your listening activity will be subject to Apple Podcasts & Privacy at www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/apple-podcasts. For example, Apple knows the play position of the podcast episodes you listen to, in order to sync across devices.

Communicating with You

Apple may use information about your account, such as the Apple products you own and your subscriptions to Apple services, to send you communications about Apple News+ and other Apple products, services, and offers that may be of interest to you, including Apple One. Your device serial number may be used to check eligibility for service offers. If you are in a Family Sharing group, Apple may send you communications about products, services, and offers available to you through Family Sharing. If you purchase an Apple One subscription, we may send you emails and push notifications about the features of each of the services for which you have subscribed. Apple may also use information about your activity within Apple News to send you emails and push notifications about new features, content, and offers available in Apple News. You can change your email preferences and opt out of receiving these emails by going to appleid.apple.com. To update your notification preferences on your iOS or iPadOS device, go to Settings > Notifications > News. On Mac, open News and go to File > Manage Notifications & Email. Apple uses information about your interactions with our communications, including notifications, to improve our services.

Advertising

In order to deliver great content to you from leading publishers, Apple News is ad supported. If the Personalized Ads setting is on, Apple’s advertising platform may use information about your account, the topics and categories of stories you read, and publications you follow, subscribe to, or turn on notifications for to serve ads that are more relevant to you. We may also use information about your subscriptions to personalize your ads on the App Store. Turning off Personalized Ads will prevent Apple from using this information for ad targeting. It may not decrease the number of ads you receive, but the ads may be less relevant to you. On your iOS or iPadOS device, you can disable Personalized Ads by going to Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising and tapping to turn off Personalized Ads. On Mac, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising, and deselect the Personalized Ads checkbox. The stories you read and listen to in Apple News will be used only to send advertisements to you when you are in the News or Stocks apps.

Disclosure to Third Parties

We do not share any of your personal data with third parties. We are obligated to make certain non-personal data available to strategic partners that work with Apple to provide our products and services, help Apple market to customers, and sell ads on Apple’s behalf to display in Apple News. For example, Apple may use non-personal data about your use of Apple News to pay publishers and may share aggregate reports with Apple News publishers to help them understand the way users read or use their content. Some of these aggregate reports include user demographics, such as age and gender (which may be derived from information such as your name and salutation in your Apple ID account). Apple may also share information with service providers who provide services such as information processing, providing customer service, assessing your interest in our products and services, and conducting customer research or satisfaction surveys on our behalf. These companies are obligated to protect your information and may be located wherever Apple operates.

When you purchase a subscription to an individual publication within Apple News, Apple creates a Subscriber ID that is unique to you and the publisher. We use the Subscriber ID to provide reports to publishers that include information about the subscription you purchased and your country or region of residence so that publishers can understand the performance of their subscriptions. If you cancel all of your subscriptions with a particular publisher, and if you don’t resubscribe, the Subscriber ID will be reset after 180 days.

Apple News also allows you to share Apple News content with other websites or social networks. When you share Apple News content to other places like websites or social networks, that information is governed by those websites’ or social networks’ privacy policies. If you do not want this information to be shared with third parties, do not share Apple News content to third-party websites or social networks.

We may collect, use, transfer, and disclose non-personal data for any purpose. For example, we may aggregate your non-personal data with that of other Apple News users in order to improve the service.

Applicable Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

We process your personal data in Apple News generally for performance of your contract with Apple as necessary for providing the service and to comply with our legal obligations. Where consent is the appropriate legal basis, we seek it in accordance with applicable local law.

Where applicable local law provides, we process personal data as necessary for purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party in order to:

  • Display content available to you
  • Check eligibility for offers, optimize and improve the service for you and others, and send you communications about Apple News and other related Apple products, services, and offers that may be of interest to you, including Apple One

The data used includes:

  • Details about your account, subscriptions to publications and Apple services, the Apple products you own, and whether you are in a Family Sharing Group
  • The channels for which you have enabled notifications

Retention

We retain personal data in relation to Apple News only for so long as we have a business need, contractual obligation, or legal requirement. Some information, such as subscription purchase history but not your stored card details, may be retained as business records even after you close your account or unsubscribe from Apple News+. When assessing retention periods, we first carefully examine whether it is necessary to retain the personal data collected and, if retention is required, work to retain the personal data for the shortest possible period permissible under law.

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

Published Date: September 18, 2023