I have an Apple developer account so I can access beta software for macOS and iOS. I’ve had this account for more than ten years, while living in two countries. In the UK, where I live now, I’m at my third address in six years.
It was time to renew my account, so I went to the Apple developer website to pay for the coming year, and I noticed that I hadn’t changed my address the last time I moved. I proceeded to do so, and was then told that I’d need to upload a document with proof of my address to Apple, something that was never asked before. Here’s the email I received:
I am certainly not uploading a scan of any official government-issued document to any website; I don’t trust anyone to hold on to data that sensitive. (In addition, living in the EU, there are GDPR issues that don’t seem to be addressed.) I’d be happy to upload a utility statement, but certainly not a bank statement. Apple is asking for very sensitive information here, and I find this disturbing.
But why do they even ask for this? This is the first time that they have done so. And what if the account is in the name of a company?
Another point: they only accept documents in nine languages (Brazilian Portuguese, and not Portuguese Portuguese?). What do people in other countries do? Or is it possible that they don’t ask for this document in other countries?
Finally, the upload link doesn’t even work.
I’m a bit disturbed by this. Apple is requesting very sensitive documents, giving no information about how they are being handled, whether they are compliant with GDPR rules for these documents, and not even saying why they need these documents.