Hot on the heels of Apple releasing iOS 13.4 to the public, Apple has also updated the privacy policy for its first credit card, the Apple Card.
TechCrunch has the details today following the update. According to Apple, the changes are in light of the company wanting to share more anonymized data with Goldman Sachs, the bank Apple partnered with to launch the Apple Card in 2019. Sharing more data in this way will ultimately lead to more data for the banking partner, which will improve how credit is approved for customer down the road.
There will be an opt-out option for new customers. The data that is collected is aggregated and anonymized, so any personal data for the Apple Card owner should not be discoverable or identifiable. Even by Apple or Goldman Sachs.
Here are the major bullet points:
- Apple is changing the privacy policy for Apple Card with iOS to share a richer, but still anonymized set of data with Goldman Sachs in order to allow the creation of a new credit assignment model which could expand the group of users that may be able to secure credit.
- There is also a beefed up fallback method in the works that will allow users to share more personal data on an opt-in basis with Goldman Sachs if you do not at first get approved. Things like purchase history of Apple products, when you created your Apple ID and how much you spend with Apple. This has always existed and you may have seen it if the default modeling rejected your Apple Card application — but it may have a few more data points after the new modeling. It will still very clearly opt-in with a large share button as it is now.
- Apple is also finally adding detail to its internal transactions. You no longer have to wonder what that random charge labeled Apple Services is for, you’ll get detail on the Hillary Duff box set or Gambino album you purchased right in the list inside Wallet.
That last bullet point is a big change, too. There won’t be a lot of ambiguity any longer when it comes to these transaction identifiers, and that includes for Apple Services as well.
These changes will roll out over time, and the transaction data will appear at some point in the near future.