Italian antitrust outfit says iCloud's terms and conditions may be illegal

Icloud Plus Settings Ipados (Image credit: Adam Oram / iMore)

What you need to know

iCloud's terms and conditions might be illegal according to an Italian antitrust regulator.
The regulator has a number of issues with the document including Apple's ability to change it at any time.

Apple's iCloud terms and conditions have been picked up as potentially being illegal by an Italian antitrust regulator, with a number of points raised relating to the content of the document.

In its most basic terms, the issue appears to be that the Italian regulator believes the terms are too favorable to Apple, giving it the power to make changes at any time, although that might not be specific to Apple.

Waiting (or hoping) for @setteBIT to start again, I’ll be the spokesman of uncomfortable news… Apple’s iCloud T&C are not in the favor of Italian antitrust, which finds them unfair and way too favorable for Apple.https://t.co/1al8izMmZh pic.twitter.com/3T7Fk5vzr2Waiting (or hoping) for @setteBIT to start again, I’ll be the spokesman of uncomfortable news… Apple’s iCloud T&C are not in the favor of Italian antitrust, which finds them unfair and way too favorable for Apple.https://t.co/1al8izMmZh pic.twitter.com/3T7Fk5vzr2— Carlo V Bevilacqua A (@carlo_vba) September 27, 2021 September 27, 2021

Another example of the issues raised by the Italians relates to iCloud storage and how secure it actually is. The regulator believes Apple's users would expect their data to be safe in iCloud, but despite Apple marketing it as a secure storage option for data, it doesn't actually explain how that is managed. The terms and conditions also paint a significantly different picture, pointing out that data can be deleted by the company when it deems it no longer needed.

Today's report comes after an investigation was carried out following complaints related to iCloud, with the Autorità Garante Della Concorrenza E Del Mercato publishing its findings as part of a larger document that also included the likes of Amazon. It isn't clear where the story will go from here, either. No text steps appear to have been outlined, for example.

There is no shortage of cloud storage options if you'd rather not use iCloud, of course. Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box are just some of the best cloud storage apps that are available in the App Store today.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.