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When I look at the imessage conversation, one thing strikes me: that guy looks to be using the same icloud account he used when working for Apple with OpenAI. I

When I look at the imessage conversation, one thing strikes me: that guy looks to be using the same icloud account he used when working for Apple with OpenAI. Is he using his own personal account? Why do both Apple and OpenAI allow that in the first place, this look so amateur. I would have assumed each company would have opened a different account for him and locked him when leaving. Is it standard practice at both Apple and OpenAI for employees to use their personal icloud account for work?

h05sz487b 2mo ago
On the phone with some App Store support person I was told they don't like people having multiple Apple IDs. That's why I use my personal one for work as well.
wodenokoto 2mo ago
I have never worked at a place where they gave us corporate Apple accounts. We’ve always been asked to use our personal Apple account to install apps used for work.
- pjmlp 2mo ago
  Whereas I never worked in places where IT would not see that as a security violation.
  - prmoustache 2mo ago
    Same here
  - simondotau 2mo ago
    Correct, because other companies are not in a position to certify the security of iCloud meeting their own standards. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Apple trusts Apple more than other people trust Apple.
- happymellon 2mo ago
  Which is the point I've created a work Apple id unless they specifically set it up to prevent it. Which has happened. Bonkers configuration.
- itsmartapuntocm 2mo ago
  I've always created a new Apple ID with my work email for every place I've been that's issued an iPhone. No chance in hell I'm signing on to a corporate managed device with my personal Apple ID.
jzl 2mo ago
I've heard multiple times directly from Apple employees that there is no way to login to iCloud on your work machine using a company-controlled account. Many people create new Apple ID's which they only use while working there, but others just use their personal iCloud accounts. You are, of course, not supposed to store company data in iCloud. But thanks to Apple's own efforts, it's difficult to use a Mac without being logged into iCloud (for example if you want to use the App store), and some data can easily spill into the iCloud account. If accurate, it is of course patently absurd that Apple has left this an unsolved problem.
- prmoustache 2mo ago
  Yes this seems incoherent and incompatible for a company that supposedly care about their trade secrets.
  - tonyedgecombe 2mo ago
    This legal action will make anybody think twice before walking out of Cupertino with a stash of secrets.
  - tmp10423288442 2mo ago
    Which is what OpenAI will argue - that Apple is negligent in protecting their trade secrets. Trade secrets are not protected in the USA if the company doesn't take reasonable effort in protecting them. I would feel quite confident as a lawyer arguing against a company that intentionally has their employees use personal accounts on their corporate devices, long after using separate work accounts and devices has become SOP for large companies with serious security concerns (almost certainly including OpenAI itself). This is better explained in The Information article (which is paywalled): https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-icloud-policy-fueled-employee-leaks-ahead-openai-suit https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-icloud-policy-.... Emphasis mine: > When new employees join Apple, the company often issues them an iPhone and Mac and pays for an iCloud account with a large amount of online storage capacity. Crucially, during the onboarding process, Apple encourages new hires to use their preexisting personal Apple IDs with this iCloud account, through which their co-workers can share internal Apple documents and other files with them.
klausa 2mo ago
>Is it standard practice at both Apple and OpenAI for employees to use their personal icloud account for work? Yes.
plodman 2mo ago
Somewhat relevant from yesterday. https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/03/apple-icloud-sharing-ex-employees/ https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/03/apple-icloud-sharing-ex...
dannyw 2mo ago
Apparently Apple encourages their employees to use their personal iCloud accounts for company information, because their own OS doesn't support one iPhone, multiple iCloud identities. Source: https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/08/03/confidential-apple-files-followed-former-employees-to-openai-through-icloud https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/08/03/confidential-appl... So yeah.
- zombot 2mo ago
  So iOS is essentially unprofessional. A toy for those who have either no job or no private life. How does Android score in that respect?
  - frollogaston 2mo ago
    Well, aint no way I'm working with a realtor over green bubbles, and they probably have two phones.
  - stndef 2mo ago
    It's been a while, but at a previous job (maybe 8 years ago) I was responsible for managing mobile devices and using Blackberry's MDM suite, you could have segregation of personal and private data, where you couldn't move data from one "container" to the other, including clipboard data. I'm out of the loop now, though. Android did have better support at the time, but if I remember correctly, devices that had a work managed profile on them could still be completely wiped, including the personal/private container. A bit of a pain, but I've always preferred (where possible) to have separate work and personal devices.
    - frollogaston 2mo ago
      Yeah, I had an Android phone at work with separate personal/work profiles, but using the phone to begin with required one main account that had to be my personal. Might've been possible to remove after, but I was afraid to mess with it. Wouldn't want one phone to be both personal and work though. They owned it, idk if I could've put my own sim in without unforeseen issues, it could've been wiped like you said, and it ofc got wiped when I quit.
swiftcoder 2mo ago
> Is it standard practice at both Apple and OpenAI for employees to use their personal icloud account for work? This doesn't seem out of line with common practices at other big tech firms. If you go work at Meta, your personal Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp/Oculus accounts become intrinsically linked to your work login identity (though a few employees created a secondary account on of all those to prevent this). Although there are better controls than there used to be, it's not all that uncommon for sensitive work data to leak through this linkage into the public products...
- Barbing 2mo ago
  Did employees get official approval to create secondary accounts? - Someone went on Reddit to ask if they really had to use their personal Facebook account to manage the company page as they said their boss pushed back against the idea, saying, “Do you think when Disney manages their Facebook page that Disney marketing execs have to use their personal Facebook accounts?” And it seemed like the answer may well have been yes. There must be some value to Zuckerberg in tying it all together.
  - swiftcoder 2mo ago
    > Did employees get official approval to create secondary accounts? Yeah, at orientation they told us it was an option. I don't recall more than a couple of people taking advantage - if you go to work for Meta you've probably made your peace with it already. > “Do you think when Disney manages their Facebook page that Disney marketing execs have to use their personal Facebook accounts?” There are various business portal things that separate a business page from just one user owning them, but you still login to a business page you manage via your personal account, regardless of size of business
frollogaston 2mo ago
Google allowed iMessage until a few years ago, when they banned all non-work messaging apps for exfiltration reasons. But you can still sign into a personal iCloud, which iirc you need to do for certain Mac App Store apps that are corp-approved.
aenis 2mo ago
This is what gets people subpoena'd and their entirely private messages scrutinised. Happened to a lot of people, including a friend of mine who's affair became a matter of public record after his company was investigated for anti-trust issues. Super unprofessional and legally dangerous. I keep two phones, one for work, another for private life, and also two laptops for the same reason. The support for multi-identity is very inconvenient on apple[1], and very poor with whatsapp, signal and, really, most apps except for Google's. Shame, really, considering how well funded Apple and Meta are, and how little effort would be needed to implement the 80% of what people need: the ability to chat using different identities, without touching the rest of the OS wiring. [1] on macos, its possible to create users with multiple apple id associations, but not on iphone

h05sz487b 2mo ago

On the phone with some App Store support person I was told they don't like people having multiple Apple IDs. That's why I use my personal one for work as well.

wodenokoto 2mo ago

I have never worked at a place where they gave us corporate Apple accounts. We’ve always been asked to use our personal Apple account to install apps used for work.

pjmlp 2mo ago
Whereas I never worked in places where IT would not see that as a security violation.
- prmoustache 2mo ago
  Same here
- simondotau 2mo ago
  Correct, because other companies are not in a position to certify the security of iCloud meeting their own standards. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Apple trusts Apple more than other people trust Apple.
happymellon 2mo ago
Which is the point I've created a work Apple id unless they specifically set it up to prevent it. Which has happened. Bonkers configuration.
itsmartapuntocm 2mo ago
I've always created a new Apple ID with my work email for every place I've been that's issued an iPhone. No chance in hell I'm signing on to a corporate managed device with my personal Apple ID.

jzl 2mo ago

I've heard multiple times directly from Apple employees that there is no way to login to iCloud on your work machine using a company-controlled account. Many people create new Apple ID's which they only use while working there, but others just use their personal iCloud accounts. You are, of course, not supposed to store company data in iCloud. But thanks to Apple's own efforts, it's difficult to use a Mac without being logged into iCloud (for example if you want to use the App store), and some data can easily spill into the iCloud account. If accurate, it is of course patently absurd that Apple has left this an unsolved problem.

prmoustache 2mo ago
Yes this seems incoherent and incompatible for a company that supposedly care about their trade secrets.
- tonyedgecombe 2mo ago
  This legal action will make anybody think twice before walking out of Cupertino with a stash of secrets.
- tmp10423288442 2mo ago
  Which is what OpenAI will argue - that Apple is negligent in protecting their trade secrets. Trade secrets are not protected in the USA if the company doesn't take reasonable effort in protecting them. I would feel quite confident as a lawyer arguing against a company that intentionally has their employees use personal accounts on their corporate devices, long after using separate work accounts and devices has become SOP for large companies with serious security concerns (almost certainly including OpenAI itself). This is better explained in The Information article (which is paywalled): https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-icloud-policy-fueled-employee-leaks-ahead-openai-suit https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-icloud-policy-.... Emphasis mine: > When new employees join Apple, the company often issues them an iPhone and Mac and pays for an iCloud account with a large amount of online storage capacity. Crucially, during the onboarding process, Apple encourages new hires to use their preexisting personal Apple IDs with this iCloud account, through which their co-workers can share internal Apple documents and other files with them.

klausa 2mo ago

>Is it standard practice at both Apple and OpenAI for employees to use their personal icloud account for work? Yes.

plodman 2mo ago

Somewhat relevant from yesterday. https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/03/apple-icloud-sharing-ex-employees/ https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/03/apple-icloud-sharing-ex...

dannyw 2mo ago

Apparently Apple encourages their employees to use their personal iCloud accounts for company information, because their own OS doesn't support one iPhone, multiple iCloud identities. Source: https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/08/03/confidential-apple-files-followed-former-employees-to-openai-through-icloud https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/08/03/confidential-appl... So yeah.

zombot 2mo ago
So iOS is essentially unprofessional. A toy for those who have either no job or no private life. How does Android score in that respect?
- frollogaston 2mo ago
  Well, aint no way I'm working with a realtor over green bubbles, and they probably have two phones.
- stndef 2mo ago
  It's been a while, but at a previous job (maybe 8 years ago) I was responsible for managing mobile devices and using Blackberry's MDM suite, you could have segregation of personal and private data, where you couldn't move data from one "container" to the other, including clipboard data. I'm out of the loop now, though. Android did have better support at the time, but if I remember correctly, devices that had a work managed profile on them could still be completely wiped, including the personal/private container. A bit of a pain, but I've always preferred (where possible) to have separate work and personal devices.
  - frollogaston 2mo ago
    Yeah, I had an Android phone at work with separate personal/work profiles, but using the phone to begin with required one main account that had to be my personal. Might've been possible to remove after, but I was afraid to mess with it. Wouldn't want one phone to be both personal and work though. They owned it, idk if I could've put my own sim in without unforeseen issues, it could've been wiped like you said, and it ofc got wiped when I quit.

swiftcoder 2mo ago

> Is it standard practice at both Apple and OpenAI for employees to use their personal icloud account for work? This doesn't seem out of line with common practices at other big tech firms. If you go work at Meta, your personal Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp/Oculus accounts become intrinsically linked to your work login identity (though a few employees created a secondary account on of all those to prevent this). Although there are better controls than there used to be, it's not all that uncommon for sensitive work data to leak through this linkage into the public products...

Barbing 2mo ago
Did employees get official approval to create secondary accounts? - Someone went on Reddit to ask if they really had to use their personal Facebook account to manage the company page as they said their boss pushed back against the idea, saying, “Do you think when Disney manages their Facebook page that Disney marketing execs have to use their personal Facebook accounts?” And it seemed like the answer may well have been yes. There must be some value to Zuckerberg in tying it all together.
- swiftcoder 2mo ago
  > Did employees get official approval to create secondary accounts? Yeah, at orientation they told us it was an option. I don't recall more than a couple of people taking advantage - if you go to work for Meta you've probably made your peace with it already. > “Do you think when Disney manages their Facebook page that Disney marketing execs have to use their personal Facebook accounts?” There are various business portal things that separate a business page from just one user owning them, but you still login to a business page you manage via your personal account, regardless of size of business

frollogaston 2mo ago

Google allowed iMessage until a few years ago, when they banned all non-work messaging apps for exfiltration reasons. But you can still sign into a personal iCloud, which iirc you need to do for certain Mac App Store apps that are corp-approved.

aenis 2mo ago

This is what gets people subpoena'd and their entirely private messages scrutinised. Happened to a lot of people, including a friend of mine who's affair became a matter of public record after his company was investigated for anti-trust issues. Super unprofessional and legally dangerous. I keep two phones, one for work, another for private life, and also two laptops for the same reason. The support for multi-identity is very inconvenient on apple[1], and very poor with whatsapp, signal and, really, most apps except for Google's. Shame, really, considering how well funded Apple and Meta are, and how little effort would be needed to implement the 80% of what people need: the ability to chat using different identities, without touching the rest of the OS wiring. [1] on macos, its possible to create users with multiple apple id associations, but not on iphone