Update: Apple says “Sign in with Apple” will be mandatory for third-party apps that require sign-ins, according to these new App Store guidelines. That means apps that currently use Facebook or Google to sign in will also have to support “Sign in with Apple.”
“It will be required as an option for users in apps that support third-party sign-in when it is commercially available later this year,” the new guidelines say.
Apple is targeting Facebook with a new privacy feature in iOS 13 that privately logs users into third-party apps and services.
Called “Sign in with Apple,” it aims to replace popular cross-web login services like ones offered by Facebook and Google.
The new privacy feature prevents third-party apps and web services from tracking users via their logins. It creates private, disposable logins for every service or app.
Logins are frequently used to track users, noted Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, during Monday’s WWDC 2019 keynote.
“Now we have the solution,” he said. “It’s called ‘Sign in with Apple.'”
Sign in with Apple adds privacy to convenience
Federighi said the feature is a “fast, easy way to sign in without tracking.”
Sign in with Apple is entirely private, too. Thanks to a new API, users are authenticated with Apple’s Face ID. No personal info is collected.
However, sometimes it is useful to log in to a service, and Apple allows the service to ask for some info, like an email address. If, however, the user doesn’t want to share their real email address, “Sign in with Apple” will create a random email that forwards to the user’s real email address. The real email, however, is never shared with the third-party app/service.
Federighi noted that each app gets a unique, random address, which is easily disabled when the user tires of hearing from that app or service.
The new feature got a big cheer from developers.
“This entire experience is designed to give you control over your data,” said Federighi.
On Twitter, some users were already saying goodbye to Facebook, which they use to log in to other sites and services.
Yep I might finally delete Facebook https://t.co/b88CLBh2rJ
— Gene Park (@GenePark) June 3, 2019
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
