A new way to authenticate

Reddit user u/ aerlenbach shared an idea with /r/apple about iCloud OAuth. It could be a genius next step for Apple if they’re truly looking to reinforce their belief in security & privacy. While you can see the original post here, we reached out to u/ aerlenbach to see if we could get a longer-form explanation for the post. Here’s what u/ aerlenbach shared:

“Facebook and Google (Alphabet) are primarily data and attention companies. They strive to expand their tentacles to extract as much data from as much people as possible. Facebook specifically is either actively malicious or intentionally negligent with their data privacy policies, continually choosing forgiveness instead of permission.

Their data extraction tools also include their ‘Login with Facebook’ tool available for websites (OAuth). How much data they’re able to collect when you use this feature is up for debate. But even using the feature adds at least one more data point. ‘They use the website X.’

Facebook has even hindered apps that have used this feature. Facebook ‘accidentally’ broke the login feature when signing up/logging into Tinder. Why? Because Facebook was about to create their own dating app and wanted to hinder their competition. [see: Facebook Dating]

Apple, which prides itself on strong data privacy for its users, should create its own ‘Login with iCloud’ feature, but not collect or sell any data. So users would have the same benefits as ‘Login with Facebook’ but not give more data to the primary company. Apple doesn’t care to monetize your data. That’s not their business model.” – u/ aerlenbach

Credit to reddit user /u/TheAppleAesthetic

The Concept

Above, you’ll find a concept we created and shared showcasing what a simple iCloud OAuth driven verification process might look like as applied to popular design website, Flaticon.com.



Despite what’s shown above, the authorization process wouldn’t just stop there, however. Apps, already on iPhones, could potentially use iCloud as a means of verification (outside of Gmail or Facebook) and could directly integrate with Apple’s password-management software.



Essentially, your entire password, verification, and authentication eco-systems would be connected to one another but closed off from anyone but yourself.

Now picture this, iCloud OAuth on one OS.