Mail app sharing VIPs across family?

[Ipadonly1]

So I’m the family organiser for Apple. None of us have child accounts just to be clear. We share an Apple One Family subscription and that’s it. Each of us has their own iCloud accounts.

The other day (btw I’m on 18.3) I opened up my VIP List in the Mail app on both my iPhone and iPad and then also on my mother’s iPhone. Our VIP lists had merged. I was seeing people she had listed as VIPs on my device and mine on hers. I have never contacted some of her VIPs, nor been given their email addresses, yet I could easily see their names and addresses.

Has anyone else experienced this lately? I feel like I last went into my VIP settings no more than 4 months ago or so and it was working normally then, so seems like something has changed.

To me, this seems like a privacy issue - what does anyone else think? I know there are people on her VIP list for instance who would be quite protective of their email address - e.g. a search for a very well known person in film on her device would pull up their email address. If she had that person in her VIP list then I could see that person’s email.

Seems kinda sketch..

I tried Apple’s Bounty Program but they gave me the heave-ho and told me to talk to Support. I’m 98% sure there’s not a setting I have inadvertently enabled. They’d probably tell me to log out and in again, factory reset etc etc, which is one thing if it’s a bug which idk causes your widgets to go blank or something, but one that leaks data across an Apple Family, even if it is solved by a reset, should never occur in the first place. The fact it has happened at all should be cause for concern I think, no?

 

[tonywalker23]

If you are posting on MR then I know you are smart enough to know this, so I am not trying to insult your intelligence. But just like Support ask dumb questions because they have to as they go down their list...

By chance there is no way that each device has a secondary iCloud account signed in under internet accounts are there (and I assume that you are using only iCloud for contacts)?

The first thing that comes to my mind is me and my wife (and four kids with devices). So our Apple family sharing is full at 6 people. each child has their own contacts managed by us. However, to keep a ‘family’ address book in sync, I am signed in to my wife’s devices under internet accounts using my iCloud account. (mail is turned off and I think the other option is notes which is also turned off). but contacts is turned on. that way any address/contact data is synced with both of our devices. the only negative is that on my wife’s phone anytime she tries to use autofill it uses my info. the reason there is because tin my contacts data I am obviously the ‘my card’ person and that gets pushed to her devices… even if I go to her iCloud account (with one contact, herself) and make it her ‘my card’ a few seconds later my ‘my card’ overrides it.

I know not your issue but that is what is on my mind. There must be something going on like that. Now, I doubt you have a setup like mine. But obviously your two devices are sharing the VIP data. But since you are not doing it on purpose, then there is something going on in the background that should not be happening.

I dealt with the Apple bounty folk a few years ago. I felt like I did a ton of work (maybe 20-30 hours worth of screenshots, typing step by step items, a ton of emails back and forth). in my mind it fit the $250,000 type of bug. and after all that work I got a final email saying that there was no problem. I was so mad (if there was no problem then why did they keep contacting with me to get more and more info ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I recently had an issue where old lists in Reminders started showing up. I forget now what I was doing, I posted about it here for some reason but I can’t remember the forum thread. These list had been deleted, deleted a few years ago before I started using Things 3, yet there they were showing back up.

I’m not smart enough to know the ins and outs of iCloud syncing, but when I see my old Reminders lists show up that were deleted long ago, and I read post like yours that are clearly not a user error, it reminds me that no matter what a company says or a support page reads, when there’s some tinkering going on behind the scenes every now and then it slips through the curtain and the audience sees it before it gets dragged back behind the curtain as quickly as it can.

I hope that you find out what is going on. Post back here when you do. Id like to hear.

 

[Ipadonly1]

If you are posting on MR then I know you are smart enough to know this, so I am not trying to insult your intelligence. But just like Support ask dumb questions because they have to as they go down their list...

By chance there is no way that each device has a secondary iCloud account signed in under internet accounts are there (and I assume that you are using only iCloud for contacts)?

The first thing that comes to my mind is me and my wife (and four kids with devices). So our Apple family sharing is full at 6 people. each child has their own contacts managed by us. However, to keep a ‘family’ address book in sync, I am signed in to my wife’s devices under internet accounts using my iCloud account. (mail is turned off and I think the other option is notes which is also turned off). but contacts is turned on. that way any address/contact data is synced with both of our devices. the only negative is that on my wife’s phone anytime she tries to use autofill it uses my info. the reason there is because tin my contacts data I am obviously the ‘my card’ person and that gets pushed to her devices… even if I go to her iCloud account (with one contact, herself) and make it her ‘my card’ a few seconds later my ‘my card’ overrides it.

I know not your issue but that is what is on my mind. There must be something going on like that. Now, I doubt you have a setup like mine. But obviously your two devices are sharing the VIP data. But since you are not doing it on purpose, then there is something going on in the background that should not be happening.

I dealt with the Apple bounty folk a few years ago. I felt like I did a ton of work (maybe 20-30 hours worth of screenshots, typing step by step items, a ton of emails back and forth). in my mind it fit the $250,000 type of bug. and after all that work I got a final email saying that there was no problem. I was so mad (if there was no problem then why did they keep contacting with me to get more and more info ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I recently had an issue where old lists in Reminders started showing up. I forget now what I was doing, I posted about it here for some reason but I can’t remember the forum thread. These list had been deleted, deleted a few years ago before I started using Things 3, yet there they were showing back up.

I’m not smart enough to know the ins and outs of iCloud syncing, but when I see my old Reminders lists show up that were deleted long ago, and I read post like yours that are clearly not a user error, it reminds me that no matter what a company says or a support page reads, when there’s some tinkering going on behind the scenes every now and then it slips through the curtain and the audience sees it before it gets dragged back behind the curtain as quickly as it can.

I hope that you find out what is going on. Post back here when you do. Id like to hear.

Thanks for reply.

No only the one iCloud signed in on my devices and one iCloud signed on my mother’s. I wasn’t aware you could have more than one to be honest. Yes only using iCloud for contacts.

That’s interesting. I had no idea you could create a family address book. But yes in my case, neither of my mother or I are signed into each other’s devices under internet accounts.

Wow you definitely should have been remunerated for that work! I merely pressed one button and found this possible bug/leak. Exactly if there wasn’t an issue why the follow ups?

That’s worrying re your reminders lists.

 

[ManuCH]

So I’m the family organiser for Apple. None of us have child accounts just to be clear. We share an Apple One Family subscription and that’s it. Each of us has their own iCloud accounts.

The other day (btw I’m on 18.3) I opened up my VIP List in the Mail app on both my iPhone and iPad and then also on my mother’s iPhone. Our VIP lists had merged. I was seeing people she had listed as VIPs on my device and mine on hers. I have never contacted some of her VIPs, nor been given their email addresses, yet I could easily see their names and addresses.

Has anyone else experienced this lately? I feel like I last went into my VIP settings no more than 4 months ago or so and it was working normally then, so seems like something has changed.

To me, this seems like a privacy issue - what does anyone else think? I know there are people on her VIP list for instance who would be quite protective of their email address - e.g. a search for a very well known person in film on her device would pull up their email address. If she had that person in her VIP list then I could see that person’s email.

Seems kinda sketch..

I tried Apple’s Bounty Program but they gave me the heave-ho and told me to talk to Support. I’m 98% sure there’s not a setting I have inadvertently enabled. They’d probably tell me to log out and in again, factory reset etc etc, which is one thing if it’s a bug which idk causes your widgets to go blank or something, but one that leaks data across an Apple Family, even if it is solved by a reset, should never occur in the first place. The fact it has happened at all should be cause for concern I think, no?

This is really weird. I don't have a solution to your problem, but a question: do you see your mother's VIPs in your Contacts app as well, or only under Mail VIPs?

 

[Ipadonly1]

This is really weird. I don't have a solution to your problem, but a question: do you see your mother's VIPs in your Contacts app as well, or only under Mail VIPs?

Only under Mail VIPs. In the Contacts app I just see mine. On her iPhone she just sees her contacts in her Contacts app, while she can see my VIPs in her mail app.

I just think it’s wild. She’s literally signed NDAs when working with some people which I’m no lawyer, but I’m pretty sure extend to not disclosing these people’s contact information. I literally have a world famous director’s email address right here on my phone, having never worked with them or signed any NDAs. I could literally post it here and not be in breach of anything-neither would my mother, since she has never shared it with me. I’m not going to do that because I’m not a dick, but the fact that I could I think is very worrying.

I think I’ve disqualified myself from eligibility for a reward because I’ve posted about it, but it didn’t look like I was going to get one anyway, so hey. Plus I believe in transparency (though not with data) and Apple will probably silently fix anyway.

 

[BigBlur]

This reminds me of a bug (supposedly) from a while back where some people's passwords were being shared when using Family Sharing.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/all-of-my-logins-and-passwords-available-on-two-family-members-devices-wtf-apple.2279595/

New Apple bug may be sharing your Keychain passwords with Family Sharing members

A new bug in Apple's Family Sharing feature may be sharing your Keychain passwords with family members. A few Apple users say that their Keychain credentials are being synced with the rest of the family members without their permission. The issue will likely require a new patch.

www.digitaltrends.com

 

[Ipadonly1]

This reminds me of a bug (supposedly) from a while back where some people's passwords were being shared when using Family Sharing.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/all-of-my-logins-and-passwords-available-on-two-family-members-devices-wtf-apple.2279595/

New Apple bug may be sharing your Keychain passwords with Family Sharing members

A new bug in Apple's Family Sharing feature may be sharing your Keychain passwords with family members. A few Apple users say that their Keychain credentials are being synced with the rest of the family members without their permission. The issue will likely require a new patch.

www.digitaltrends.com

Very unclear what was going on in this case. Seemingly the OP repeatedly telling people the same thing and responders not really getting it.