# Apple Private Cloud Compute

23 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple Private Cloud Compute and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People praise its verifiable privacy design, which aims to stop Apple from reading user data sent to its servers. Critics say it still requires trusting Apple's word and audits.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong verifiable privacy design (6 comments): "Apple has some impressive privacy technology for Apple Intelligence - including significant open source disclosure for public verification." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49794079)) "Apple has definitely gone the furthest in terms of verifiably ensuring that requests and responses are not misusable by Apple" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48905300)) "they have put a gargantuan amount of work into PCC to uphold the claims they make about its privacy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078750))
- Open source components for verification (4 comments): "Apple has some impressive privacy technology for Apple Intelligence - including significant open source disclosure for public verification." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49794079)) "given Apple's surprising relative openness for how they implement their privacy products" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48748529)) "They do this by allowing you to download all of the components" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48460209))
- Good architecture and security engineering (4 comments): "Apple PCC is using completely mad and paranoid amounts of security down to hardware and firmware level" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464448)) "the private cloud compute stuff of Apple is really interesting architecure wise" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45829678)) "it's a well-thought-out system under those constraints" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49075328))
- Useful model for private AI (3 comments): "PCC seemed like the only viable option for a pro-AI, yet pro-privacy person such as myself" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46114915)) "PCC is quite good, about as close to private remote compute we can get without doing HME." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49722177)) "we need to move toward assurances of privacy (eg. verifiable Private Cloud Compute model)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46072027))

## What people warn about

- Still requires trusting Apple (4 comments): "It works for Apple (well enough) because of the high trust we place in their own physical controls" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45839665)) "the PCC root keys are still signed by Apple which requires you to trust Apple" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48453169)) "Of course, at that point it depends on how much you trust their PCC." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49797210))
- Audit access and claims disputed (3 comments): "Apparently their "Verifiable Transparency" claim just means Apple invited unnamed outside security experts and independent researchers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464506)) "It's a form of theater, you have to be hand-selected to perform the audit that Apple promised." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48465238)) "That page objectively proves that Apple can't be trusted and breaks their promises." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48454820))
- Unclear real-world usage and value (2 comments): "That's nice... in theory. Like it could be cool, and useful... but like what would I actually run on it if I'm not a spammer?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45836667)) "They invested a ton in their Private Cloud Compute though, but are barely using their capacity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47622327))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apple Private Cloud Compute", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-private-cloud-compute/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).