Long time Apple user here. I recently had cause to donate (literally) a couple of dollars to the college my niece attended a couple of years ago. I have no other relationship with it, nor have I ever mentioned it on email. Well, lo and behold if I don’t get a mailing from Apple Education with this College’s name slotted in every time the word “innovation” was used (it seemed). What the hell? How did it know (the donation was made over the phone)? I thought Apple was secure. I’m not one of those conspiracy people but this really unnerved me.
My guess is your niece’s collage listed you as a donor somewhere, or sold your name, etc.
I’ve been donating to various charities and organizations for years and I now receive analog “please give” requests almost every day. From both well known organizations I’ve never donated to and others I never even heard of. And there is nothing I can do about it.
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-Options-Do-I-Have-Regarding-Unwanted-Unsolicited-Mail
At least you can delete emails, I shred a couple dozen letters/cards every month.
Tip: Have your email server/client search for the word “unsubscribe” and automatically file these messages where you can review them later.
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Like Wayne, I very much doubt Apple is inviting your privacy directly.
If you don’t mind me asking, what was the email regarding i.e. the purpose of the email from Apple.
There are sadly 101 ways that your information was provided to Apple, and my best bet would be either the College you made a donation to, or the platform the college uses to process your information sold your information to a 3rd party.
I endured the mail, phone, and door to door charitable solicitation issue for years until I discovered a fantastic option for Canadians called CanadaHelps. Allows for donations to any registered Canadian charity and has the option for donors to choose to not share their details with the charity in order to avoid being placed on fundraising contact lists.
Perhaps something similar exists in other countries?
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Much of my personal data was public years before the first PCs arrived. But there may be hope for people who have yet to make their first donation.
To clarify it was done via a phone call to the bank. I doubt it has gone through to the college yet as the whole is part of settling my late mother’s estate which I am doing presently. She had set up a fund for my niece many years ago that was never used and the only way I could recover the money for the estate was to direct the bank to donate the $3.00 difference to an educational institution of my choice. None of this was done via mail or the internet. It might well have been that it was the bank that shared my email address with the college and that that was in turn shared with Apple. As it happens I am a professor at a different college in a different province, which is why I’m signed up for Apple Education. If anything I would expect my own institution to be named.
It’s “creepy” the same way that for example when I was shopping for a new monitor online all of a sudden ads for monitors appeared on my Facebook feed. I expect that from Google and Facebook but was taken aback by an email to my Apple account.