---
title: Private Cloud Compute Security Guide
framework: Private Cloud Compute Security Guide
role: collection
path: private-cloud-compute
---

# Private Cloud Compute Security Guide

A new frontier for AI privacy in the cloud.

## Overview

Private Cloud Compute (PCC) delivers groundbreaking privacy and security protections to support computationally intensive requests for Apple Intelligence by bringing our industry-leading device security model into the cloud. Whenever possible, Apple Intelligence processes tasks locally on device, but more sophisticated tasks require additional processing power to execute more complex foundation models in the cloud. Private Cloud Compute makes it possible for users to take advantage of such models without sacrificing the security and privacy that they expect from Apple devices. We designed Private Cloud Compute with an extraordinary set of core requirements that go beyond traditional models of cloud AI security, grouped into three layers: PCC serves requests from two node platforms, Apple silicon and Google Cloud. The two share the guarantees a node makes and the evidence it must produce before PCC trusts it with user data: a node presents attested measurements that match a release recorded in the public transparency log, and user data reaches it only if that proof holds. Each platform reaches that shared verification model through its own hardware and its own software stack. This guide walks through these requirements and provides the resources a researcher needs to verify them independently, including a comprehensive look at the technical design of PCC and the specific implementation details needed to validate it. Start with the Core Security and Privacy Requirements, which state what PCC must do, grouped by what a user has to trust at each layer. Each node platform, Apple Silicon Node Architecture and Google Cloud Node Architecture, then has its own pages for its hardware roots of trust, software stack, and attestation. The Anonymous Request Routing, the PCC cloud applications, and the Release Transparency and Management and Observability mechanisms work the same way on every node, and one set of pages covers them for both platforms. Each platform also has a research environment. The Virtual Research Environment boots a virtual node on a Mac with Apple silicon; the Google Cloud Research Environment provisions one on real cloud hardware. Auditing the transparency log is the same work on either platform.

## Topics

### Core requirements

- [Core Security and Privacy Requirements](private-cloud-compute/corerequirements.md)
- [Stateless Computation](private-cloud-compute/statelesscomputation.md)
- [Enforceable Guarantees](private-cloud-compute/enforceableguarantees.md)
- [No Privileged Runtime Access](private-cloud-compute/noprivilegedaccess.md)
- [Verifiable Transparency](private-cloud-compute/verifiabletransparency.md)
- [Non-Targetability](private-cloud-compute/nontargetability.md)
- [Hardware Provisioning](private-cloud-compute/hardwareprovisioning.md)
- [Evaluating Private Cloud Compute](private-cloud-compute/attacks.md)

### Apple silicon nodes

- [Apple Silicon Node Architecture](private-cloud-compute/applesiliconnodearchitecture.md)
- [Apple Silicon Root of Trust](private-cloud-compute/hardwarerootoftrust.md)
- [Apple Silicon Hardware Integrity](private-cloud-compute/hardwareintegrity.md)
- [Apple Silicon Software Foundations](private-cloud-compute/softwarefoundations.md)
- [Apple Silicon Software Layering](private-cloud-compute/softwarelayering.md)
- [Apple Silicon Node Attestation](private-cloud-compute/applesiliconnodeattestation.md)
- [Apple Silicon Release Composition](private-cloud-compute/applesiliconreleasecomposition.md)
- [Apple Silicon Stateless Inference](private-cloud-compute/statelessinference.md)

### Google Cloud nodes

- [Google Cloud Node Architecture](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudnodearchitecture.md)
- [Google Cloud Roots of Trust](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudrootsoftrust.md)
- [Google Cloud Node Hardening](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudnodehardening.md)
- [Google Cloud Node Attestation](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudnodeattestation.md)
- [Google Cloud Software Transparency](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudsoftwaretransparency.md)
- [Google Cloud Stateless Inference](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudstatelessinference.md)

### Request processing

- [Anonymous Request Routing](private-cloud-compute/requestflow.md)
- [Attested Request Handling](private-cloud-compute/requesthandling.md)
- [On-Node Request Termination](private-cloud-compute/requesttermination.md)
- [Transitive Trust](private-cloud-compute/transitivetrust.md)
- [Runtime Configuration and Assets](private-cloud-compute/runtimeconfigassets.md)

### PCC applications

- [PCC Agent](private-cloud-compute/pccagent.md)
- [Multi-Turn Agent](private-cloud-compute/multiturnagent.md)
- [Private Filter Service](private-cloud-compute/privatefilterservice.md)
- [Visual Lookup](private-cloud-compute/visuallookup.md)
- [Private Information Retrieval](private-cloud-compute/pir.md)
- [HomeKit Secure Video Analysis](private-cloud-compute/hksvanalysis.md)
- [Media Decoding](private-cloud-compute/mediadecoding.md)
- [Visual Generation](private-cloud-compute/visualgeneration.md)
- [Embedding Generation](private-cloud-compute/embeddinggeneration.md)
- [Speech Synthesis](private-cloud-compute/speechsynthesis.md)
- [Apple Reference Image](private-cloud-compute/applereferenceimage.md)

### Transparency and management

- [Release Transparency](private-cloud-compute/releasetransparency.md)
- [Management and Observability](private-cloud-compute/management.md)

### Resources

- [Source Code](private-cloud-compute/sourcecode.md)
- [Inspecting Releases](private-cloud-compute/inspectingreleases.md)
- [Release Notes](private-cloud-compute/releasenotes.md)
- [Security Research and Reporting Issues](private-cloud-compute/reportingissues.md)
- [Glossary](private-cloud-compute/glossary.md)

### Apple silicon research environment

- [Virtual Research Environment](private-cloud-compute/virtualresearchenvironment.md)
- [Get Started with the VRE](private-cloud-compute/vresetup.md)
- [Interact with the VRE](private-cloud-compute/vreinteraction.md)
- [Research Variant](private-cloud-compute/vreresearchvariant.md)
- [Shadow Tunneling](private-cloud-compute/vreshadow.md)

### Google Cloud research environment

- [Google Cloud Research Environment](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudresearch.md)
- [Google Cloud Research Tooling](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudresearchtooling.md)
- [Google Cloud Research Setup](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudresearchsetup.md)
- [Google Cloud Research Interactions](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudresearchinteraction.md)
- [Google Cloud Workload Modification](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudworkloadmodification.md)
- [Running the Workload Without a GPU on Google Cloud](private-cloud-compute/googlecloudworkloadwithoutgpu.md)
- [Reproducing Google Cloud Measurements](private-cloud-compute/reproducinggooglecloudmeasurements.md)

### Reference

- [Appendix: Transparency Log](private-cloud-compute/appendix_transparencylog.md)
- [Appendix: Apple Intelligence Report](private-cloud-compute/appendix_appleintelligencereport.md)
- [Appendix: PCC Application Identifiers](private-cloud-compute/appendix_appidentifiers.md)
- [Appendix: Tool Gateway Protocol](private-cloud-compute/appendix_toolcalling.md)
- [Appendix: TIE Response Protocol](private-cloud-compute/appendix_tieresponseprotocol.md)
- [Appendix: Apple Silicon Secure Boot Tags](private-cloud-compute/appendix_secureboot.md)
- [Appendix: Apple Silicon Secure Boot Ticket Canonicalization](private-cloud-compute/appendix_uniqtags.md)
- [Appendix: Apple Silicon Trust Cache Format](private-cloud-compute/appendix_trustcache.md)
- [Appendix: Apple Silicon System Configuration](private-cloud-compute/appendix_systemconfig.md)
- [Appendix: Apple Silicon Runtime Configuration Consumers](private-cloud-compute/appendix_runtimeconfig.md)
- [Appendix: Apple Silicon Attestation Bundle Contents](private-cloud-compute/appendix_attestationbundle.md)
- [Appendix: Google Cloud Attestation Bundle Contents](private-cloud-compute/appendix_googlecloudattestationbundle.md)
- [Appendix: Google Cloud Measurement Registers](private-cloud-compute/appendix_googlecloudmeasurementregisters.md)
- [Appendix: Google Cloud Debug and Hardened Images](private-cloud-compute/appendix_googleclouddebugandhardenedimages.md)
- [Appendix: Google Cloud Workload Services Daemon](private-cloud-compute/appendix_googlecloudworkloadservicesdaemon.md)