You are moving the goal posts.

It is also trivially linked to ip address, which is usually personally identifying.

Do you have any proof this is happening?

This is Apple we are talking about, which has the strongest privacy commitment of any device maker, and no advertising business outside of the App Store. Linking IP addresses to app certificate requests provides them zero benefit and exposes them to substantial brand damage.

Do I have proof they have your ip address? Of course, that's how the internet works.

Do I have proof that they could be ordered by a court to store it? Of course, that's how warrants work.

Do I have proof they are currently storing it? No, nor was that ever the claim.

Then the claim is ridiculous. Apple isn’t keeping any of this info, because it would have no purpose.

I'm not an Apple user so forgive my ignorance here.

1. Do you need an apple account to use the app store?

2. Do you need to provide personal information to use an apple account (I'm thinking at least enough to get a credit card working for app purchases/subscriptions)?

3. Is the data sent to this anti-malware service linked to your Apple account or an apple hardware id? (Has someone wiresharked the data to confirm/deny)

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. I doubt it

But regardless of 3, simply by using the App Store at all (similarly to any other App Store out there) you're already giving them more information than they get from these hashes (at least for the apps that come from the store). I know for a fact that they keep a record of which apps you've downloaded there, associated with your account, because they check for updates and let you re-download them. As does the Android store. As does the Windows store.

Correction: You don't need to login to install apps from Microsoft store and software control on Linux.

Android, yes playstore requires an account but you can install an alternative store without signing in.

That's unrelated to my comment. I was simply responding to the astoundingly wrong claim that "My personal data involves what I do within those apps, not which ones they are."