📰 News: Apple Implements New Privacy Regulations for App Developers in App Store

For years, Apple has been synonymous with strong data collection policies, app labeling mandates, anti-tracking efforts, and the more private "Sign in with Apple" feature aimed at safeguarding user privacy. The latest news from Apple reveals they are intensifying their user privacy policy with a new privacy rule aimed at combatting API misuse. App developers must now provide explanations for accessing certain data under specific circumstances.

According to the new rule, Apple clarifies that developers cannot use certain APIs for "fingerprinting," which involves accessing specific device signals to identify users or their devices. Although APIs facilitate data extraction and exchange for developers, Apple strictly prohibits the use of fingerprinting, even if the user grants the app permission to track them.

Effective from Fall 2023, developers on the Apple store will be required to choose from the "approved reasons" detailing the specific purposes for which their app will use the API to get approval. Subsequently, the app can only use the API for those specified functions.

Several APIs, including file timestamps, disk space, system boot time, and active APIs, will be affected by this new policy. However, from Spring 2024, apps and app updates that fail to provide a reason will be rejected.