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Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

developer.apple.com

171–180 of 274 posts

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#172
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think you can fight this out in court against Apple?

It has been possible to run OSX on PCs for quite a few years now courtesy of the Clover and OpenCore apps. There have been countless Github projects, websites, forums etc dedicated to providing material assistance in using them. At no point has Apple ever gone after the websites or individuals despite it being fairly trivial to do so e.g. DCMA or cease and desist letter. In fact Craig Federighi has gone on the record…

> Craig Federighi has gone on the record stating that they fully support people hacking the Mac, OSX etc

Source?

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life is too short for you to press Settings > Privacy > Location Services > app > enable? Are you on life support or something?

I won't know to do that if the app doesn't tell me. How do I know it's not a bug and a problem with the permissions instead? Especially if the problem does not occur immediately after denying the permission

The app could show message like location related functionality requires additional permissions, and guide the user how to enable that.

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realise Apple could still do this in their app store AND allow 3rd party app stores?

Not to the same effect. It means if developers don’t want to play by Apple’s rules they don’t have to completely surrender the iOS market. A big enough name could just direct users to the third party App Store.

I would definitely expect a "Facebook Store" to appear if side-loading was allowed which would not only host the Facebook app itself but also provide a safe haven for all of the privacy-violating crap (in fact I'd argue that their review process would require your app to contain the FB SDK for it to be accepted).

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#175
post #99
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They advertise a whole product which draws all this tracking data as nice graphs to developers: https://developer.apple.com/app-store-connect/analytics/ It's essentially Google Analytics, just for apps on iOS. Where do you think those "Daily active devices" data comes from?

Users must opt in though. It’s part of the iOS set up to allow this and you can change it any time

[deleted]

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#176
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users must opt in though. It’s part of the iOS set up to allow this and you can change it any time

This setting is opt out, not opt-in. It's unclear if opting out hides the data from Apple or just from the app developers.

It is opt-in now; when setting up iOS for the first time it asks you if you'd like to enable "iPhone analytics" (OS-wide analytics for Apple) and if you accept then it asks you whether you want to share the analytical data with the app developers.

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#177
post #3

Full text of the clause: > 3.2.2 Unacceptable > (vi) Apps should allow a user to get what they’ve paid for without performing additional tasks, such as posting on social media, uploading contacts, checking in to the app a certain number of times, etc. Apps should not require users to rate the app, review the app, watch videos, download other apps, tap on advertisements, enable tracking, or take other similar actions…

The Hitman Sniper app does at least one of those “unacceptable” things: They offer (not really) “free” digital items in exchange for “likes” on Facebook. And there seems to be more app functionality tied to Facebook logins. Will big players like Square Enix be made to comply with those rules or is it only the little guys?

Once these rules are in place (like now) they will wait until the next update submission to notify them of the infractions.

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#178
post #105

Everybody complains about the walled garden, but damn I love to see things like this.

Note that “tracking” is used in an intentionally misleading way here. Apple’s guidelines expressly permit all sorts of silent, invisible, no-opt-in tracking within apps, and most apps in the app store embed this sort of spyware. The term “tracking” in this instance refers to GPS or contacts permission and other such things that Apple has built an opt-in switch for.

The way I read this (as well as their recently-postponed change regarding the advertising ID) is that they are explicitly tightening up the rules and will hopefully crack down on the behavior your describe (malware - aka the Facebook SDK - being embedded in every single app).

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#179

"Apps should not require users to rate the app, review the app, watch videos, download other apps, tap on advertisements, enable tracking, or take other similar actions in order to access functionality, content, use the app, or receive monetary or other compensation, including but not limited to gift cards and codes." Bunch of apps started doing the above "enable tracking" part already - good thing Apple specifically…

Out of curiosity, which apps?

Re: Apple: Apps should not require users to opt into tracking to access content

#180
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can, you know, pay for the service (be the customer and not the product) and not see any ads

I don’t know about where you live, it’s the most expensive streaming platform here. Not worth the money for occasional watching of things people share at work. Also seeing more unskippable ads lately and it’s incredibly annoying.

Can't skip the first ad depending on the length of the video you will get 2 in the middle and then at 30-40 secs left. It's made YouTube unwatchable for most stuff. Rick Beato did a video talking about music license holders injecting more ads into his videos because he does stuff like Top 20 Rock Drummers of All Time. That requires him playing others' songs so they can inject more ads to earn from that video instead of taking it down.
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