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“Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

developer.apple.com

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Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#151

Post by bob1029 »

kerng wrote: post #26

I totally agree with this! I built a game and naively added ads to it as it seemed a good way to monetize. The game started to be really liked, and had 300k+ downloads overall. Many kids started playing it also. Luckily I realized quickly that kids play on the devices of parents and so the ads they might see are at times super inappropriate! Then I removed all ads, I'd rather make less money but have people play and…

I completely agree with your position. I have turned down solicitations from both organizations you listed for exactly the same reasons. Working for any entity that engages in any sort of behavior that involves compromising user experience or privacy simply for sake of profit is not something I can consider at this time. I understand situations arise that are not profit-motivated which can't be avoided (federal investigations, service outages), but it is clear in the case of Facebook and Google what is going on. Compromising user privacy and interactions is their principal means of doing business.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#152

Post by mywittyname »

derekp7 wrote: post #144
TheCapn wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you morally disagree with advertising/tracking monetization as a whole or just those particularly geared towards vulnerable populations? (children in your instance) I have my professional job developing software solutions for clients on a contractual base, but for a period after I graduated university I dabbled in mobile development and made the decision during that time that I'd never bloat my crappy apps with ad…

I can give you my feelings towards this topic. Personally, I don't mind ads that inform me of the existence of a product that I may be interested in, where it tells me how it can solve my problems. What I don't like is ads that use psychological devices to try to get me to buy their product. I also don't like ads that are a distraction of the content I'm trying to consume. So when playing a game, if the ad scroll at…

> (yes, there are ways they can still track me, but they aren't as obvious about it).

But then other people in your house get the ads too...

> Derek! Have you been shopping for RVs again?!?!

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#153

Post by imhoguy »

kerng wrote: post #26

I totally agree with this! I built a game and naively added ads to it as it seemed a good way to monetize. The game started to be really liked, and had 300k+ downloads overall. Many kids started playing it also. Luckily I realized quickly that kids play on the devices of parents and so the ads they might see are at times super inappropriate! Then I removed all ads, I'd rather make less money but have people play and…

Link to the game please! Do you also provide donation-ware paid version? I see that as quite popular alternative to ads.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#154

Post by JumpCrisscross »

TheCapn wrote: post #71
kerng wrote: post #26

I totally agree with this! I built a game and naively added ads to it as it seemed a good way to monetize. The game started to be really liked, and had 300k+ downloads overall. Many kids started playing it also. Luckily I realized quickly that kids play on the devices of parents and so the ads they might see are at times super inappropriate! Then I removed all ads, I'd rather make less money but have people play and…

Do you morally disagree with advertising/tracking monetization as a whole or just those particularly geared towards vulnerable populations? (children in your instance) I have my professional job developing software solutions for clients on a contractual base, but for a period after I graduated university I dabbled in mobile development and made the decision during that time that I'd never bloat my crappy apps with ad…

> Do you morally disagree with advertising/tracking monetization as a whole or just those particularly geared towards vulnerable populations?

Irrespective of one's views on this, it's a controversial topic. Given children are minors, this decision shouldn't be forced on them by app developers.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#155

Post by yalok »

CountHackulus wrote: post #123

Dropping adds seems good to me, but dropping analytics doesn't seem great from a game dev perspective. New features and game balance is often driven by analytics data. For example, if no one's using a certain feature in the game then maybe it needs more attention brought to it or maybe attention won't be focused on it for the next update. I understand that there's a fine line between game analytics and farming PII bu…

I agree, the part about analytics sounds like a bad news, given that there's no fine line... Also, I'm very curious how would they impose it? Suppose I still want to use my analytics provider as a SaaS, but will just relay traffic to it via my servers, and would only use that analytics for game tuning - how would Apple know about it?..

Another problem is that nowadays each app usually uses quite a few 3rd party libs/services, and each one of them may have analytics of one sort or another, even when the app doesn't explicitly use them for that, f.e. Crashlytics, Firebase, Logentries... With a strict approach there, I'd be worried about stability of kids apps, if devs would be forced to disable those services...

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#156

Post by robryan »

braythwayt wrote: post #137
tcfunk wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I actually stopped allowing YouTube and YouTube Kids. YouTube has inappropriate ads, and YouTube Kids content is basically half ads in disguise (just people advertising toys and how they work).

Why can't things be like the Good Old Days when Raganwald was young. We watched Saturday Morning Cartoons, not played with apps. Hmmm... Now that I think about it, Saturday Morning Cartoons were filled with advertising for sugar and violent toys, some of which was clearly labeled as advertising.

Guess the experience varies country to country but at least they generally reserved selling for the ad breaks. Unlike say a paid unboxing video.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#157

Post by throwayEngineer »

scarface74 wrote: post #139
throwayEngineer wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they will collect data for APPL

Third party developers will send data to Apple? What’s Apple going to do with it?

Apple has their own apps. Do they collect data on children?

Will they let some high profile devs slip by? Apple is known to be anti consumer.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#158

Post by buckminster »

scarface74 wrote: post #96
brownbat wrote: post #55

If you charge for listing and take 30% for sales, people are going to try some aggressive revenue techniques. One of the biggest unsolved problems for users is how to get the security of a walled garden while still encouraging open development, the sort of little experiments that become free simple QoL apps or toy proof of concept programs that spawn a business. It's a problem only for users of course, less so for th…

You mean they are going to charge enough money to account for the cost of distribution? That could even be a new business model -- charging people money and giving them stuff. Like software makers have done since the first personal computer or game console came out? You realize that retail stores were routinely charging 60%?

And don't forget manufacturing costs! You'd be lucky to take 20% of the retail price.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#159

Post by sidlls »

iscrewyou wrote: post #122
sidlls wrote: post #32

This is interesting. What options does that leave for making money on these apps? Charging directly and first-party ads? Are parents willing to pay for these apps?

If parents are willing to spend money on consoles for their kids to play and for school supplies for their kids to learn, this isn’t any different, right? Parents will pay.

Mobile is much more difficult to monetize than consoles. People have become accustomed to getting mobile apps for free.

Re: “Apps intended for kids may not include third-party advertising or analytics”

#160

Post by scarface74 »

throwayEngineer wrote: post #157
scarface74 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Third party developers will send data to Apple? What’s Apple going to do with it?

Apple has their own apps. Do they collect data on children? Will they let some high profile devs slip by? Apple is known to be anti consumer.

What data is are you accusing Apple of collecting?

Apple is known to be “anti consumer”?

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