Apple's Privacy Drive Gives iOS Devs An Ultimatum
Apple announced today that some big changes are on the way to the App Store. Beginning in October, every single app that's hosted on the App Store will need to have a privacy policy to go along with it. With the privacy debate that has come to the forefront in 2018 – thanks to things like GDPR in Europe and Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal – the fact that Apple will require all apps to have a privacy policy is definitely a welcome change.
In fact, one wonders why Apple didn't have this rule in place sooner, considering that the App Store is now ten years old as of July 10. Whatever the reason for that particular oversight, Apple has posted a news update to the App Store Connect help site to tell developers that beginning on October 3, all new apps will need privacy policies attached to them.
It sounds like developers won't need to publish privacy policies for their existing apps as soon as this new rule goes into effect. Instead, they'll need to submit a privacy policy to Apple the next time they publish updates to those apps. For iOS or macOS apps, developers will need to provide a link to their privacy policy, while they'll need to submit the full text for tvOS apps since that operating system doesn't actually have a web browser.
What's more, privacy policy links and text will only be editable when developers submit new versions of their apps to the App Store, and this rule isn't just limited to apps that have gone through official release. Apple will require a privacy policy for TestFlight apps as well, so even apps that are in testing aren't exempt from this new rule.
It's a good self-preservation move on Apple's part, especially considering Europe's crackdown on privacy violations with the implementation of GDPR back in May. It's also a win for consumers, as they'll have more information on how apps are using their personal information. While Apple doesn't explicitly say what will happen to submitted apps that don't follow these guidelines, it isn't hard to imagine that they'll be denied a spot on the App Store.