December 15, 2020
Apple delivers on its promise to provide more transparency around data collection from iOS apps as it releases new privacy stickers; Via the official app store for all owners of iOS devices running the latest version of iOS 14.
The company first announced its intention to introduce privacy stickers at its WWDC developer conference in June.
Apple revealed last month that developers would have to provide this information by December 8th or risk losing the ability to update apps.
Apple says the new stickers will be required for apps across all of its platforms, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.
Stickers must be up to date and accurate every time the developer sends out a new update, so that users can see them before downloading the app from the store.
Apple also adheres to the same standard, something the company made clear last week when the company faced criticism from its Facebook-owned WhatsApp application for an apparent contradiction in its requirements, before Apple said it was also providing stickers for all of its programs.
Each app on the app store will have a privacy sticker that's viewable across the web as well, and all Apple apps will have the same stickers across product pages within the app store.
Apple says it provides the privacy label information over the web in case the app does not own the product page in the app store. Because it cannot be removed.
As for how the stickers are organized, Apple has divided data collection into three categories:
The data used to track you.
Your data.
Data not related to you.
Data used to track you: Tracking in this context means that the application developer links data from the application or data collected from your device with other data from applications or websites of other companies, for the purpose of targeted advertising.
Data related to you: It is the data that can be used to identify you, and this means: data obtained from using the application or having an account in the service or platform, and any data obtained from the device itself.
Data Not Associated With You: Explains when certain types of data are not linked to you in any identifiable way.
Apple has more developer-focused specific information about the new stickers on its developer portal page.
The stickers are part of a suite of changes that Apple introduced this year to provide more alerts when collecting data across its devices.
The company intends to launch a new privacy feature that will require developers to request explicit permission to track iOS device users across apps and websites with the digital advertising identifier (IDFA).
The plan required it with the launch of iOS 14, but Apple announced in September that it was delaying rolling out the feature until sometime next year, to give developers more time to comply.
