Apple Begins Crackdown on Apps Sharing Location Data
Apple’s App Store has started a campaign to remove and reprimand apps which share location data with third parties.
Apps in breach of Apple’s guidelines receive an email stating they fall foul of section ‘Legal – 5.1.1 and Legal 5.1.2’.
The sections read: “The app transmits user location data to third parties without explicit consent from the user and for unapproved purposes.”
The App Store guidelines add: “You may not use or transmit someone’s personal data without first obtaining their permission and providing access to information about how and where the data will be used.
“Data collected from apps may not be used or shared with third parties for purposes unrelated to improving the user experience or software/hardware performance connected to the app’s functionality.”
The crackdown comes ahead of the implementation of GDPR – the European Union’s incoming data protection legislation.
The consultancy EY found in a survey of over 1,000 European business that approximately 40% did not know GDPR’s requirements “even fairly well”.
9to5mac.com notes that it is not yet clear how comprehensive the App Store cleanup will be – they had only found one tweet referencing the removal email at the time of writing.
Read more here.
