Apple has told developers to stop including third-party trackers in apps designed for kids — or they face having their apps pulled from the app store.
The tech giant quietly updated its guidelines for apps that are submitted to the app store’s kids category following the keynote address at its annual developer conference on Monday.
“Apps in the kids category may not include third-party advertising or analytics,” the new guidelines say. Previously, the guidelines only restricted behavioral advertising tracking.
Apple also currently prohibits apps in the kids category from including links that point outside the app or contain in-app purchasing.
Apple has come under fire for its recent marketing campaign claiming “what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone,” which critics say is misleading. All too often apps include ads or tracking code that allows app makers to collect information about the device, including its location and other data, and send it back to base so companies can better target its users with ads, learn more about how you use the app, and more.
Just last week, the Washington Post found over 5,400 app trackers were uploading data from an iPhone over a single week — even at night when the phone owner was asleep.
As a TechCrunch investigation earlier this year found, some apps use so-called session replay technology, a kind of analytics software that records the screen when an app is open. Apps built by Expedia, Hollister and Hotels.com were found in violation of Apple’s rules and developers were told to remove the code.
Apple follows in the footsteps of Google, which last week set out new policies around kids’ apps available for Android through Google Play. The move came following a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission filed by close to two-dozen consumer advocacy groups, which accused the mobile giant of not ensuring app compliance with federal children’s privacy laws.
Now with Apple’s new restrictions, at least kids have a fighting chance of keeping their iPhone data private.
