Apple delays rule change barring kids’ apps from using analytics

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App-Store-Today
Changes have been criticized by some developers.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple is delaying a change in rules for kids apps, banning them from using external analytics software and their ability to sell ads.

While Apple still believes the decision is the right one, it is pushing back its implementation. That’s to give time to developers to make the necessary changes.

Apple planned to implement the new rules next month. The new rules means that app developers can still collect data themselves. They can also do so using Apple’s analytics software. However, third-party services are not allowed.

The crackdown could hit kids’ app developers hard. The Washington Post‘s article notes that there are plenty of ways it could hurt kids’ developers. Removing ads could force developers to charge for certain apps.

Delaying the rule change

“We thought [Apple was] going to shut down these apps that are ignoring privacy and targeting kids,” Tankee developer Gerald Youngblood said. “We were built with privacy as a foundation.”

It also raises the spectre of antitrust. “Apple would definitely throw its weight around less if it knew all its developers could desert it for any number of alternatives,” Christopher Sagers, a professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, is quoted as saying. Sagers is writing a book called United States v. Apple about Apple’s alleged anticompetitive behavior.

The Washington Post notes that:

“Following an inquiry from The Washington Post, Apple said Friday that it now plans to delay the rule changes. ‘We aren’t backing off on this important issue, but we are working to help developers get there,’ Apple spokesman Fred Sainz wrote in an emailed statement. The statement said some developers had asked Apple to clarify the new rules, but that ‘generally we have heard from them that there is widespread support for what we are trying to do to protect kids.'”

Source: Washington Post

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