Apple has banned App developers from sharing and selling its user’s data and personal information to third-party apps without their consent.
According to Bloomberg report, Apple made this change last week on its App Store when the company took notice of a practice that has been continued for years. Previously, App developers would get access to user’s phones and use that information for marketing or sell it to third-party apps without permission.
iPhone contact lists contain phone numbers, email addresses and profile photos of family, friends, colleagues and other acquaintances. When users install apps and then consent, developers get dozens of potential data points on people’s friends. That’s how developers get information and able to use it beyond Apple’s control.
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The new rule clearly states that developers are not allowed to share and sell a user’s database. The report says anyone caught breaking these new rules and found sharing or selling user’s data to anyone could be banned from the App Store. Additionally, now apps can’t get access to user’s contact list and claim it’s being used for something and ultimately use it for something else unless the developer obtains consent. Breaking the rules can get developers banned from App Store.
Data sharing and selling have been a huge point of controversy in 2018 with it all starting from Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica scandal where 80 million user’s data was taken without permission by the controversial political research company.
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